Architect’s understated influence in a Rathmines redbrick for €1.35m

Certain details shine as hallmarks of an architect’s home: some, like the smart seating, mid-century-style light fittings and simple storage, are movable; and others, like the clever reconfiguration of the understairs utility and the upstairs en suite, meld seamlessly into the structure. This is the case with No 21 Cambridge Road in Rathmines, Dublin 6, whose architect owner enhanced the redbrick’s original features and added her functional flair to gain more space downstairs.

Funnily enough, the architect John Joseph O’Callaghan is recorded as living in this house in 1873, the year after he became the first president of the Architectural Association of Ireland; among his buildings is the elaborate redbrick former Dolphin Hotel, on East Essex Street in Temple Bar, which was one of the first to be quoted on the Irish Stock Exchange and is now part of the Dublin District Court.

Cambridge Road is lined with pairs of solid semi-detached redbricks, mostly Victorian, and connects Charleston Road — the spine between Ranelagh and Rathmines villages — with the altogether quieter Belgrave Road. No 21 is at this end, within sight of the Church of the Holy Trinity, which dates from 1828, before most of the neighbouring houses, and whose bell is among the only noises nearby. “I hardly even hear it now,” says the owner, who has lived here since 2005.

With a shallow railed garden, No 21′s side entrance is almost concealed by trees and is handy for storing bikes and bins. The summery green door opens into a wide hallway with a simple arch and a large mirror to reflect the incoming light. To the right is a restful blue living room with a 12ft ceiling and an air of downplayed formality; the plain marble fireplace has a brass inset whose pattern is picked up in the cabinets either side of it and here, as throughout the 153sq m (1,646sq ft) house, original shutters keep the windows clear of curtains.

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Around the corner beneath the bend of the stairs, the guest bathroom, which was originally the only one in the house, has a square ceramic sink set into a deep wooden countertop that conceals the laundry.

Beyond this, through a part-glass door, the house opens into a kitchen/living/dining room that combines open-plan modernity with relaxed cosiness. Originally two rooms with a lean-to kitchen, in 2007 the owner designed an L-shaped extension, with the dining table in the long axis that projects eastwards to the garden. Floor-to-ceiling glass doors, topped by an air vent, are orientated to capture light from the south. The near part of the room is arranged around an original granite hearth that the owner discovered behind the plaster: “I just went at it one morning in my dressing gown,” she says, “cleaned it up and put in the stove.”

With a white Alno kitchen by McNally, Italian basaltina stone worktops, large rooflights and a parquet floor toning in with the original boards elsewhere, the extension looks timeless and the decking outside links the wood cladding and the sunny garden. This is shortened by houses on Belgrave Place, but young footballers can play close by in one of three parks: Belgrave Square, Palmerston Park and the recently refurbished Tranquilla, opposite the shops on Upper Rathmines Road.

Upstairs, past a tall window on the half-landing, two double bedrooms at the back have muted colours and cute cast-iron fireplaces, and their green views are enhanced by the extension’s sedum roof. The main bathroom used to be part of the large landing, and past this the main bedroom spans the front of the house, with two tall westerly windows. There’s no trace now of this room’s former subdivision, but the owner designed a false chimney breast behind which to put a shower en suite and a small walk-in wardrobe.

No 21 Cambridge Road, which as a protected structure is BER-exempt, is on the market through Mullery O’Gara with an asking price of €1.35 million.