Two Portobello walk-ins
A house on Pleasants Street has won an architectural award while on Lombard Street West a house that was bought in the summer has been refurbished and is back on the market for €280,000 more than it sold for
Dublin 8 €725,00034 Pleasants Street, Dublin 8
Description: A stylish three-bedroom, end-of-terrace, upside-down period house that won an Architectural Association of Ireland award
Agent: Sherry FitzGerald
This three-bedroom end-of-terrace upside-down house comes with cool design credentials and period features.
The 154 sq m (1,660 sq ft)house, for sale at €725,000 through Sherry FitzGerald,was refurbished and extended by architect Roland Bosbach in 2000 and won an AAI (Architectural Association of Ireland) Award. The glass box design, considered revolutionary 12 years ago has stood the test of time.
You enter the house via a set of granite steps. There are original timber floors throughout. The hall has wonderful decorative plasterwork made to appear even more ornate by the use of pale contrasting paints and the shadow play of a light pendant – a design classic from one of Ikea’s PS collection, Maskros, inspired by a dandelion clock.
To the left are two interconnecting reception rooms that run the length of the house and offer views up Synge Street. The sitting room is to the front of the house and the dining room is to the rear. The rooms have matching fireplaces and period colours on the walls.
The monochromatic kitchen to the rear is very simple. White floor-to-ceiling units hide the dishwasher and washing machine as well as tall pull-out larder units. The units include a pull-down table designed by the architect that sits on a pull-out pedestal. It’s ingenious, is inspired by caravan living and can be stowed away if you like your kitchen to look sleek and tidy. For the family living here it stays down most of the time. They’re trading up to a bigger house nearer their children’s school.
Huge floor-to-ceiling glazing in the kitchen makes this a fantastic space to spend time in. A door opens onto an anodised steel platform and a set of steps that lead down to the small, south-facing garden. It has an Astroturf lawn, pedestrian access onto Synge Street and a creeper-covered garden room that would make a very roomy home office or workshop, especially if you added additional light sources.
The three double bedrooms are downstairs and accessed via a stylish solid oak balustrade leading down a narrow open-tread staircase. A shower room is to the front. A door leading off it conceals another well thought-out, family friendly feature – a bike shed hidden under the granite steps.
