Bold red-brick turnaround in Rathgar for €1.375m

When number 66 Brighton Road last came to market in October 2009, it was an executor sale and had an asking price of €1.1million. In need of complete modernisation, it languished on the market and in December of the following year its price had dropped to €750,000. The current owner believed the amount of work required to put the house in order deterred a lot of buyers.

Undeterred, she has returned the house to a functioning family home, tastefully painted in rich creams and furnished in a classical style – one that has been rewired, re-plumbed, reconfigured and re-roofed.

The front door opens into a hall of un-honed travertine that looks like it could have been unearthed from a basement in Tuscany. Warmed by electric underfloor heating, it leads through to the property’s fine interconnecting reception rooms which boast graceful proportions including ceiling heights of 3.4metres and matching fireplaces.

Gerry Murphy, design director at FitzGerald Kavanagh and Partners, whose notable works include the restoration of St Mel’s Cathedral in Longford and UCD’s Student Centre, designed the extension on the hall return. The kitchen return includes a family room, a guest WC under the stairs adjacent to a laundry room and plenty of storage.

French windows lead out to a west-facing back garden that isn’t huge but there is a large space to the side of the return. Currently gravelled, this area has planning for a big extension that was granted in November 2012, and is due to expire this November.

Originally a five-bed property, the owner sacrificed one of the bedrooms to create a really luxurious family bathroom bathed in warm western sunlight, with a free-standing tub worthy of Cleopatra, a separate large shower stall and plantation shutters.

Two storey to the front, three storeys to the back, with three of the four bedrooms on the first floor. The back room has a shower en suite as has the bedroom on the first floor return.

On each of the returns, where there would have been a WC or bathroom, the owner has installed a small cloakroom-sized study with lots of natural light where kids can do their homework in peace or you could very successfully escape family life to work from home.

The house, which measures 210sq m / 2,260sq ft, is asking €1.375million through agent Lisney.