Abbotsford on Orwell Road, a five-bedroom villa-style Victorian home, sits just around the corner from the heart of Rathgar village. From the outside it looks like two dwellings, with a driveway on each side and the house in the centre hidden by trees. It can be accessed from granite steps on either side which lead you to the beautifully restored leaded stained-glass door.
The entrance hallway has a lofty ceiling height of 14ft, with ornate coving, and the eye is drawn to an original stained-glass window allowing sunlight to beam in from the end of the hall. The decorative ceilings continue into the two front reception rooms. The one on the right is used as a livingroom while the one on the left is a spacious diningroom. Both have marble fireplaces, bay windows and wall panelling.
The diningroom interconnects with another livingroom towards the back of the house, both with open fires. This is an ideal space for entertaining, the owner says, although the Covid-19 lockdowns put paid to much of the socialising they had hoped to do since moving into the house in 2018. The owners now plan to downsize, while remaining in the area.
The property, extending to 395sq m (4,252sq ft), underwent a huge renovation by its previous owners in 2007, before which time it had been separated into flats. Although it was carried out 15 years ago, the renovation has held up remarkably well. The open-plan kitchen/diningroom on the other side of the hall is bathed in light from the two-storey-high windows, which continue down to the ground floor of the house.
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The kitchen, with grey/green contemporary fittings, has a large centre island, which houses the sink and storage underneath, including a wine fridge. The dining area sits inside the atrium-style extension and a glass balcony allows you to appreciate the entire vista from the ground floor up, with views out to the back garden. There is also a guest WC and cloakroom on this floor.
A carpeted staircase takes you downstairs to a hallway towards the front of the ground floor, where the bedrooms are. To the right is the generously sized main suite, which looks out to the back garden. There is a long walk-in wardrobe off this, with two generous closets and hanging rails for clothes on each side, between which sits a large en suite with marble-look tiles, a shower and a bath. The second bedroom is a double to the front of the house with an en suite and double-glazed windows which help block noise from the light traffic on the road. The other three double bedrooms also sit to the front of the house, with two sharing a Jack-and-Jill bathroom. There is also a narrow utility room in this part of the home.
To the back of this floor, sharing the windows to the garden with the kitchen above, is a generous-sized room currently used as a games room. The possibilities are endless for this space and it would also make a great artists’ studio (especially as it benefits from so much natural light), a work-from-home space or a playroom. This room has French doors which open on to the southwest-facing back garden, which has a patio, barbecue area and a generous lawn.
This period home, which has an E1 Ber rating, offers elegance and comfort in a highly sought-after location. All necessary amenities are close to Orwell Road, including cafes, a pharmacy, a bank and a Supervalu. It is just 4km from the city centre and is well-serviced by a number of Dublin bus routes. Abbotsford is on the market through Sherry FitzGerald, seeking €2.85 million.
