Seafort Terrace is located in the heart of Sandymount Village. Number 3 is a mid-terrace property that was completely gutted and modernised by its owner, interior designer Caroline Keane about 10 years ago, and the result shows the benefit of investing in a limited palette of high-quality elements to help the decor stand the test of time.
The ground floor is now open plan with Pandomo flooring, an intensely pigmented, hard-wearing and seamless cement finish that gives a purity of colour you don’t get with more traditional polished concrete floors, she explains. It can also be custom coloured to any RAL shade. Here a warm blue-grey adds heat to a minimal white interior. Underfloor heating also helps.
The entrance hall is hidden from the main area by a dividing mirrored wall that reflects light inward. Mirrors are used in much of the shelving to bounce light around in a subtle way and the wall helps create a living area to the front.
A wall of shelving, much of it secreted behind mirrors and painted panels, softens up the overall look. Similarly ceiling-hung curtains, one hung at the entrance to the open-plan space, and another acting as a potential divider between the kitchen and living introduce texture and absorb sound, Keane says. It’s a very simple but effective way of breaking up a large space without resorting to building walls.
The kitchen steps down from the living room and features Carrera marble countertops, decadently set in a waterfall fashion on the island. The material is also used outdoors adding valuable counterspace to the barbecue.
Keane, who has worked extensively with award-winning Adrian Hill Architects, is a fan of low-maintenance gardens. So she has installed an American composite deck that works in all weathers. It is painted a pale grey. A pair of hornbeam trees shield the garden from neighbours to the rear and while it has a northern aspect it gets eastern and western light. Bamboo screens off another side of the garden and agatha pantha in pots green the scene.
There is more storage under the glass-balustraded staircase. The party wall has been covered in a Fornasetti print wallpaper, Ex Libris, beautifully etched books in a trompe l’oeil library shelf pattern, from Cole & Son.
The family bathroom is on the return. Here a window was boarded up to improve privacy and the room, finished in Carrera marble tiles and mosaics, is now lit from above by large format roof lights.
The two double bedrooms are on the first floor. The main is to the front and spans the width of the house. Clever use of the attic space above has allowed for the installation of a huge under eaves en suite cum-dressing room.
The property, which measures 119sq m/1,281sq ft, including the attic area, is seeking €790,000 through agent Sherry FitzGerald.
Number 6, a three-bed, similarly modernised property by architects deBlacam & Meagher, came to market earlier this year seeking €875,000 and sold for €940,000. Across the street Bennetts Auctioneers is selling number 16, a three-bed terraced house of 109sq m, in need of complete modernisation. It is seeking €650,000.
