The blue front door of a house in a small terrace near Glasthule, Co Dublin, hints at the modern design inside – but the minimalist chic home behind it is still a surprise. Number 9 St Paul’s Terrace has been completely rebuilt inside in a modern style using top-of-the-range materials.
Two Josko glazed doors at the rear of the house slide back completely, with no supporting column to obstruct the view of the back garden. A column is a few feet in, under an upstairs cantilevered study. Open oak stairs with glazed banisters lead to a second floor with a glazed balcony, with more stairs to an attic fitted out as a bedroom. Two triple-glazed rooflights – one treble height – flood the ground floor with light.
In short, 9 St Paul's Terrace, Sandycove, Co Dublin, a two-bed plus attic room with 125sq m (1,350sq ft) of space (excluding the attic) is a smart house – and it's for sale through Savills for €895,000. It's a steep price for a small terraced house – bought in 2014 for €435,000 – presumably based on its design and location, a few minutes' walk from the village of Glasthule. Houses on the terrace – two rows of six facing each other off Adelaide Road – are variously described as being in Glenageary, Glasthule and Sandycove.
The blue front door opens into a small porch with terrazzo tiles. Beyond is the completely open-plan ground floor with a reclaimed teak herringbone parquet floor. The livingroom at the front has a curved walnut window seat and a multifuel stove; the high-gloss white Noblessa kitchen, with pale Italian quartz countertops and an island unit, part divides the space which ends with the dining area beside the glazed back wall.
A hardwood herringbone deck on a concrete foundation makes the garden a real outdoor room; a narrow covered space with a sofa – underneath the cantilevered study – is heated by an infrared heater. The garden is small but pretty, with well-planted raised flowerbeds, fitted mirrors and an aluminium shed with shelves, lights, sockets and a microchip flap for pets.
A striking feature of the design, by architect Mariam Allawerdi-Doyle and interior architect Tamar Jaradat, is the storage: utilities are concealed behind doors in the kitchen space, and there's a concealed work station beside the dining area. Under the stairs and the window seat are good-sized pullout drawers on castors, a storage feature in upstairs bedrooms too.
There are two bedrooms upstairs and a shower room, as well as a a corner study, with two windows looking over the back garden, designed so that bookshelves and filing space are an arm’s length away. The two bedrooms are small doubles with built-in wardrobes.
There is a smart shower room at this level and a bathroom in the attic alongside the third bedroom. A deep velux window in the attic offers a good view of the playing fields at the end of the terrace.
The Hudson Road fields are being redeveloped by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council with sports pitches and a playground. There is on-street parking on the small terrace outside.
