So many period homes in Dublin are routinely refurbished with the end result that they can all begin to look a little homogenous no matter how much the works cost.
There’s nothing wrong with that save for the fact that, like fashion, trends in refurbs also change, leaving a bells and whistles extension looking as out of date as a 1960s vinyl kitchen or a 1990s conservatory.
Thanks to its conservationist owner, number 18 Sandymount Avenue has been allowed age gracefully, and let its strong original features do most of the talking.
Built in 1891 in the Tudor revival style, the late Victorian is one of a terrace of just five set well back from the busy road, a 20-second walk from Sandymount Dart station.
The recessed, tiled porch and front door set the scene for the ambient interior. On the leaded glass front door panel is a detail of a native bird; each of the five houses on the terrace is home to a different species.
The house is over 6.7 metres wide and opens into a hall of impressive ceiling heights of over 3.1 metres.
It is painted grey, though interestingly the owner chose the shade as far back as 1988 when she and her husband purchased the property, after first renting it for a year. She sampled 13 different greys before settling on Colortrend’s ‘Gunmetal Grey’, a tint she still loves 29 years later.
The interconnecting interior rooms are beautifully proportioned square spaces with high ceilings and decorative plasterwork, the egg and dart cornicing drawing the eye upwards.
The living room to the front has a bay window with a moulded, square surround washing the room in light.
Bookshelves, built to dado rail level occupy one dining room wall. There is an arch in the wall opposite its tiled insert fireplace, a shape echoed in the blue grey tiled inset of the living room.
These are the rooms that lovers of period homes will fall for and their photographs don’t really do them justice for the proportions are a liveable size rather than “good rooms” that don’t get use.
Two steps lead from the dining room to the family room, where a roof light brings natural light to the middle of the house. A mirror image set of glazed doors lead out to the garden with a swing door, set flush with the wall, leads through to the kitchen.
This is a charming room with brass d-ring handled units, a Belfast sink with original brass taps and timber countertops set in a u-shape and a Morso wood-burning stove set into the chimneybreast where a range would have originally stood.
The next owner may wish to play with the layout and open up the rear to an open-plan scenario. There’s certainly scope to extend into the sizeable northwest-facing garden. The flagstone patio is paved in slabs salvaged from pavements in Co Wicklow. The garden is home to a beautiful mature, silver birch tree whose branches almost skirt the ground.
Brass detailing prevails throughout, from the original doorknobs and escutcheons to light switches that the owner found in a shop on Francis Street that are of the era but had never been used.
There are three double bedrooms on the first floor with a fourth bedroom and second bathroom on the return. The first floor landing is spacious and lit by a large roof light it has a fine arch and room for a desk.
The property, which measures 198sq m/2131 sq ft, comes with shared access to a small private park and full-size hard surface tennis court, shared by the five houses on the terrace and the Edwardian properties of nearby Churchill Terrace.
No 18 Sandymount Avenue is seeking €1.6million though agent Bennetts Auctioneers.
