Tourist town property has designer touch

THIS is a Kinsale property through and through. Designed by Richard Rainey and built by local consortium, MMD Construction, whose first outing this was, Westwood Gardens is an attractive and low-scale scheme with a Scandinavian touch.

It's also a walk to the harbour town and has high views of the water a commodity which adds more than a couple of grand to property sales here.

Pacelli Nolan of SWS Property Services sold No 4 here some months ago for close to €500,000, but this time round she's looking for offers in the region of €525,000 for No 6, Westwood Gardens.

The last house in the row, this three-storey, four-bed has an extra large garden and a sunroom addition which adds to the value, but best of all, it's also the home of interior designer, Jenny O'Donnell, adding a professional finish to the product.

The Hamptons meets minimal is how Ms Nolan describes the style and she waxes lyrical about the layout, saying its quality all the way.

And that's not far off when you consider that the kitchen is a Joseph Walsh creation: the Belgooly-man is one of the country's rising furniture makers and he no longer does kitchen commissions.

Painted in cream and with a huge butcher block island, it runs into the dining area and has dimensions of 19' by 14'.

That being said, the ground floor is mostly open plan, with the dining room connecting to the lounge and the sunroom, the latter rooms having double doors to the front of the house.

Patio doors also lead to the back from the dining room and sunroom and the patio is a gravelled and sleepered affair with the rest of the garden sweeping around the house to the front drive.

With its cedar cladding and Rational windows and stone walled first floor, there's been a lot of extra attention given to the finish. Upstairs, the landing opens on to a decked balcony, to make the most of the views, and there's also access from one of the four double bedrooms.

The master suite takes up the entire second floor and it comes with its own bathroom and has limed and waxed flooring.

Oil heating is installed and No 6 comes with a garden shed and plenty of parking.

Pacelli Nolan expects keen interest coming into the autumn.