Almost at the entrance to Meath Square, number 26 Gray Street, is a smartly-designed terraced house that changed from being a bachelor pad to family home when its owner met his wife and went on to raise their three children within its 72sq m (775sq ft).
Gray Street is in Dublin’s Liberties, one of the oldest parts of the city where singer Imelda May hails from, and the home of a landmark copper-domed canopy sheltering a statue of the Sacred Heart. It’s hard to believe now that neighbours used to gather around it to say the rosary as recently as the 1970s, the same decade that gave us punk, disco and slick interiors.
There’s plenty of evidence of the latter at number 26 because its owners have cleverly transitioned the house to family life extending out the back and bringing in lots of light through the judicious positioning of Velux windows.
Now in turn-key condition, its ground floor is open-plan and zoned to create three distinct areas. The living room to the front has smart Ikea shelving and storage that has been built around its Kal wood-burning stove, itself framed in black glass. In pride of place is a sizeable, sherbet-lemon coloured sofa that brings in a zesty pop of colour. Other decorative flourishes include glass shelving set into an etched mirror glass recess and backlit by LED strips that give the central part of the room a soft green glow. This area is a home work station while under the stairs is a guest toilet. Underfoot is a white timber laminate.
The kitchen has a vaulted roof and coloured glass splashbacks. Its tiled floor is set flush with the laminate so that one flows naturally into the other in a curved line. Double doors open out to a small terrace of just 8sq m (86sq ft). It feels twice that size thanks to the use of a large pane of mirrored glass that gives it a greater depth of field. Designed by Greenstone Landscaping and west-facing this suntrap has cedar cladding that conceals a pedestrian side access – handy for storing bikes.
Upstairs there are two bedrooms. The kids’ room has cool, built-in, triple-layered bunk beds, stepped to make the most of the space over the bulkhead. Overlooking the tree-lined street to the front, the main bedroom has Skon sliding wardrobes.
In walk-in condition this C3 BER-grade property is seeking €450,000 through agents SherryFitzGerald.
