Dublin 8: €825,000A Portobello house has been opened out and extended, writes Rose Doyle
Florence Street has that rare living-city feel that is relaxed and friendly. Number 11 Florence Street, Portobello, Dublin 8, is in tune with that. It's been refurbished and opened-up to the calm of whites and a thoughtful use of original features.
A two-storey, terrace house built in 1875, it has two bedrooms, two reception rooms and a galley kitchen over 121sq m (1,300sq ft). Agent Felicity Fox is looking after the private treaty sale and is quoting a guide price of €825,000.
In bedsits when the vendor moved in seven years ago, work since has created a house with a minimalist touch and much comfort.
Walls of glass windows feature to the rear where the living/dining-room is all but part of the patio-garden. The main bedroom is filled with light and extensive storage space, and in the bathroom the original bath is in use.
Original features such as cast-iron fireplaces, timber flooring, sash windows, doors and, notably, the staircase, have been restored and replaced and, sometimes, cleverly highlighted. This is the case with a pair of Pan-like plaster figures in the hallway. One has been stripped back to reveal all sorts of detail while the other is coated in white paint. Then there are the stairs; stripped and left unvarnished, they're brought interestingly to life by a more than 12ft high mirror on the turn.
The entrance hallway - where the floorboards have been repaired with exact replicas from an old pub - stretches to sliding doors by architect Dermot Boyd to reveal the living/diningroom and patio beyond. The flooring here is in a pinky-grey marmoleum, the walls are white and the ornate, cast-iron fireplace has been restored to its original black. The glass-walled kitchen runs at a right angle along the other side of the patio.
A front drawingroom has walls of Georgian green and working shutters on sash windows. An understairs area could make a study.
The front, upstairs bedroom has another cast-iron fireplace while one of the two windows in the main bedroom gives access to the pebbled and landscaped kitchen roof.
There is access to a narrow, pedestrian laneway from the patio.
