Sandycove makeover mixes period and modern

SANDYCOVE: €1.275M:A HANDSOME bay-windowed Victorian villa at 1a Lower Albert Road in Sandycove, Co Dublin, is a house of two halves, period style at the front, bright, minimal and super-modern at the back.

The three-bedroom house is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald for €1.275 million.

Bought by its current owners five years ago, when it was in very poor condition, the 151sq m (1,625sq ft) house has had a complete makeover.

A comfortable livingroom to the left of the front hall has period details, like a cast-iron fireplace, as does a bedroom to the right of the hall. Both have limed oak floors.

The modern begins in the hall, with its Travertine marble floor: it leads down a short flight of stairs to the back, the main living area of the house.

This is a large open-plan kitchen/diningroom with sleek white units and a cosy family area at one end: this has enough room for an L-shaped sofa and a raised modern stone fireplace.

A Basalt stone-topped island unit separates a large dining area – with room for a table big enough to seat eight – from the kitchen.

The room looks through a wall of glass patio doors onto decking and a small but very private back garden, with high raised flowerbeds and a high stone wall.

An artificial lawn – placed there because the current owners have two small children – covers a patio.

A downstairs shower room, with a wet room shower, off the kitchen/dining area has a cleverly concealed utility area housing a washer and dryer.

Upstairs are two bedrooms, a large main en suite bedroom at the back, and a princess-style children’s bedroom which has a child-themed en suite shower room.

The semi-detached house, which has side access and enough room to park a few cars at the front, is one of five on a short stretch at the bottom of Albert Road near the corner with the main Sandycove Road, nearly opposite Fitzgerald’s pub.

It is next door to number two, a house that has had an even more dramatic makeover, but which came back on the market in January with a price drop from €2.25 million to €1.95 million.

1a Lower Albert Road, Sandycove, Co Dublin

Conveniently-located three-bedroom Victorian villa with modern makeover

Agent:Sherry FitzGerald