Home renovations often run behind schedule but not usually by almost two decades. The owners of this semidetached house in Mount Merrion, Dublin, bought it in 2000 and moved abroad for what they expected would be a short stint.
They put their cots, baby paraphernalia and furniture in the attic and rented out the house, planning to renovate it when they returned. But by the time they came back 18 years later, their children were adults and the house needed considerable work to suit their needs. It was dark and cold, the rooms were small and the kitchen was poky.
Today, with the help of architect and interior designer Rachel Carmody, the home has been transformed into a bright and warm house that is flooded with light thanks to the judiciously placed windows, roof lights and glass doors.
One of the homeowners’ favourite features is the waterfall window that runs across the sloped sunroom roof and down the back of the house, creating cascading rivers of rain. They’ve had many opportunities to appreciate that feature this summer.
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The floor-to-ceiling doors give the feeling of space, as does the decision to drop the level of the sunroom a few steps lower than the kitchen and dining area. And the floor-to-ceiling sliding doors in the sunroom provide a seamless transition to the garden.
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Book lovers will appreciate the generous bookcase covering an entire wall in the sunroom, while the hidden wine bar in the dining area will be the envy of anyone who enjoys entertaining at home. Like the kitchen’s coffee nook, the pocket doors of the wine bar slide into the wall when opened.
Storage space is maximised everywhere with cupboards that reach to the ceiling. When you push the panels at the side of the two windows in the room, more storage space pops out, while the window seats have spacious drawers underneath. Meanwhile, slat wood panels in the hallway conceal a bathroom, storage space, and a large office, complete with a Murphy bed for overnight visitors.
The homeowners say they wanted to use every inch of space in the house and ensure that there was no “good room” that would sit unused for most of the year.
The fluted glass sliding doors in the south-facing sittingroom ensure the sunlight streams in from the front of the house in the morning, while later in the day the large roof lights and windows in the kitchen draw the sun to the heart of the house. In the evening, the sunroom is bathed in light before the sun sets.
“That was the main challenge to the architect, to find light and open up the place,” they say. “The result is transformational. It’s a very different house now.” They found architect Rachel Carmody by chance. Passing through Clonskeagh one day, a building site caught their eye. They stopped to see the architect’s name and photographs of her work and immediately got in touch with her.
Carmody says she designed the home around light while aiming for a calm, contemporary living and entertaining environment. The dining area was in one of the darker parts of the house but is now flooded with light from all sides. “The large stairwell window was designed to draw light into the dining space,” she says. Light also enters the dining space through the timber fin wall of the sunroom.
“So even though the dining space has no direct access to natural light, throughout the day it is illuminated by different qualities of light.”
The movie Parasite was the unexpected inspiration for one feature in the house, and no, it wasn’t a basement. While watching the award-winning movie, the couple noticed the floating light over the dining table and thought a similar one would be perfect over their dining table. “At night time it provides a really lovely glow, but you hardly see it during the day.”
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After living with several small kitchens, they love the space in their new kitchen. “We all like to cook, and you can have a team of people cooking here and you don’t get in each other’s way.” They deliberately placed the sink on one side of the island to maximise space for socialising, and to ensure that it faces the garden.
They switched to a night-saving electricity plan as they have an electric car and put the dishwasher and washing machine on timers so they could avail of the cheaper electricity rate at night.
The timing of the project, which began in July 2021, meant that they found themselves in the middle of a perfect storm of Brexit, Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Everything took longer, a number of the subcontractor quotes expired, and the requotes were higher. The cost of materials went up dramatically and of course we added things along the way,” they say.
“We didn’t have hard and fast budgets but I can tell you the final costs were considerably more than we had originally expected. Some people are natural project managers, but we are not, and we had never done anything on this scale before. If we were doing it again, perhaps we would use a QS [quantity surveyor] or project manager.”
It was stressful at times. They say their builder Jegors Jegorovs, of JJ Building Services, couldn’t have been more helpful. “He’s a really good craftsman and everyone who came into our house during construction said he was the cleanest builder they had ever come across.”
Their original plan was to renovate the house to make it habitable for a few years while they decided what to do with it. As the project went on, they realised that they were creating their forever home. The couple have moved home numerous times and lived in several countries, but they agree that this house marks an end to their transitory lifestyle.
“We love this house. We have packed and unpacked so many boxes over the years,” they say. “We definitely don’t plan to move again.”
