Space and simplicity the key to original looks

Lucan - £275,000

Close to Lucan village and within the catchment area for local schools, 17 Bewley Lawns in Willsbrook Woods is on the market through Gunne Residential at £275,000. It is a good example of what can be done to a new house to make it very different from its neighbours.

The architect owner conferred with builder Fitzgibbon Brothers on design and layout when the house was being built two years ago. With simplicity as the key, she insisted on plain bevelled glass in the internal doors and got rid of some internal walls and doors downstairs to create a bright open-plan kitchen/dining room. The standard sittingroom fireplace was replaced by an unfussy timber and slate open fire. Once they moved in, laminate floors were laid throughout the ground floor - not everyone's choice but very labour-saving if there are children - complementing the minimalist decor.

Slatted wooden blinds cover the bay window in the sittingroom. All internal walls are painted white except for the chimney breast in the sittingroom, which is a dramatic cranberry colour.

The back of the house is a huge open space incorporating a maple kitchen with high-tech steel electrical equipment, a table and dresser at the dining end, with room for a sofa in the middle. A well-fitted utility room is off the kitchen.

To the right, off the hall, there is another reception room currently used as a home office. There is a lavatory under the stairs.

All the upstairs rooms are fitted with cream carpeting apart from the bathrooms, which have white floor tiles and blue mosaic walls. Three of the four bedrooms are doubles and the fourth would fit a single bed.

All the bedrooms have built-in wardrobes and the main room is en suite. The family bathroom is large, with antique-style brass fittings added by the owners, and there is a good-sized hot press off the landing.

The south-facing garden was given the same designer treatment. Perimeter walls were painted cream and fencing and the Barna shed a soft green colour. Wooden seating areas and latticed fencing screens off the patio area and honeysuckle has been planted on every upright support. There are several herbaceous borders and maple, beech, poplar and rowan trees have been planted to give shelter.