Blackrock home reimagined in Dermot Bannon’s signature style

Before Room to Improve ever graced our screens, Dermot Bannon appeared on House Hunters along with property finder Liz O’Kane.

One of the houses shown in that series was No 8 Rockville Drive, a mid-century semi that hadn’t been touched since it had been built. Bannon reimagined it in what is now considered his signature style, “to open up the house as much as possible, to bring in clean lines and lots of light”, as its owner explains.

The work was completed in 2006 and turned what was a relatively modest semi into a large three-bed home extending to an overall floor area of 230sq m (2,476sq ft), including its 18sq m attic room conversion.

Back then, the owner’s needs were different. ”I wanted a bachelor pad, complete with TV in the bath, and converted the attic into a pool room.”

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Bannon, who had been recommended to him by a friend, came good on all his requests but life had other ideas. Now married with an 11-year-old daughter, the owner has had to cede such spaces for other, more practical uses.

It flows really well as a family home as it has all the small engine rooms you need, starting with a windowed guest WC and a cloakroom off the original hall.

Access to the living room is via double glass doors, which are off an inner, walnut-floored hall. South-facing and overlooking a gorgeous green, this is a calm space where you could turn the sound up as loud as you like, as other household members have plenty of exit strategy options, starting with the large kitchen/family room with a utility and separate games room off it.

Bannon brought light into the large space by setting the ceiling lights into the middle of the room.

An interesting feature is its skirting-board radiators, which cover about half the space but all of the games room, where they offer an alternative to wall-hung options and are less invasive than underfloor heating.

Even with the sizeable two-storey extension, the garden remains impressive. Extending to 23m in length and more than 8.5m in width, it is set out mainly in lawn with a deck linking the family room to the exterior. The green space is punctuated by neatly manicured specimen trees and there is a garden shed to the rear where you can store bikes.

The house is within a five-minute walk of both primary and secondary schools, the latter being one of the few co-ed and non-fee-paying options within the greater Blackrock area.

The main bedroom now spans the width of the house and overlooks the green to the front. Originally two rooms, it now comprises a large bedroom with wardrobe space as well as an internal walk-in wardrobe and windowed shower en suite with twin sinks.

There are two more doubles, one with recessed wardrobes, and these share the family bathroom, where there is a high-spec jacuzzi bath with a built-in TV, very much a Celtic Tiger-era trope and one his daughter uses as a place to go and watch Friends reruns.