1820s villa-style house in Blackrock has planning for a mews

Situated just a few doors up from the intersection with Frascati Road in Blackrock, number 76 Carysfort Avenue is a fine family home that is being brought to the market with planning permission for a two-storey, two-bedroom mews house to the rear of its large garden.

Its owners have been in situ since the 1970s when they bought it a mere two weeks before they got married. “It was perfectly liveable and we could see its potential as a family home,” one half of the couple recalls, but her parents weren’t so effused. “My mother cried when she first set foot in it.”

She had nothing to worry about. Gently modernised over the past 40 years to give it a better sense of flow, it feels charming from the minute you cross the threshold.

Built in 1820, the house is set back from the road behind a beech hedge with large bushels of heather and specimen trees adding colour to the front.

Accessed via a set of granite steps it opens into a hall with the coloured glass panels in the front door contrasting with the arched window to the rear, which has jewel-toned glass panes, that are carried through to the door on the return below.

The double-fronted property has a lovely sense of balance with its interconnecting formal rooms set to the right. Painted a soft Prussian blue that complements the antique furnishings, these two rooms are rectangular in shape and when the dividing doors are folded back the space is dual aspect. Twin six-over-six pane single-glazed windows bring light into the drawing room to the front. Sash windows bring in more light to the rear. These all have secondary glazing.

Across the hall there is a cosy sitting room which opens through to a broken-plan kitchen, and on through to its eat-in and sitting areas where a high timber-panelled ceiling knits the two levels together.

A set of steps leads up to a mezzanine level where a round window gives you a glimpse of the greenery outdoors but if you turn away from it the hall below can be viewed through the arched window. It makes an excellent reading nook and is one of the owners’ favourite spots in the house, as evidenced by its full bookshelves.

From here the house opens out to a timber deck that allows you to survey the large walled garden or step down into its lawned expanse.

Downstairs there are four double bedrooms, two of which interconnect. One of these is set up as a cosy study and has an exposed stone wall and wood-burning stove.

The property extends to 179sq m (1,912 sq ft) and the garden is a very fine size, extending to 24m (80ft) long and is about 11.5m 38ft across. The owners have secured planning permission for a two-storey mews of 127sq m (1,367sq ft), and the portion of the garden that it will take up has been marked out with bamboo sticks.

There is a charming summer house hidden at the end of the garden, where the owners spent much of the lockdown, and there is pedestrian rear access into Blackrock Business Park where the property has use of two parking spaces. There is also off-street parking for one car within the property, just below the timber deck.

With an asking price of €1.35 million through agents Lisney, the D1-rated house may appeal to those looking to live adjacent to but not in the same house as their parents, or to those looking for a smart solution for young adult kids.

The location is second to none. It ticks all of the three Ss, the owners say: sea swimming, shops and schools are all within a short walk.