Classic style, modern substance

DÚN LAOGHAIRE €1.445m: Original features meet a conscientious refurbishment in this Victorian home, writes ROSE DOYLE

DOUBLE-FRONTED, Victorian and with the welcoming beckon of bay windows on two levels, Trafalgar House, 45 York Road, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin is both designer elegant and family friendly. The vendors, who bought Trafalgar House in 2005, have carried out an attic to ground refurbishment as well as adding a light-filled rear extension that makes the most of the 75ft-long garden.

Solid, redbrick, detached and well proportioned, Trafalgar House has five bedrooms, five reception rooms, a kitchen/family room and a floor area of 260sq m (2,800sq ft). It sold for €1.232m in 2005 and this time round, with Sherry FitzGerald looking after the private treaty sale, the asking price is €1.445m.

A predominantly white décor emphasises both space and light. Care was taken to preserve the original features and even to salvage them, in the case of fireplaces. Doors, windows, plasterwork and more all retain elements of the house first built in the late 1890s.

The extension has a sunroom quality with a pitched ceiling, with several Velux windows, over a kitchen, family room and informal dining area and double glass doors opening to the patio and garden. A creamy coloured honed marble floor in the kitchen/family area makes a dramatic contrast with the black, polished granite worktops. Fittings throughout are cream coloured.

A playroom, to the side on the ground floor, has its own entrance and toilet and, cleverly, a window through which a watchful eye can be kept from the kitchen sink. The granite walls surrounding the rear garden have been rebuilt and made higher and are a pleasant part of the view as you come through the front door. There’s a nice eye to detail in their similarity to a wall on the other side of York Road.

Traditional, interconnecting drawing/dining rooms have a bay window and two fine fireplaces; one is original and made of decorative, black marble, the other is new and made from cast-iron, which is in its primary colour. A study on this floor benefits from another bay window and so do two of the first floor bedrooms. The main, top-floor ensuite bedroom is open plan under a pitched ceiling with three large Velux windows. The marble-and-granite-fitted ensuite has both bath and shower.

There is off-street parking to the front.

45 York Road, Dún Laoghaire, Co DublinVictorian home of 260sq m with an attentive refurbishment

Agent: Sherry FitzGerald