Zion Road is a lovely residential road in Dublin 6, and number 15 is within a two-minute walk of Rathgar village and its bustling shopping scene.
Inside, it feels far removed from the hurly burly. Set off the road, the two-storey-over-basement Victorian redbrick has plenty of period features, including soaring 4m/13ft ceiling heights at hall level.
When the owner first bought the house, it was in three flats. He lived in the middle unit as he set about renovating the other two.
With his wife, who works in Farrow and Ball in Dublin’s Cornmarket and is also studying interior design, they set about returning the house to a single unit.
For the latter part of the refurbishment, the couple hired a foreman to oversee the site while they supervised the building themselves and lived on the premises. The fact that they commuted to the UK most weeks, they say, saved them a visit to the divorce courts.
Modernised
The house has been modernised by architect Tom Miller to maximise its entertaining capabilities and its westerly aspect to the rear.
A double-height wall of glass to the rear streams sunlight into what would have once been the formal diningroom. A backlit panel, wallpapered in Farrow and Ball’s lotus design, frames a large wall-hung television, which replaces the original focus of the room, the fireplace. In the corner, a Faber gas fire adds visual warmth – the house is already cosy and has under-floor heating on all three levels.
The front room is as it would have been in the past and has a white marble fireplace with polished black surround.
Between the two rooms are interconnecting folding doors, made by the father of Declan O’Rourke, the singer-songwriter. The musician also worked on the site, and the couple say he used the money he earned to pay for his recording equipment.
Garden level
At garden level there are two principal spaces. The first is a study, or third bedroom, to the front of the house with, plantation shutters framing its large window.
Folding doors lead through to the second space, a large open-plan kitchen-cum-diningroom that is bisected by a set of metal-frame open-tread stairs.
The galley-style solid kitchen has maple units, designed by Carlow-based Springhill, and runs the length of the room. Dark granite worktops add polish.
A wall of concertinaed glass doors opens the room to the 11.5m/38ft-long west-facing garden, which was designed by the ecological landscape architect Elma Fenton, and features original stone cut walls and a timber deck.
For a house of 236sq m/ 2,540sq ft, the house is short on bedrooms. There are just two on the first floor, with the aforementioned third at garden level. The master bedroom is an enormous room with a Juliet balcony from which the Dublin Mountains can be viewed.
Off this room, in what would originally have been the third bedroom, is a luxuriously large en suite bathroom with a sunken bath, separate shower and twin sinks.
Storage
The house has good wine-cellar storage under its front granite steps, and there is off-street parking for up to three cars.
The property is asking €1.295 million through agents SherryFitzGerald,
According to the Property Price Register, number 13 next door sold in September 2014 for €1.374 million, while in the same year number 34 sold for €1.605million.
