Behind the front of this single-storey cottage and its tasteful sage green gate is a bijou house surrounded by verdant trees that help to make a roadside property feel very private. Set on an east to the front, west to the rear axis, the owner bought the 74sq m/796sq ft, three-bed in 2017 for €500,000, according to the property price register.

All the hard, dirty and costly work had already been done. The previous owner had built on a mirror image extension to double its size, and installed its open plan living kitchen here where the dual aspect space overlooks the garden to the rear.

The design, by architect Shay Scanlon, is smart and the room’s vaulted ceiling and cross beams are all painted a soft white to draw the eye upwards. There is a subtle contrast in wall colour, a soft Colortrend Silk Seal.

The kitchen has vanilla cream-coloured units with timber countertops and a breakfast bar to draw a boundary between it and the living area. Its easy-to-clean, porcelain-tiled floor borders the room, while the living area is floored in rich, solid walnut timbers.

The living area is set around an open fire, and has been furnished with a pair of teal blue chesterfield-style velvet sofas. The room has floor-to-ceiling glazing panels on two sides that wash it in light. On one of these walls sliding glass doors lead out to the west-facing rear where there is a paved patio area. This overlooks a paddock filled with horses. The field is less visible in summer when the surrounding deciduous trees are in leaf.

The owner has painted the decking and flower beds in a fashionable shade of dark anthracite.

There are three bedrooms to the front of the house. All boast the same lofty ceiling heights. Two of these are good-sized doubles. The third, a single, has been a nursery, but is currently set up as a home office. All have plantation-style shutters instead of curtains that work really well within the property’s deep-set cottage window frames. These can be closed completely or by shuttering the lower parts only to still benefit from natural light.

There is off-street parking for two cars and the vast expanse of the Malahide Castle demesne is just a five-minute walk.

The property is seeking €520,000 through agent SherryFitzGerald.