Ovoca Road house that evokes the past while living in the present

Dublin 8: €1.75m This four-bedroom Victorian terraced family home on Ovoca Road has a clean open-plan interior.

Dublin 8: €1.75mThis four-bedroom Victorian terraced family home on Ovoca Road has a clean open-plan interior.

Situated near the Camden Street end of South Circular Road, the bay-windowed house has an interior that flows from the interconnecting reception rooms of the original property's footprint through to a new and extended kitchen/family room.

Number 10 Ovoca Road is for sale by private treaty through Gunne, at €1.75 million.

As is traditional in these properties, the drawingroom is to the front of the house to take advantage of the bay window. The diningroom is accessed through original interconnecting doors and overlooks a modern garden.

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Both rooms benefit from original period features such as twin cast-iron fireplaces and cornicing.

The lighting system in both has been updated to include recessed lights with central spots set into the plaster roses. This amplifies the room's 12ft high ceilings.

The fully decked exterior was designed by the owners and includes aluminium planters and well-placed outdoor mirrors to help refract light around the space. Ivy and clematis add splashes of green. The garden is the essence of low maintenance.

Out back there is access to a narrow lane, which is locked at both ends making it suitable for children to play in.

The 185sq m (2,000sq ft) property was reconfigured by architect Vivian Cummins. His influence can be seen in the solid beech kitchen which has a De Dietrich oven and hob, Smeg extractor and Bosch dishwasher. A family room, to the rear of the kitchen, has garden access. A raised Faber gas fire helps make this a cosy space and a real alternative to the more formal reception rooms.

Another Cummins touch is the expansive guest bedroom on the first floor return. It has a pitched ceiling and ample storage and is also adjacent to the family bathroom, which has a power shower and a free-standing cast-iron claw-foot bath.

There are three bedrooms on the first floor, two doubles and a single, which the owners use as a dressingroom.

The main bedroom is to the rear of the building. The next owners might want to reconfigure this layout, leaving the first floor for children and perhaps a home office and retiring to the rear of the first-floor return, which feels a million miles from the hub of the house.

Alanna Gallagher

Alanna Gallagher

Alanna Gallagher is a property journalist with The Irish Times