What a difference a refurb makes in Sandymount for €1.7m

From €750,000 to €1.7 million in five years. What a difference a stylish refurb makes.

The owner of 81 Tritonville Road in Sandymount has spent five years designing and remodelling the house, which needed complete refurbishment, since it was purchased in February 2010 for €750,000 according to the Property Price Register.

Carla Benedetti, an interior stylist, loved the original features and big west-facing garden of the two-storey over-basement period redbrick. With Paul Sinnott of Stewart and Sinnot Architects, she set about turning it into an on-trend home with lots of smart looking living and working space and two to three bedrooms, depending on buyers might want to configure the property.

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The house which now measures 235sq m (2,529sq ft) is asking €1.7 million through agents Lisney.

Throughout there is evidence of Carla’s credo; to reinvent, reimagine and repurpose. In the large open plan kitchen and double height sitting room there is a lounge area that she has screened off from the home office, where she runs her graphic design company Design Etc, by covering the metal-frame doors in leopard-print hide. While most of the house is light and airy she has opted for a dark and moody colour scheme here. It is a theme that she also exploits in other rooms. In this room the underlit stairs up to hall level add illumination.

The made-to-measure kitchen units by Rhatigan and Hick have pale basalt countertops. A sliding door, made from raw scaffolding planks, another Carla-ism, conceals a storage room. The niches in the sitting room wall provide repositories for books and objects and draw the eye upwards.

The garden is 21m long. The patio area cleverly incorporates some ceramic tiles that mimic the look of timber decking. The raised lawn is big enough to kick a ball around.

There is a second office on the hall return. The room is open to the kitchen below.

Upstairs the entrance hall has lovely original plasterwork and there are matching fireplaces in the fine interconnecting reception rooms. In the sitting room to the rear, the original window has been removed to open it to the level below.

The room on the hall return has been turned into a luxurious bathroom with a free-standing tub and a large separate shower that has been lined in encaustic tiles.

Upstairs on the first floor there are two bedrooms. The master overlooks the garden. From it you can see Aviva Stadium. Extending the depth of the house it includes a walk-in wardrobe and a naturally lit en suite bathroom.

Get the look . . .

Bathroom A free-standing tub is the essence of luxury. The Victoria and Albert Wessex Quarrycast, from €1,650 at Bathhouse (01 214 0907), 1 Clifton Avenue, Monkstown, is similar in style to the one in Sandymount. The green gnome adds a sense of fun and personality to the sanitised space. Gnome-shaped candles, about €10.40 each, excluding delivery, from UK-based Rockett St George (00 44 1444 253391, rockett stgeorge.co.uk).

Couch The roll top Chesterfield-style sofa is a modern classic that will work in many different house styles. Carla opted for a deep claret colour that works well with the warm greys of her home. For low maintenance leather try the Batoni, €2,595, which comes in four hide colours at DFS (dfs.ie).

Stairs The original stairs have been painted a warm blue grey. A white ceramic hand holding a candle with a wax plate below creates a talking point feature. Another visually interesting option is a white ceramic tree-trunk effect cuckoo clock by Haoshi Design, €159, from Article Dublin.