In the early noughties, the owners of Coolgreen had been looking for a house to renovate when they came across a property not far from their former home in Foxrock. The arts-and-crafts-style house with a pitched terracotta-tiled roof was derelict, says one of the owners, years after being bought by a property developer who had sold most of the 1.25 acres of land on which it stood. In 2011 the couple bought the house on 0.4 acres for €750,000 and set about restoring it.
The design of Coolgreen, built in 1900, is attributed to architect Richard Francis Caulfield Orpen, whose own similar house, Coologe, is close by. (Richard was the older brother of artist William Orpen). It’s an arts-and-crafts design with exposed beams, original fireplaces and a handsome pitch-pine original staircase in a wide front hall. It was built for Sir Edward O’Farrell, at the time an estates commissioner administering land purchase.
The couple “kept what we could, beams, doors, architraves, got a good joiner and where we could, replicated everything exactly”. Where roof tiles had to be replaced, reclaimed tiles came from Dreadnought Tiles in the UK, a company that makes traditional clay tiles. Coolgreen was not a protected structure when the couple bought it, but following discussion with Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, it is now. It is Ber-exempt. It has been rewired and replumbed and has gas-fired central heating.
The detached 254 sq m (2,733 sq ft) four-bedroom house stands in the middle of the 0.4-acre garden. It was a wonderful family house, say the couple, but their children are now grown up and they want to trade down and embark on another renovation project. Coolgreen, Brennanstown Road, Carrickmines, Dublin 18, is for sale through Sherry Fitzgerald, seeking €2.695 million.
Electronic gates – with conical-capped pillars on each side – on busy Brennanstown Road open into a large front garden where there is room to park plenty of cars. Double doors open into a wide hall dominated by the staircase where the banister is dark oak, the spindles painted white. The floors throughout downstairs are dark oak; the walls have wainscot panelling and dark grey radiators from Victorian Salvage. There’s a window at the end of the hall, in a space that originally had a lift, now removed; the downstairs toilet has a Victorian radiator and oak floor.
The kitchen was originally at the front of the house, and still is. It is now a smart modern kitchen from Newcastle Design, with a large island unit with a polished granite top, seating, shelves and a wine rack. The kitchen/diningroom is a bright space, with windows on three sides and double doors on to a patio outside. Kitchen units are white and a built-in stainless steel range has a white tiled splashback. A wall was taken down to create one room where there were two: the dining table sits next to a large glass-fronted dresser, also painted white.
The three reception rooms open off the hall at the back of the house. The family room has dark grey timber panelled walls and a large fireplace stacked decoratively from top to bottom with logs. It has a beamed ceiling and custom-made shelves and cabinets: all the cabinetry in the house was done by Michael Shelley of Newtown Woodworks.
The drawingroom in the centre is dual aspect, with a bow window with window seat looking over the back garden and a box bay window at the side. Original features in this room include columns by the box window, beamed ceiling and a cast-iron fireplace with a solid fuel stove inset. Another reception room is called the library and has panelled grey walls, two large windows and a door opening into the garden at the side.
Upstairs, off a wide landing, are four double bedrooms, the family bathroom and a neat laundry room, “the best thing ever”, says one of the owners of its convenience. The biggest bedroom isn’t the main bedroom but one belonging to one of the sons, with lots of room for his drum kit.
The main bedroom is bright with a large window looking over the garden, fitted wardrobes and a part-vaulted ceiling. Its en suite has a pale porcelain-tiled floor, large walk-in shower and a wash-hand basin in a marble-topped vanity unit.
The stained glass door to the family bathroom was once the front door of the house. This bathroom has a bath with shower, wooden floor and Victorian salvage radiator.
The garden, with lawns wrapping around the house and a large patio at one side with a separate annex, is a big attraction. “Every Friday, the garden was filled with the boys’ friends, and we could easily fit 100 people at parties,” says the owner.
One of the owners did a lot of the work on the annex himself. Designed to match the main house and to have a New England flavour, it has a vaulted ceiling, beams, electricity points and is floored with the main house’s original floorboards, painted white. Currently used as a gym, and “a sanctuary for our sons during Covid”, it could be a study. A storage shed in the front garden has a similar design. There’s lots of room for dining on the large sandstone patio next to the annex, as well as gravelled paths, stone patios and more seating in other parts of the garden. Mature trees include a Monterey pine in the back garden and a Lebanese cedar in the front. Shrubs, flower beds, bushes and trees border the well-kept lawn.
Coolgreen is a short distance from Brennanstown Vale, a development of detached houses built just over a decade ago and close to the corner of Brennanstown and Glenamuck Roads, a few houses down from Seoul Manor, the South Korean Embassy in Ireland. It’s a short distance to the Carrickmines Luas and the M50.
