Detached five-bed on almost half an acre in Blackrock for €1.95m

Situated directly opposite co-education comprehensive Newpark School, Corradinna is a fine family home that was extended and modernised by its owners 20 years ago when they bought it.

They brought in the king of the suburban upsizers, architect Paul Brazil of Brazil & Associates, to double its then 185sq m (2,000sq ft) footprint and to bring it up to date.

The house now has an additional bay and shows off several of Brazil’s signature flourishes including round windows to the front and back, a swish galleried staircase that ascends from a large, welcoming inner hall and a large L-shaped kitchen that opens directly to the garden.

The house, which now has handsome timber Carlson windows and a C3 Ber rating, is well set back from the busy road and screened by high walls and gates. The road benefits from cycle lanes that can have you at Blackrock Dart station in about five minutes.

The house has a stately drive and is further screened from view by mature trees that are about to blossom and by an old acer to the front of its glazed porch.

Polished French oak floors warm the double-height hall where a sun-filled formal drawingroom with Adams-style chimneypiece is to the left, accessed via double doors. Across from it is an equally bright study-cum-home office, where traces of the original 1930s internal architecture are on show in the tiled fireplace and mahogany surround.

To the back is a formal dining room that gets used every Sunday for lunch gatherings and where French doors open out to a sandstone patio and down into a beautifully private and mature lawned garden, landscaped by Paul Doyle.

The back garden is lovely. While smaller than the front, it faces northwest and has pedestrian side access and a large, covered bike shed with eight or nine racks.

The kitchen extends across the rest of the back of the property and incorporates plenty of granite-topped units and an island. The units include a pantry-cum-appliance garage, the latest term for a closed cupboard with a shelf on which to keep the toaster, kettle and coffee machine all out of sight. Brazil was well ahead of the curve on this one.

A second similarly tall cupboard had been designed to house the house phone, putting an end to having to sit at a bench in the hall. But with landlines near obsolete it could also do duty as a homework station.

There are several sets of doors that link the kitchen to the rest of the house.

One opens into a sizeable utility/cloakroom where a pulley rack hangs above eye level and will allow you to dry larger items without taking any floorspace.

Double doors link it to the formal drawing room and another opens into a more relaxed, dual-aspect sitting room where a wood-burning stove has been set into a French-style marble surround. It’s a gloriously bright room where you can go to completely switch off and escape the kitchen should it get too hot.

Upstairs, the landing is light-filled and has five bedrooms leading off it. All are more than big enough to fit double beds, and two share a Jack and Jill-style shower en suite, which has a round window.

The main bedroom is bright and spacious and its large shower en suite has twin sinks and another round window. There’s also a separate dressingroom, lit by a Velux.

Under the eaves is an attic room, accessed by a staircase hidden behind a door on the landing. It’s a place the kids still use when they have friends over and is especially good for gamers and watching movies, for the sound won’t travel down two floors, leaving them to shout at the screen as much as they want.

The property, which now extends to 345sq m (3,713sq ft), is seeking €1.95 million through agents Lisney.