Retro original in Rathfarnham seeks €900,000

Situated close to the river Dodder, Butterfield Drive is a short walk to Rathfarnham Shopping Centre and the villages of Rathfarnham and Templeogue.

This dog-leg-shaped stretch, off Butterfield Avenue, is home to the Malaysian ambassador, who is located at number 23. That property sold for €1.4 million back in 2014 when it measured about 241sq m/2600sq ft. It has since been seriously upgraded and has almost doubled in size.

Other houses on the street have had similar upgrades but there are still a few that remain close to their original condition.

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15 Butterfield Drive, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14: a detached house with period details, a long garden and loads of potential.

For instance number 12, a detached four-bed of 130sq m/1,400sq ft, with planning to extend, and an additional 17sq m of attic space has just been sold by Lisney for €730,000. It came on the market seeking €795,000 with the price later reduced to €695,000.

Now number 15, a similar-sized detached property on the other side of the road, with an 85-foot long, east-facing back garden, is being brought to market with much of its original 1934 interior intact.

The double-fronted property has interconnecting rooms to the left of the entrance hall. These have ceiling heights of 2.7m, corniced centrepieces and windows with original steel frames and leaded panels. A door leads from the dining room, set to the rear, directly out to the garden. To the right of the hall is a dual-aspect TV room accessed via the first few steps of the stairs up to the first floor.

Original details

The property’s original four-panel doors, glass finger plates and brass doorknobs remain in place, and the kitchen, with its adjoining breakfast room (both modest in size by today’s standards) still boasts its Paul Metalcraft kitchen complete with steel d-ring handles. While these basic styles are very on trend, as are the sliding door cabinets that line the breakfast room, it is likely that the next owner will rip these out and apply for permission to extend this part of the house out into the sizeable garden.

The redbrick, which has granite lintels and sills, has another 40sq m of space in its detached garage and outhouses. With access via a glassed-over side passage, this additional room could be factored into any new building works.

Upstairs the original four-bed layout, three doubles and large single, has become three bedrooms with one of the doubles converted to a roomy bathroom. This features a setpiece Art Deco ceramic bath and matching sink in a marlin blue that will have most people ordering a skip but the shapes and shades are now very fashionable, as are its yellow and mauve wall tiles.

Originally the toilet would have been separate to the bath and sink but these two rooms have been opened up to create a larger shower room.

Number 15, in need of modernisation, is seeking €900,000 through agent DNG.