There’s a day’s work in rambling around the byways of Ballsbridge in Dublin 4, joining up the lanes alongside the streets of stately redbricks and glimpsing the different ways people have converted old buildings and built new mews. For interior designer and fitout specialist Debi Flynn, these form part of her life’s work, as she has refurbished quite a few properties in this area for herself and for her clients.
Her most recent project is a sleek renovation of a mews house at 69 Waterloo Lane, which is listed in the Property Price Register as having sold in December 2018 for €880,000. It’s clear that Flynn and her husband love living here, but their heads were turned by a period home nearby, and number 69 is now on the market for €1.5 million. The selling agent is Rena O’Kelly of Sherry FitzGerald.
The style and craftsmanship Flynn has employed elsewhere has translated neatly to this house, which she reimagined, and extended to the rear, with Adela Gómez of Ambacht Architects. Her working relationships with builder Jamie Moran, cabinet maker Cillian Johnston and joiner Neil Slye have created a crisp homeliness with clever features and top-end fixtures.
There are two entrances from the lane, a pedestrian gate and a wider shutter that rolls around to tuck alongside the old granite wall, all the better to increase drivers’ visibility (there is space to park two cars on the gravel).
The high-spec finish is immediately apparent at the west front, with four Crittall-style windows and a steel pergola (that could, in time, take a creeper, a canopy or some glazing), detailed by Flynn and manufactured to exacting proportions by Kells Joinery. They are painted in Farrow & Ball’s Railings shade – an architectural grey that reappears as an element through the house, radiating different hues as it’s altered by the angles of natural light.
Across a terrace of Ballylusk flagstones, French doors open to the dining area and a single door leads into the hall, which is anchored by a new wooden staircase.
The luxurious spaciousness (it covers 150sq m, or 1,609sq ft) is augmented by Flynn’s use of one paint colour (Dulux Heritage White) on all the interior walls, the engineered oak floor throughout the open-plan ground level, and the reappearance of Railings on the kitchen island and in the beautifully-considered media/cocktail/storage wall of ribbed wooden units in the living area. (This, says Flynn, was inspired by an American interior on Architectural Digest’s Instagram.) There is a guest bathroom off this space.
The kitchen is a show-stopper, with Johnston’s soft-closing solid wood units painted pale-greenish Ash Grey and finished with a dramatic Calacatta marble countertop and splashback, supplied by Miller Brothers. The Falmec hob, with integrated extractor “fins”, sits into it unobtrusively; other smart touches include Sonos speakers, a Quooker tap for instant hot water, and a remote-control rooflight.
More Crittall-style doors slide open to the back garden, where the flagged surface mirrors that at the front. The attention to detail is apparent in the way the wooden slats that reveal sections of the boundary walls are the same thickness as the Petersham bricks that form the rear facade. Neighbouring gardens provide some greenery but new owners might soften the edges with raised beds or other planting, which should thrive in this sheltered spot.
Upstairs at the front are a double bedroom and a bathroom; the main bedroom, at the back, is en suite. Clean lines continue up here, with simple skirtings and minimal architraves, and both bathrooms include generous vanity units and large white porcelain tiles with grey veining. The utility room off the landing has room to hang clothes ,and both bedrooms have ribbed oak wardrobes.
Up a second flight, lit by a Velux window, the attic has been converted into a comfortable space with adjoining shower room, and there is plenty of storage. The air-to-water heating system and other innovations have earned the property a BER of A3.
No 69 is at the Upper Leeson Street end of the mostly residential lane, which starts almost opposite Appian Way and runs eastwards, across Burlington Road, and ends at Fleming’s Place, from where you cut through a couple of corners to the Grand Canal or to Pembroke Road.
