Anyone who has ever lusted after a meticulously recreated, hand-crafted home with a bit of history and a lot of contemporary design qualities might just find their fantasy realised in 14 Mountpleasant Avenue.
An end-of-terrace Protected Structure at the Grand Canal end of one of Ranelagh’s oldest roads, Barry and Fiona Doyle had big plans for number 14 when they bought in the summer of 2015 for €640,000.
“We basically bought an historic ruin that had been in five flats,” Barry says, “and brought it back to its former glory”.
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This is a modest claim: Barry’s company, BRD Construction (he’s from a fourth generation Dublin building family), stripped the house to its “bare bones, until we had a shell, though complying with the protection laws.
“We replaced every timber in the house, extended out the back, bought some of the neighbour’s garden to make the rear garden wider, extended upstairs, reinstated cornicing…” The list is a long one.
Contemporary flourish
Barry’s creative flourishes, a curve of wall here, a 1,000-yearold piece of driftwood there add sensitive touches, while Fiona’s kitchen (she was a kitchen designer with SieMatic Kitchens) adds a contemporary flourish.
It’s been hard work, and it’s been day and night. Fiona says they “often wondered” what they’d taken on. Barry says he scraped the walls “until you could see blood” but enjoyed “every minute of it”.
The finished house has a (173sq m) 1,860sq ft floor area, four bedrooms (the main en suite with a walk-in wardrobe) two formal reception rooms, large open-plan kitchen livingroom, landscaped rear garden and double garage. It is for sale through Savills with an asking price of €1.25 million.
Built during the early development of Dublin’s suburbs, number 14 has the hallmarks of the Georgian tradition in vogue at the time. You see it in a many-paned front window and a carefully rebuilt hallway arch, in reinstated cornicing and in the formal reception rooms which, Barry says, “we kept traditional to retain the character of the house”.
Molasses shine
The parquet floors have a dark molasses shine (the same Burmese teak covers the entire ground floor), the fireplaces are of polished stone and the radiators’ bespoke covers were made by Barry.
The large kitchen/living space has a wall of window on to the garden and a German Nobilia kitchen chosen by Fiona. The integrated appliances are by Neff and the speckled island is of Cillstone. An eye-catching light fixture, made using that 1000-year-old piece of ship’s driftwood and five filament bulbs, was Barry’s idea.
The main, L-shaped bedroom suite is on the first return and has a walk-in wardrobe and Villeroy and Bosch en suite. A second bedroom, off the first-floor landing, has a quirky, bespoke radiator cover, a third has a view of the dome of Rathmines church and the fourth, to the rear, has built-in wardrobes. There is a family shower room with WC on this level.
Gardens front and rear have been landscaped with Acers in variety, Donegal silver granite and Indian black limestone. There is also a large attic space.
