Labour of love delivers separate living quarters in D4 for €1.7m

Meticulously and delightfully refurbished, 81 Marlborough Road was, the vendor says, “in six flats and in a desperate state” when she bought for €91,500 in June 1993.

A woman who loves a challenging project, she was “delighted” by number 81 and lived there, without heating, while awaiting planning permission to restore it to a private house. She remained there as the basement was damp-proofed, kitchens in each of the flats ripped out and carpets pulled up to reveal holes in original floorboards.

All of this, sitting in the glorious colours and comfort of number 81’s interconnecting drawing/diningroom, is hard to imagine. The walls are a vibrant ochre, each room has an original marble fireplace, the plasterwork on and around high ceilings (thanks to restoration plus carefully copied inserts) is elaborately lovely and the floorboards polished perfection.

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Garden, 81 Marlborough Road

"We first painted the walls a glorious red, a colour popular in the 1990s," the vendor says. Then, in the Merrion Hotel over a coffee, she saw how the hotel's ochre and green painted walls would be more suited to number 81's late 1800s origins.

Downsizing

She is downsizing, though looking for another challenging project.

Agent DNG is seeking €1.7 million for the property in walk-in condition with two storeys and return over garden level and a 240sq m (2,585sq ft) floor area. The main house has three reception rooms, kitchen/breakfast/familyroom, two en suite bedrooms and an en suite attic bedroom. At the separately accessed garden level, a ceramic-tiled open space leads from living room to kitchen to dining room. There is also a bedroom, shower room and two walls of storage presses.

An atrium-like sunroom at the rear of the formal reception rooms has a pitched glass ceiling and wall of glass over the garden. The vendor credits Raheny Cabinet Makers for their work on this, as well as in the fitted kitchen and elsewhere. The ochre-painted hallway has an arch with decorative corbels, all lit by a carefully remade leaded glass window on the return.

In the cream-painted kitchen/breakfastroom there are three Velux and a glass walled dining niche overlooking the garden with its water feature, green shed and thriving plant life.

The main, yellow-painted en suite bedroom is to the front with high ceilings and sash windows. Another bedroom overlooks the rear garden and the third, is in the converted, en suite attic.

The Property Price Register records 76 Marlborough Road selling for €1.69 million in June this year and 28 Marlborough Road selling for €1.315 million a year ago.