New homes: smart and stylish in Rathfarnham

Silveracre is a two-acre site on Rathfarnham’s Sarah Curran Road opposite St Enda’s Park where the Pearse Museum is located.

The original Regency house on the site, Silveracre House, has been retained and divided into two units while six new houses, in two different styles, have been built in the grounds.

In 2008, Silveracre House was withdrawn at auction and later sold by Lisney for a price thought to be higher than its €6 million AMV. It came back on the market in 2013 asking €2 million and was bought by N Coll Construction, a Limerick-based couple who have built about 40 one-off houses to date.

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Zinc roof

This is their first infill development and comprises four contemporary-style detached three-storey houses called Amare, which means “to love” in Italian, developer Neil Coll explains.

He and his wife, Aoife, certainly love what they’re doing and work closely together, her stylish eye evident in many of the smart details throughout the A2-rated detached homes each measuring 241sq m (2,600sq ft).

Each of the four zinc-roofed houses has the same layout, two rooms on the ground floor, a large sitting room to the front with an LPG gas-powered open fire and to the rear, an open plan space comprising a dining area and a separate seated area, both with doors leading out to the west-facing gardens, which range in size from 67sq m to 182sq m plus another 25sq m of limestone patio.

This room is anchored by a solid timber painted kitchen by Dovetail Furniture featuring Silstone countertops and a solid oak butcher’s block breakfast bar. It comes equipped with Hotpoint appliances and a twin oven Cookmaster with a five-ring induction hob.

There are two bedrooms on the first floor, including the master where there is a dressingroom and additional wardrobe space and a smart en suite bathroom that features Duravit sanitaryware and café au lait metro tiles in the shower area with recesses to accommodate cosmetics.

A sizeable utility room on the first floor with a sink for hand washing and plenty of cupboard space is another smart extra.

Each floor features bespoke doors and architraving constructed by the firm’s joiners and lots of additional storage.

The showhouse is painted in grey tones and has been fitted out by Arlene McIntyre of Ventura Design but you can choose any colour from the Farrow and Ball paint palette.

There are two more bedrooms on the second floor. An air-to water heat recovery system warms the concrete-built houses which also have powdercoated aluminium doors and windows.

Also on the site are two detached four-bedroom Edwardian-style houses of about 229sq m (2470sq ft) with south-facing gardens.

Siveracre House

The Regency house has been divided into two; the original period property, now a four-bedroom family home of 313sq m (3371 sq ft) will retain the name Silveracre House, while the wing added in the 1920s becomes The Lodge, a three-bedroom home of 189sq m (2,044 sq ft). Prices for these have yet to be set. The other homes will range in price from €895,000 up to €950,000 for the largest garden.

There are only four homes in this phase and Gemma Lanigan, partner at DNG anticipates strong interest based on informal enquiries about the scheme so far. She reckons they could immediately sell far more than the four on offer in this phase.

Developer Neil Coll says the company has already acquired other infill sites in Dublin so expect to see more of this style of home popping up at an infill near you.