Period elegance with garden surprise in Rathgar for €1.29m

This end-of-terrace Victorian, completely revamped by its current owners, is a comfortable modern home decorated very much in sympathy with its period. Original features have been restored or replaced, rooms are painted or wallpapered in rich reds and pale golds, windows are framed by heavy drapes, the stair carpet is a royal blue.

Extended and refurbished 20 years ago, 46 Rathgar Avenue has been maintained in meticulous condition. The house, a short walk from Rathgar village, also has a good-sized, very private back garden.

Extending to 198sq m (2,131sq ft) the four-bed built in 1870 is for sale through Lisney for €1.29 million.

A gravelled front garden – with space to park two cars – leads to a tiled entrance porch, where a front door with stained-glass panels opens into a long front hall with original coving and cornicing.

The period style of the house is most evident in the interconnecting red-wallpapered diningroom and drawingroom, both with polished timber floors: the diningroom at the front of the house has a polished table that seats 10; double doors open into the drawingroom, with a large white marble fireplace. An opening at the  back of the drawingroom leads down a couple of steps into a small family room, wallpapered in rich green which opens into the new extended kitchen/breakfastroom.

This is a bright room with an atrium skylight over an island unit. A royal blue Aga is set into a brick surround, the countertops are polished black granite and kitchen units are French oak. There’s a small utility room just off the kitchen and a small understairs toilet in the front hall.

Polished timber

A large, very smart family bathroom on the first-floor return has a double wash-hand basin, jacuzzi bath and a jacuzzi shower. There are three bedrooms on the first floor, one of them now a dressingroom with fitted shelving and rails, and a fourth on the top, second floor. All have polished timber floorboards, and, like the downstairs rooms, are decorated in period style. The main bedroom has a fully-tiled, en-suite shower room.

The surprisingly large L-shaped back garden, bordered by high ivy-covered stone walls, and richly planted, is laid out over three levels: the kitchen opens on to a sandstone patio, where three steps lead up to a further patio area.

A few more steps lead through a trellised arch to a sandstone path and into a wide back garden with a lawn and patio. A mirrored door opens into a private lane giving rear access to the house off locked gates on Rathgar Avenue.