Some properties appear all the more appealing when you can look all the way through them, especially if your eye is drawn to something interesting. In the case of 36 Mountpleasant Avenue Lower, in Ranelagh, whose front door is up a flight of granite steps, you can see from the hall through the study to the garden, and through a tall arched window to the Church of Mary Immaculate, Refuge of Sinners, in Rathmines, with its distinctive copper dome.
Number 36 is one of a terrace built in about 1830, and the current owners bought it in 2019. Previous owners had added a storey to the top and a curved two-storey return to the rear, so the four-bedroom, three-bathroom house covers a floor area of 245sq m (2,637sq ft). The current owners made no significant changes, apart from replacing the window glass with low-profile double glazing, but they altered it utterly by painting the interior white from top to bottom, the better to display their mid-century furniture and eclectic art collection.
Blond floorboards help to bounce light around the two reception rooms to the right, which are open plan and have handsome black fireplaces with limestone mantels, and striking modern light fittings mounted in ceiling roses. The front room, set out for formal dining, looks across the neatly landscaped garden to the avenue, while the rear livingroom, with a six-over-six panel window, has a lovely view of the dome, especially at sunset; energy bills have paused its night-lighting for the moment.
Down a few steps from the hall, the owner’s study occupies the top of the return; it’s a calm spot with elegant Danish units and white-painted roof beams that could be also used as a bedroom.
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The old arched window draws you up the stairs alongside it, casting criss-cross shadows on the walls, and spanning two flights. On the first floor, the main bedroom at the back also looks westwards to the landmark church. This room, and the slightly smaller double bedroom at the front, have simple white-painted wardrobes with cute stoneware handles. The family bathroom at the front has a bath with an overhead shower, and has a mix of panelling and marble on the walls. At the top of the house are two further bedrooms – one with under-eaves storage – and another bathroom, which is a bonus for families.
The stairs turn at the study and lead down from the hall directly into the kitchen/diningroom, where the white-painted timber units contrast brightly with the brick arch round the hob, and the quarry-tiled floor. To the front is a cosy family sittingroom with a marble fireplace; this is ideal for teenagers, as a door leads from here to the coat and scooter storage under the front steps, where there is a second entrance for friends to come and go.
At the other side of the kitchen are a utility room, with lots of storage and a garden door, and a handy shower room. French doors lead from the dining area out to the paved patio where built-in seating provides a very inviting setup for breakfast, parties and everything in between. Beside a well-stocked raised bed, granite steps lead up through a trellis arch to the main part of the garden, which is very long and mostly under grass with mature planting and trees along the side boundaries, and a pedestrian gate to Fortescue Lane.
There is potential, subject to planning permission, to create off-street parking here, and there is precedent for mews houses and other development on the lane. There is disc parking on Mountpleasant Avenue, which is slightly wider along this stretch than farther up. Shops and schools are close by at Rathmines and Ranelagh, and the city centre and the Luas at Charlemont are within walking and cycling distance.
Number 36 Mountpleasant Avenue Lower, which as a protected structure is Ber-exempt, is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of €1.595 million.
