Art Deco improvements in private surrounds in Blackrock

Three-bed Dovedale, built in the 1930s, is on the market for €1.395m

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Address: Dovedale, Grove Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin
Price: €1,395,000
Agent: Lisney

Barry and Maureen O’Neill got a taste for Art Deco design after visiting a Charles Rennie Mackintosh house outside Glasgow years ago, a taste that inspired some of the changes they’ve made to their home in Blackrock, Co Dublin, in the 35 years they’ve lived there.

Dovedale is a flat-roofed Art Deco-style house built in the 1930s that might be a standard suburban home but for these changes: there are smart maple units built into many of the rooms, from the kitchen to the livingroom, diningroom and bedrooms upstairs. It’s a house with a lot of storage. The property has been meticulously maintained – and comes with a large, lush, richly planted garden.

The detached three-bed property extends to 209sq m (2,249sq ft) and is on sale through Lisney for €1.395 million.

Near the Merrion Avenue end of Grove Avenue, Dovedale has a large tiled entrance porch (with a toilet off it), opening into a fairly small front hall. The interconnecting dining room and living room open from here to the right, with the kitchen straight ahead.

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The kitchen, like all the rooms at the back of the house, has floor-to-ceiling windows or sliding glass doors opening on to the garden. Revamped about 15 years ago, it has smart maple cabinets from Seabury in Naas, polished granite countertops, pull-out larders on either side of the fridge and a mint-green tiled splashback.

Sliding doors

The kitchen opens into a small old-style conservatory with a tiled floor: it has a door to the back garden and sliding glass doors into the livingroom. There is also a neat family room off the conservatory, with a utility room off it. A door from here leads into the garage, where O’Neill stores sailing equipment.

The living room and dining room are connected by a sliding door. The maple corner unit in the diningroom, like all the built-in furniture, was done by Seabury.

Steep stairs – with a curved timber banister – lead up to three bedrooms. Two of these have built-in desks and shelving; the bedroom at the back of the house has two corner windows.

The main bedroom, with a fully tiled en suite, runs from the front to the back of the house and has a lot of built-in wardrobes – this time the timber is ash. There is also a fully tiled family bathroom with a corner bath and shower upstairs.

Outside, a path leads from a sandstone patio through the very private back garden – floodlit at night – filled with clipped bushes and colourful plants, a rockery and lawn areas. A tall yew tree halfway down the garden stands next to two apple trees, and a very tall, thick hedge guarantees privacy. There’s room to park several cars in the gravelled driveway – bordered by a lawn – at the front of of the house.

Frances O'Rourke

Frances O'Rourke

Frances O'Rourke, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes about homes and property