Artist’s Dartry retreat with Art Deco credentials for €1.895m

A house with a lively creative vibe, 7 Dartry Park has a great deal of generous natural light and enough decorative nods to its 1930s origins to remind that it has been around for 80 much-appreciated years.

When the builder completed building in 1938 he gave number 7 to one of his sisters; he gave number 5 next-door to the other. Thirty-three years later, in 1971, number 7 was purchased by artist Bob Ryan and his wife Mary and generations of the family have appreciated it ever since.

The vendors, who have lived there since 2,000, say the time has come, that number 7 “has done its job. Our children are moving on and it’s a bit too big”.

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7 Dartry Park

The house cost all of £15,000 in 1971. Agent Knight Frank is today seeking €1.895million. Number 1 Dartry Park, smaller because it hadn't been extended, sold recently for € 1.75m.

The 234sq m (2,520sq ft) floor area is considerably larger than the original because of extensions by the vendors over the last 18 years. In 2003 they created a rear extension/familyroom.

Architect Clodagh Nolan’s design has a glass, pitched ceiling and rear wall of cubed window over the garden. A new kitchen, also added in 2003, has fittings in duck-egg blue, a soaring curve to the centre isle, statement glass bricks and stainless steel worktops.

Carpenter/ designer Conor Mullally is responsible for the original and classy take on fittings here and elsewhere, notably cherrywood shelving in the study (formerly the garage) and top floor.

Elegant unity

In 2010 the vendors added a glass-ceilinged dining room to the family room and converted the attic. The latter, the vendor assures, “was so worth it”.

The reception hall retains a 1930s feel thanks to a stairs encased in distinctly Art Deco-ish panels, a motif replicated on stairs built to reach the converted attic. The interconnecting reception rooms retain the original floorboards and a picture rail, a bay window to the front and French window to the rear.

There’s an elegant unity to matching sandstone fireplaces with slate insets. The study, accessed through a cloakroom, has another bay window.

Two of the bedrooms (including the main one) have original, Art Deco-style fireplaces. All have fitted wardrobes and picture rails. A laundry room is next to the recently refurbished family bathroom where bath and shower are separate and a wall has an interesting curve. The attic, used as a bedroom, has an en suite shower.

A studio at the end of the sheltered rear garden was used by the owner for painting. It has a polished timber floor, a great deal of light, and was, the vendor says, the venue for many child and teenage parties.