Light, space – and a cedarwood studio in the garden

When artist John Morris and his wife Siobhán bought a house in Mount Merrion six years ago, they had a couple of priorities: they needed a garden where John could build a studio and they wanted a big modern kitchen. They paid €535,000 for their house on South Avenue and spent about €350,000 extending and refurbishing it, €50,000 of that on the studio. Now 33 South Avenue, Mount Merrion, a 185sq m (1,991sq ft) four-bed with a converted attic, is for sale for €895,000

The first thing John did was to build the cedarwood studio at the bottom of the garden. It is a well-insulated 35sq m (377sq ft) space with broadband, electricity and water. Now stacked with his canvasses, it could be a home office, music room or possibly converted into a granny flat, subject to planning permission.

The couple then extended and modernised the 1950s house and the large kitchen diningroom/family space stretching across the back of the house is the result. The Alan Brown Kitchen Design kitchen has a large island unit, polished granite countertop and a range oven. There is a utility room off the kitchen and a large family table at the opposite end of the room.

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It is a very bright space, with two Velux windows, a wide floor-to-ceiling window and French doors opening into the garden. The kitchen, like all the downstairs and most of the upstairs rooms, is floored with laminate timber. There is also a shower room downstairs and a garage used for storage.

The livingroom at the front of the house connects through double doors to a sittingroom that opens straight into the diningroom end of the kitchen. These rooms seem relatively small compared to the kitchen/ diningroom. They have matching sandstone fireplaces with solid fuel stoves inset.

Upstairs, accommodation includes two fairly small double bedrooms, two singles and a family bathroom. Steep stairs lead up to a converted attic room which has a small bathroom. There is a patio area at the back of the house opening on to a lawn bisected by a curved path leading to the studio. There is parking for a couple of cars in the pebbled front garden.