The brassware on the smart grey front door of number 39 Chelmsford Road in Ranelagh, Dublin 6, is the first hint of the quirky touches that characterise this Victorian midterrace four-bedroom redbrick. A hare’s head adorning a circular knocker is an unexpected delight; it honours the owner’s farmer father and ensures they open the door to a smiling visitor.
The gravelled front garden is close to the footpath, so the tall laurel hedge buffers traffic noise and adds privacy but doesn’t compromise the southerly light coming into the front of the house. The owners planted this shortly after they bought the property, in 2007, and put a dwarf box hedge along the side boundary.
The house number is etched into the fanlight, and the door opens into a wide, pale grey hall in which the only decorative plasterwork is a leafy centrepiece. The floorboards here, as in most of the house, are the originals that the owners stained an elegant dark brown after lifting many layers of carpet and newspapers throughout its 170sq m (1,830sq ft).
To the right, the front room is almost a perfect square, with an unfussy grey marble fireplace. As part of the current owners’ renovations, the sash windows were upgraded and double-glazed; the same two-over-two pane design continues throughout the house, with original shutters rather than curtains in most rooms. “It needed a bit of imagination when we bought it,” says the owner, who saw the potential to “bring back the magic” at the first viewing. She does not relish the memory of painting over the green ceiling in this tall room, which has a pretty centrepiece in high relief.
Double doors with glass panels fold back and open to the diningroom. A more modern fireplace anchors this room; the two are linked by well-chosen midcentury furniture that complements the proportions of this 1860s structure, which is Ber-exempt.
The owners’ signature style appears in another subtle twist, where the hall sides of the reception-room doors are painted black and the insides are white. It’s a nod to the six years they lived in Brooklyn, says the owner, where this effect was common.
Under the stairs behind wood panelling are a storage space and, where headroom increases, a guest toilet with horizontal wood panels giving the impression of a boat-bathroom. At this point the flooring changes to black tiling, with a small pattern in the bathroom and long matt-finish rectangles in the hall and kitchen. Beside a door to the side garden is a coat rack with a variety of handy hooks, and a window above it lights the lobby.
The kitchen occupies the original return, and feels light and bright even with one black wall, as two windows catch the morning sun and French doors open at the end. Handmade solid-wood Shaker-style cupboards have very cute ring-pull handles sitting flush with the door fronts – “I saw them in a magazine,” says the owner – and the dual-fuel range cooker sits into a chimney recess. There is plenty of storage along the sides and under the bar counter, and the lack of upper units adds to the airiness.
Outside, the L-shaped courtyard wraps around the white-rendered return. A bushy jasmine lines the boundary wall, against which are grey-planked raised beds that signify the huge scope to make this into a cosy green garden. There’s a small shed by the diningroom wall, and a cleverly camouflaged gate gives pedestrian and bicycle access to a short, gated lane off Westmoreland Park.
Upstairs in the return is a bright double bedroom with built-in shelving and the hot press. The owners took a bit off this room to enlarge the bathroom next door, where the original curved wall defines the walk-in shower. They redid this room two years ago, retaining the wall-hung fixtures and the stand-alone bath; in another nod to New York, the ribbed white wall tiles are laid vertically, and the butter-yellow squares make a cheerful floor.
On the top landing, lit by a square window with stained-glass panels, are three further bedrooms, one single and two large doubles that have fireplaces and original shutters; again, the owners’ light-touch renovation respects the rooms’ simplicity. The landing has built-in shelving and there is enough room for a desk or a squashy reading chair.
Chelmsford Road is in the heart of Ranelagh village, close to the city centre with buses and the Luas close by; number 39 comes with two car-parking permits. “It’s a very easy place to bring up a family,” says the owner, whose children found it very easy to slip back into local life on returning from the US. The house, which is surrounded by schools, shops and sports facilities, is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of €1.25 million.
