The first time you come down the stairs of number 41 Orwell Park in Rathgar, Dublin 6, you could feel momentarily disorientated.
Are there three windows? Three gardens? In fact, there are two windows and a cleverly placed mirror to frame and reflect views of the gravelled front garden and the sunny patio to the side.
This is one of the lovely touches the owner has employed to introduce light from every angle. Almost every room in the four-bedroom, 161sq m (1,733sq ft) house has at least one source of natural light in a mix of full-length and standard windows, as well as glass doors and rooflights.
Number 41 is in the middle of five detached houses at the Dartry end of Orwell Park that back on to their companions at Orwell Woods, which comprises about 55 houses around a green. Built in 1987 on the grounds of Dartry House, their brick facades are distinctive, with porthole windows and timber balconies.
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The front of number 41, bounded by a low wall and a tall hedge, fits three cars and there is access to the patio garden at one side of the house, and to a store at the other.
The hall door and adjacent window are sheltered by a porch, and the hall is floored in large tiles and painted a warm egg-yolky tone.
On the left, the current owner, who bought the house in 2000, removed the door to the livingroom and hung a floor-to-ceiling mirror directly opposite a window of the same size to give the illusion described above.
At the end of the hall, past the under-stairs laundry area, the house opens up to a sociable space, with a top-end Bulthaup kitchen at its heart. There’s room for everything in the greyish-white units, with a sink in the long island and extra storage in a rooflit utility area, off which is a guest bathroom; this section can be closed off by a glass pocket door.
In 2017 the owner extended at one end to create a cosy living space with L-shaped sofa that faces a gas fire for night time and the southwest-facing side garden for bright greenery. This neat outside space is mostly paved, with raised beds and mature trees by the walls, plants grouped in pots, and seats in suntrap spots.
The reconfiguration, by Eco Design and Management, also involved incorporating the room at the other end of the kitchen into an open-plan dining area.
The owner’s discerning eye is especially evident here, introducing colour and drama with a backlit panel of Cranes in Flight; it’s a Palmetto wallpaper by Sanderson with a flock flapping across a background of green clouds.
Glass shelves across a window hold trailing plants, and the room opens out to a very Zen rear patio with a tiny pond, as well as directly to the front garden.
A door at an angle leads into the dual-aspect sittingroom at the front, where a log fire and lots of bookshelves make an inviting retreat, and one wall is papered in a soft golden fish print.
The black-painted stairs contrast with the marine-striped runner edged in ochre. Upstairs, the first double bedroom, like most of the others, has large built-in wardrobes with opaque glass fronts.
Opposite this, the smallest bedroom has a window to the side and a porthole facing the front, and is used as a study. A large bedroom beside this has sliding glass doors to the balcony, and a Velux overhead.
The main bedroom is to the rear, and is en suite; the next-door main bathroom, with bath and separate shower, is tiled in white with accents of a deep Mediterranean blue.
The house is set back from the road and the windows, as well as contributing to the decent Ber of C1, are good at dampening the traffic noise on this busy thoroughfare.
Located close to the shops at Upper Rathmines and in Rathgar village, within cycling distance of good schools, and close to the formality of Palmerston Park and the lovely linear park by the Dodder, number 41 Orwell Park is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of €1.2 million.
