The owners of 36 Leinster Square, Rathmines, Dublin 6, have invested six years in a careful restoration project, resulting in a well-loved three-bedroom family home which is for sale by private treaty through Lisney for £625,000 (793,586).
The tall, cream-painted house is the second in a terrace on the south side of the square, built in 1841. Approached by a flight of granite steps, the front door opens into a wide cream hall lit by the original fanlight and a tall window on the turn of the stairs. As in the rest of the house, the original floorboards are sanded and polished and the ornate ceiling plasterwork has been painstakingly restored.
A door on the right of the hall opens into the livingroom, at the front, which opens through wooden doors into the diningroom. Both rooms are painted a dark red from the Farrow & Ball range, which has been used in shades of cream in the rest of the house. Woodwork, dado rails and the high ceilings, with cornices and restored centre roses, are set off in cream. As all the original shutters are working, the only dressings on the wooden sash windows are simple white roller blinds. Original marble mantelpieces and cast-iron fireplaces were discovered behind later additions during the renovations.
A square bathroom on the half-landing on the way down to the basement has a free-standing bath, traditional-style fittings and old-style yellow and green tiling.
At the front of the basement is a large family room with plenty of built-in units and a wood-burning stove. The main feature of the kitchen, next door, is a cheery red Aga set off by tiles from Fired Earth in a brick-surround fireplace made by the owners. The pine units are traditional style with plate racks, a butcher's block, a Belfast sink and an integrated dishwasher. The floor is tiled in rustic cream and the worktops are of polished black granite.
A shelved pantry that projects out of the kitchen may originally have been a dumb waiter - it continues up through the house to provide space for a desk off the diningroom, and is a hot press upstairs. At the other side of the kitchen, a large utility room with shelved recesses leads to the back garden, and the space under the front steps is used as a boot room.
Upstairs, off a landing big enough to hold a wardrobe, are two large double bedrooms and a single. The main bedroom retains its original fireplace and is plumbed for a vanity unit. Wooden doors open into the high, shelved hot press which, unusually, has a window. The front bedroom, also with its fireplace, has luminous stars painted on the dark blue ceiling for the children and the single bedroom over the hall is painted cream. A blue and white tiled shower room in a small return is finished to the high standard found throughout the house. Heating is gas fired.
Outside, the sheltered, south-facing rear garden is paved and surrounded by raised beds. A sun-trap corner area with table and chairs is shaded by a creeper-clad pergola and there is rear access to a lane that leads out to Lower Rathmines Road. The front garden has been gravelled and the railings modified to accommodate two cars.
