Comfort and class follow careful revamp

DUBLIN 6: €1.25m: 1 Ramleh Close in Milltown was carefully restored three years ago in a collaboration between architect and client that shows what can be achieved with the right mix of ideas

WHEN THE owner of this house bought it three years ago she gutted it, wrapped a new extension around two sides and gave up her job to do so: “I was down here every day.”

The existing end-of-terrace home – in the pretty, leafy Ramleh enclave of streets off Milltown Road in Dublin 6 – had livingrooms downstairs and five bedrooms on the floor above; now there are two airy bedrooms in the same first-floor space.

The house at 1 Ramleh Close is now for sale through Owen Reilly for €1.25 million.

The owner employed Sheehan Barry Architects and asked them for more space and light: the result hits you from the second you enter the large front hall with glass walls facing outward. There are plenty more glass walls at the edges of the ground floor and all of the internal openings are generous, with wide doorways that almost reach the ceilings. This gives the ground floor a lovely sense of flow.

To the left of the entrance hall is a dual-aspect livingroom. This is the ground floor of the original house and the existing windows have been enlarged to bring in good amounts of light, front and back.

The large opening from here into the open-plan, L-shaped kitchen/dining/living area has a sliding wooden door with which you can close off the livingroom to create a cosier, albeit large, space.

It’s all comfort and class in this house, with limestone floors and high-end fittings such as Hansgrohe taps, Villeroy and Boch sanitary ware and Miele appliances in the sleek kitchen with generous drawers (there’s lots of storage throughout the house). The house is wired for sound and incorporates eco elements such as rainwater harvesting, solar water heating and geothermally powered underfloor heating which involved plunging two 50m holes in the gardens front and back (hidden, obviously).

Glass walls overlook the west-facing rear garden, created by Donnybrook Landscape, and stone floors outside are at the same level as those inside, marrying the spaces well, as do the slide-back glass doors. Lighting set into the ground and beneath garden benches gives the garden atmosphere at night, as did external events here. “It’s a great place for parties,” says the owner.

The livingroom beside the garden has a window seat which is a lovely touch: the owner’s old dog used to sit in here and watch the world (and socialising humans).

It would be a great place for reading books but there’s another cubby hole for that, in the study at the front of the house, where a human-shaped squashy, pink fabric cocoon has been slotted into the shelving.

On the first floor are three bedrooms, including the main bedroom with an en suite, a vast walk-in wardrobe and access to a gently sloping roof through a small wooden door.

A family bathroom on this level has the same generous-sized shower and limestone floors and basin surrounds as the main en suite. There is another bedroom and en suite at attic level.

The current owner is following her heart to the southern hemisphere, leaving a house that shows what a successful collaboration between an architect who knows their stuff and a client can achieve.