Readying a house for the market as part of an executor sale is always difficult for a family. Dismantling a lifetime of belongings is daunting and whole industries have sprung up to help with the process of transformation.
The other slower and more difficult route is the one the owners of 14 Eaton Square took to gently redecorate and show off its fine period features and proportions.
Eaton Square in Monkstown is a gorgeous address just minutes from Seapoint, the nearby swimming and coastal walk and Dart station, and a short stroll to either Blackrock or Monkstown villages.
Number 14 is an elegant Edwardian with a box bay front whose graceful period features have been polished and painted. The original brown furniture has been replaced with more contemporary seating, bedding and tables.
The clear-out started as a relatively modest job two years ago, one of the owners explains. “We decided to sell and started to touch up plaster and paintwork as well as stripping back layer after layer of wallpaper.”
The result is a crisp first impression with the softest fawn colour shading the hall walls and a bone white used above the picture rail to pick out the plasterwork and ceiling rose. Underfoot the floorboards have been stripped and gently polished to give a warm, amber glow.
The interconnecting reception rooms have fold-back doors and ample room to accommodate a pair of sofas and an occasion chair. The sash windows have been restored and reweighted and the windows in the bays to the front look impressive.
Mirrors everywhere bounce more light in and blazing fires in the fireplaces show off marble surrounds with tiled insets to great effect on a cold November day. There is no other form of heating in the house. Old-fashioned storage heaters have been removed.
The breakfast room to the rear still has its original black and terracotta tiles and these extend into what had been the scullery and larder to the rear. This has been opened up to create a bigger single space and it is here that a new owner will likely make the most radical of changes to the property for it could be extended further to give a large kitchen living area.
There are five bedrooms, one on the return, two very sizeable doubles on the first floor plus a single and a further double on the first floor return where there is also a study or possible second bathroom.
The effect of “slow staging” the house is impressive, a masterclass in how to ready a family home for sale. It means the focus remains on the property’s great bones and its footprint remains as it has always been. “It was a family effort. We shopped within our own homes to help show off the house and bring it back to its early days. We wanted to allow would-be buyers to see what layout might suit them.”
As a tribute to her grandmother one granddaughter added lovely seasonal, subtle and chic floral arrangements throughout which work with the style of the house.
The five-bedroom property extending to 231sq m/2486sq ft, is seeking €1.35 million through agent Lisney.
