Since it was built 150 years ago the various owners of Langara, on Lower Glenageary Road in Co Dublin have maintained its fine period features, updating and modernising without losing the house’s sense of period grandeur.
The five-bedroom 438 sq m (4,715 sq ft) house with elegant reception rooms and an attached mews on .6 acre is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald for €3.95 million.
Its interior decoration and style make it stand out with every detail, from the specially commissioned murals in the hallway and the rich colour schemes in the grand reception rooms to the French country-style inspired kitchen and marble finished en suites. New owners will be hard pressed to think of anything to change when it comes to décor.
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At hall level there are four rooms, two grand drawingrooms on one side of the hall and a formal diningroom and study on the other.
Previous owners built a large sunroom off the drawing room to maximise its south-facing orientation and again it is sympathetic to the house’s style with windows and a curving cast-iron staircase down to the side patio sourced from architectural salvage. Also on this level is a guest toilet and a fully-fitted butlers’ pantry and service kitchen – it has been a great house for entertaining according to the owners, hosting several family weddings.
Deep bay windows
Upstairs there are five bedrooms, four with smart en suites installed by the current owner, none of which take away from the rooms' lovely proportions. The deep bays on both the first and second floors add even more space and light.
At garden level, the layout is simple with the kitchen and diningroom on one side – with doors opening out on to the side patio – and a large familyroom and boot room on the other. There are also various store rooms and a guest toilet.
Probably the most significant change undertaken in recent years was the transformation in 2006 of the attached stables into a two-bedroom, 126 sq m (1,356 sq ft) mews.
This has its own front door and is accessed from the main driveway and also from an interior door in the main house. For this reason, and also because they share a patio, new owners may want to make some changes if they are considering it as a rental, although at this price level it will probably be used as a granny flat or staff accommodation.
Langara is on .6 of an acre of beautifully laid out formal gardens. It would originally have been on much more land but some of it was sold off by previous owners for a townhouse development. Also, when the current owners bought, a gate lodge at the entrance was part of the sale. That is no longer the case and buyers of the property will share a driveway with the gate lodge rental.