Windows everywhere, and lots of light and space

Shankill: €6m: An Edwardian house on 2.2 acres has a distinctly art deco feel. Eivlín Roden reports

Falmore, a six-bedroom detached house on on 2.2 acres of gardens on Falls Road in Shankill, Co Dublin is for auction on May 24th through Sherry FitzGerald with an advised minimum value (AMV) of €6 million.

The house was built in 1904 with its main rooms angled to make the best use of natural light. Extended by the present owners, it's now an impressive family home complete with tennis court, gym and staff quarters.

It has 575sq m (6,200sq ft) of living space evenly divided between reception rooms and bedrooms and an 85sq m (915sq ft) summerhouse that houses the gym, sauna and bedroom. There's a strong art deco feel throughout with black and white the dominant theme.

A covered porch with double entrance door leads into a square hall with four doors off it.

Three of these lead to a large drawingroom, livingroom and diningroom, all fine rooms with original French or square bay windows, fireplaces and either Portuguese limestone or pale wooden floors. The large Edwardian windows ensure that any available sunlight floods all rooms.

The fourth door opens into a vast living space, the big surprise of the house. A large square kitchen with two square bay windows in one wall and French doors to the garden in another flows seamlessly into a family room almost 30ft long with another huge bay window and Portuguese limestone fireplace.

Polished wooden floors throughout the space co-ordinate with the birch units and stainless steel appliances, and there is a separate pantry, utility and shower room. All combines to make this perfect for both family life and big parties.

The house is decorated in light shades with a specially commissioned art deco-inspired cream carpet with borders of black squares running up the stairs and landings and an original Edwardian wooden fireplace painted in soft shades.

All the emphasis in the house is on light and space and, in the two upper floors, this has been increased by painting the bedroom floors white.

There are four bedrooms on the first floor, all big, with balconies or wooden verandahs outside three of them, as well as the family bathroom.

The main bedroom has a bathroom with wardrobes and a freestanding bath off one side and an en suite shower room off the other. There is another en suite off a second bedroom.

The second floor has a wide landing with two large square bedrooms off it and a luxurious bathroom with windows in two walls, while the bedrooms have both windows and skylights.

The gardens all around the house are entered through electronically operated gates and a sweeping gravel drive. There is still a lovely old fashioned feel to the garden with trees and shrubs planted when the house was built.

Terraces have been paved and the tennis court upgraded.

The open-plan summerhouse is used as a gym; there is a bedroom off this space, as well as a bathroom, sauna and a mezzanine.