Dartry four-bed Edwardian with everything done for €3.15m

From the front gate to the rear boundary, it is clear number 15 St Kevin’s Park in Dartry, Dublin 6, would look at home in an interiors magazine.

It’s no surprise to learn that the kitchen/living/dining room has featured in such a publication, and that the Noel Dempsey-designed cabinetry in the award-winning kitchen was used in that company’s advertising.

But before you get to the kitchen, there is a lot to admire and absorb in this bright, beautifully finished Edwardian semi-detached four-bed on a quiet cul de sac. Located close to the Luas at Milltown, it’s handy for the shops at Upper Rathmines, parks at Palmerston and the River Dodder, and a lot of schools.

The house, with 285sq m (3,068sq ft) was in good decorative order when the current owners bought it (for €1.92 million, according to the Property Price Register) in 2015, but they spent most of a year doing “a real gut job”, as one of them puts it. They insulated, rewired and replastered everywhere, installing steel to reconfigure bedrooms and reinforcing the hall floor to carry polished limestone tiles.

The front garden is set out in gravel, with box hedging and huge hydrangea under the deep bay window and wrapping around the side. Inside, there’s a sense of considered luxury, with soft paint colours by Zoffany and Farrow & Ball mapped by what one of the owners calls “30 years of mood boards”. Having lived in London and New York for some years, they knew exactly how they wanted this home to work for them; sustainably and timelessly.

In the two reception rooms, which are connected by sliding wooden doors, they contracted the Old Mould Company to match the ceiling coving, and replaced the mahogany fireplaces with marble models from Artefaction. In the front room, the Paris Grey paint from floor to ceiling adds to the height and sets off the glorious Ochre chandelier, for which the ceiling was reinforced and in which each glass pear was mounted by a white-gloved hand.

The near-black dining room has a side bay window that soaks light from three angles; the light fitting here was bought at a Chiswick auction and brought first to the US and then to Dartry, rewired by a specialist each time. They also commissioned decorative plasterwork to match neighbours’ ceilings, apparently carried out by an Italian craftsman who lived on the road.

Down a step past neat understairs storage and, on the left, a smart “powder room” – the owners recall the builders teasing them about their Americanisms – the kitchen stretches out, with a window straight out to the garden, a big French door from the living room side, and a triple-glazed rooflight above. The owner collaborated closely with the kitchen designer, folding in an “appliances garage”, adding a little desk area to the run of cupboards, and choosing a cool quartzite countertop from Millers.

The owners, with Camilleri-Preziosi Ryan Architects, widened the opening to the living/dining area, so it is one wide yet cosy space, floored in solid oak parquet by the Hardwood Floor Company, with a window tucked around a corner to capture southerly sunshine. At the other side they rebuilt the utility room, which has a Velux to air the high-up laundry rack, and incorporated part of it and part of the side garden into the house, making a snuggly den off the livingroom. The BER is an impressive B3.

Outside, Mary Reynolds’s original garden design has been modified by Lisa Murphy, and the beds are full of cleverly planted, year-round colour to be admired from a relaxed seating area. It is sunny until quite late in the day, considering the easterly orientation, but evening sun also finds the gap between it and the house next door.

Upstairs, two bedrooms are perfectly decorated for boys and they share a sleek bathroom with a large shower and stone bath. At the front, the main bedroom benefits from the bay window and a bank of wardrobes, and off this is the perfect en suite with intricate tiling, streamlined fittings and glassy lights; all the bathrooms are from Versatile, in Navan.

On the top landing, an office space with a rooflight is at a remove from family bustle. Off this, the fourth bedroom has a cute half-bathroom and storage behind concealed doors; rather than mimic the architraves there are shadow gaps around the edges. It’s understated detail the owners can add to their mood board as they move to their next project. Number 15 St Kevin’s Park is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of €3.15 million.