This unusual period mews home in Monkstown is on the market for €950,000
22nd Mar 2021
The former stables has been stunningly converted by interior designer Carla Benedetti into a two-bedroom home with dark and dramatic interiors.
Built around 1859 as part of the stables of Glandore House, this stone building has plenty of rustic period charm that’s hard to find in an area typically surrounded by high-ceiling Victorian homes. It is built in a Venetian Gothic style with a steeply pitched roof, tall stone chimney stacks, Gothic arches, and a cut stone façade.
It was purchased in 2015 and completely transformed by interior designer Carla Benedetti in a two-year restoration, the 125-square-metre house is set back along a long gravel driveway with ample room for multiple cars. It’s new to the market at €950,000.
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Surprisingly private in the busy residential area of Monkstown, the house is set across two floors. The L-shaped ground floor’s living, kitchens and dining areas are dual-aspect, with stunning zinc-window boxes and glass doors with a thin metal frame that fills the rooms with light and contrast with the cut stone exterior.
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The communal kitchen and dining area copper-topped green-tiled island and polished concrete flooring. Double doors enter onto a small rear courtyard, with the other side facing the walled garden with raised beds and a sunny patio area, ideal for a green-fingered person of any experience.
The living room is in the gable end, separated from the living by an entrance hall with a bespoke raw steel spiral staircase and blue-tile floor. With the original stone gable wall left exposed and the stone trusses and timberwork still visible, this space crosses genres thanks to the bold choice of black walls, modern fireplace, natural cut-granite hearth and chimney and eclectic selection of furniture and artworks.
Beyond the kitchen, there’s a considerately laid out showroom and WC and what the homeowners still term as the “bull barn”, which currently acts as a study and utility area, with plenty of light thanks to another large glass doorway onto the rear courtyard.
Up the spiral staircase are two bedrooms with vaulted ceilings. The principal bedroom stretches right up to the roof with Velux windows on either side maximising light. The walls are left exposed here too, with the roof area painted in the same dramatic black.
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The vertical space has been used to create a custom library area, complete with its own sliding ladder that also gives access to the attic space. This bedroom also has a large ensuite. The second bedroom is also a double, similar in size to the principal.