Modern design meets period charm in Drumcondra home for €850,000

Address: 14 Glenarm Avenue, Drumcondra, Dublin 9

Price: €850,000

Agent: Sherry Fitzgerald

Glenarm Avenue is a quiet, short street linking Carlingford Road and Dargle Road just above Lower Drumcondra Road with a mix of Victorian houses, terraces and villas. The owners of number 14 have spent years updating the three-bed property, and all the painstaking work has resulted in a home which comes to the market in excellent condition, leaving very little for new owners to do.

One example of their eye for design and love of beautiful materials is the soaped-oak herringbone floor that they laid in the hall and the two reception rooms. When they lifted the old floor they dug down and insulated, bringing the Ber of the house up to C2.

A cool, contemporary use of modern fittings in the period setting are a hallmark throughout the 138sq m (1,485sq ft) space. The marriage of modern details melded into period features gives this house its personality and charm.

Pared-back interiors create calm, relaxing spaces: one surprising feature in the livingroom is the closed-off chimney breast. A wide arch divides the livingroom from another reception room with a solid-fuel inset fire, with a long, narrow polished slate hearth which has a handy niche beside it for stacking logs.

The stove efficiently heats both reception rooms, with only a few logs used every night according to the owners, so there is no real call for the central heating to be put on.

Down a step and through part-glass-panelled doors is the east-facing Kube kitchen with plenty of storage. There’s a recessed extractor fan and quartz splashback over the hob that adds to the streamlined look of the kitchen that was designed by the owners.

There’s no utility but there are two sheds in the small garden paved in sandstone; one of the sheds is used for laundry, bike storage and also holds a store of wood. The current owners use an outdoor pizza oven in the garden all year round and love the mature lilac tree that flowers in April and May.

Previous owners added an extension that created the roomy kitchen and increased the size of upstairs bedrooms, so there are three good-sized rooms. The principal bedroom is very pretty, it has built-in Nolte wardrobes, an en suite, and gets the evening sun through its west-facing double sash windows.

Going up through the attic and installing large rooflights over the landing and the bathroom have ensured the entire house feels full of light. There’s a further space carved out in the attic that would be ideal for working from home with plenty of room for a built-in desk and shelves, although it is accessed via a Stira stairs but perhaps being ensconced in the attic for the day is no bad thing when it comes to getting work done.

Moving on to another renovation project, the owner, who walks into work in Dublin city centre every day, will miss the amenities of Drumcondra such as the Botanic Gardens. “It’s a very safe area, just such a lovely, welcoming friendly street.”