No glass box

When Nathalie-Anne Murphy began work on a renovation, she ditched plans for a glass-box extension in favour of working with what was already in place, writes ALANNA GALLAGHER

THE GLASS-BOX extension, status symbol of the boom and beloved of design magazines, has had its day. A combination of rising utility bills and a lack of funding from banks have killed off one of the biggest trends in Irish boom-era architecture.

Living within our means now includes the way we renovate our homes. After a six-month refurbishment, mother of three Nathalie-Anne Murphy and her family have just moved into a sizeable two-storey over-basement house in Dublin 6. The property came with planning permission for a large glass-box extension to the side of the property, something they decided was over-the-top. “The house is huge, 300 sq m in size. Why would you want to expand on that?” she asks.

Her architect, Stephen Tierney, a conservationist and principal partner with Tierney Haines, says that banks now want to know how the extension adds value to the property. “You might get a mortgage but you won’t get money for the extension. Now it’s about working within the original footprint of the house.”

For Murphy it was about getting the structure right. She’s thrifty, buying only essential items now and putting everything on to a three- to five-year decoration plan. She reused all the furniture and the fixtures from their last house: some she plans to re-upholster to fit into the new rooms and that will be done in time, when she has the money.

Her priority was to enjoy the grandeur of the reception rooms so she installed the kitchen in the south-facing space to the rear. Most families in similar-style properties put the kitchen at garden level – this often means they live on that floor and the grand rooms get relegated to special-occasion only use. Murphy wanted the kitchen to be invisible when you first enter the room, so it has been positioned behind the fold-back interconnecting doors.

The sitting room is simply laid out. Sofas have removable, washable covers, which is essential when you have three small children. She bought a pistachio green linen union fabric from Murphy Sheehy for re-upholstering them, when they have a budget. A stripe rug adds a pop of colour. She bought the pine chest of drawers in the hall at auction at Herman Wilkinson in Rathmines. Coats of Farrow Ball Elephant’s Breath and a toughened glass top give it a fresh polished finish.

Creating a cosy feeling throughout was important to her because “she’d lived in a period house before with draughts coming up through the floorboards. It was a big thing, getting the place well-insulated.” Windows were draught-proofed, and a draught-proof membrane was laid underneath the original floorboards; the walls were damp-proofed at garden level and dry-lined in the bedrooms. She’s also planning to put balloons up the chimneys flues to keep out down-draughts. These can be purchased at any decent hardware store.

This is their first winter in the house, which will be interesting, she says. “We can’t be heating the whole house all of the time. Woolly jumpers will be essential attire in the other rooms. These are the times we live in.”

Upstairs there are four bedrooms. Their proportions take some getting used to. She needs 13 metres of fabric for a pair of bedroom curtains and is keeping a keen eye on special offers and closing-down sales.

In the family bathroom on the first-floor return she saved money buying a sink unit from Ikea but spent money buying high-quality Hans Grohe taps and sage green tiles from Fired Earth for the sink and back surrounds.

The refurbishment was drama-free save for lighting and bathroom-fixture companies going into liquidation. Luckily she managed to get her orders from the shops before the shutters went down.

At garden level the large playroom has a wood-burning stove and French doors that open out on to a substantial garden. Two Eros chairs by Philippe Starck, a wedding present, flank the fireplace. There are two bedrooms at this level. She bought their scarlet red carpets at Des Kelly. The builders suggested she buy expensive underlay so that they would then seem softer underfoot, and they feel like luxury deep-pile.

A substantial utility room is an indulgence. Investment in large-format appliances means she can wash all the kids’ clothes in one go. The room has a wall of storage space and a simple second kitchen, helpful when entertaining and also when guests come to stay. Off the second bedroom is a wine cellar. “I got my utility room and my husband got his wine cellar.”

This floor has its own separate entrance and is wheelchair accessible. There is under-floor heating – something that was planned for throughout the house but had to be cut back due to cost constraints.

She first saw the house in March 2009 and put in an offer at 40 per cent less than the asking price. In September she got a call asking if the offer was still on the table. The six-figure refurbishment cost half of what it had cost to refurbish her previous house back in 2006 – a property one-third the size.

During the work her builders found clay pipes in the basement that were smoked by the original house builders. Murphy plans to put them on display under glass. “We have the rest of our lives to decide our colour schemes, when we have the budget to implement it, and that is part of the pleasure.”

DETAILS AND CONTACTS

Kitchen: Wabi-Sabi custom-built kitchens, tel: 01-4547011/087-2360044, wabi-sabi.ie

Floor restoration: Celtic Floors, tel: 045-865924/087-6688925

Builders: The job went out to tender. Smart Build came in cheapest. Tel: 086-6042861, smartbuild.ie

Architect: Stephen Tierney of Tierney Haines, tel: 01-2123748, tierneyhaines.com

Period-home refurbishment can be costly, says Stephen Tierney. “It is certainly difficult to have cost certainty before beginning, but a cost report from a quantity surveyor, specialist surveys and the tendering of experienced contractors help.”