Secluded house in Sandycove with sunny kitchen

Set well back from the road and sheltered by a garden as graciously of its period as is the house, No 2 Munster Terrace has light, life, high ceilings and pale pastel tones everywhere. There is a durable sense to this house, a feeling that for all its elegance it’s primarily a family-friendly home.

A lot of this livability is down to a well designed, good looking, rear kitchen/living area added in 2010/11. Lower than the front reception rooms by half-a-dozen honey-coloured oak steps, this is a wide, bright space. Partially covered by a slanting glass ceiling, it also has a wall of window over the rear garden and kitchen tiles of Italian stone. Granite slabs in the garden came from the original kitchen floor and a door in the garden’s end wall gives access to a road leading quietly to the sea.

The vendors, who need a larger house for their growing family, bought the terraced house in 2009 when they paid approximately €1.1 million. Kitchen extension apart, they also added a bedroom, refurbished two bathrooms and put a rear, glass-panelled door in the diningroom to give direct access to the kitchen area. With an overall floor area of 210sq m (2,255sq ft) there are four bedrooms (main en suite), two reception rooms, kitchen/family area and family bathroom. Agent DNG is asking €1.450m.

Original features

The high-ceilinged very traditional entrance hallway has a deep arch halfway along as well as picture and dado rails. A host of original features in the formal, interconnecting reception rooms include bleached floorboards, picture rails, sash windows with working shutters and a pair of impressive marble fireplaces. The woodwork is white, the walls a mushroom colour and the whole has a restful ease about it.

The newly added bedroom is on the first return, the other three off the first floor landing. The main one of these is front facing with a bleached timber floor, pair of sash windows, extensive built-in wardrobes and a white, marble fireplace. A large en suite has a shower.

A second front-facing bedroom has a cast-iron fireplace, while the fourth bedroom, to the rear, has fitted wardrobes.

The family bathroom gets natural light from a velux window and the first-floor landing is bathed in light from a long window in the rear wall.