Where cool, calm and clever meet

IT starts with the stove — a girly-floral, pewter confection which throws out heat on a crisp, spring day.

Made in Italy at the turn of the last century, it’s moved all the way to Minane Bridge via Leap, and surveys the kitchen of this pretty house like a prima donna from its own, slate plinth.

As a kick off, the stove adds immediate emphasis to the cool, calm and country style of Slieveroe Lodge, a clever little house that’s full of artisan craft work and artistic endeavour.

The alluring simplicity denies the level of work involved and it’s surprising the house is a new build — it feels and looks old.

It was built as a harmonious adjunct to the original gate lodge for the adjacent, Heathburn Hall, a large Victorian once occupied by the Shaw family, of whom, George Bernard Shaw often came to visit.

The lodge was purchased with a half-acre site in a deleterious condition and instead of adding on or extending the original square building, the new lodge was created as a separate building behind, but in sympathy with the original.

Thus the house is a composition of three, lodge-sized elements, topped by slate roofs and joined in valleys, with the central portion holding the chimney stack in perfect symmetry and in line with the original.

The windows are not copies of the wonderful, small paned originals, but a variation on the theme, with cathedral shapes suggested in the internal panels, all of which were handmade and hand-painted with double glazed panels.

There are few showy elements, bedrooms confined to three, (with three bathrooms and two en suite rooms) are deceptively large and come with ample storage and a similar colour scheme.

Walls are also fairly neutral, with barley white matt used in the doors and architrave, (the latched and ladderback doors came from Woodies) and oatmeal in the carpet — there are the occasional flashes of colour, such as the bottle green walls of the study/ office.

The sensitivity and low key approach to the build and finish of this house is down to a pair of serial renovators who have the happy knack of creating a home out of bricks and mortar — and doing it effortlessly.

The theme is timeless, with a hand-crafted kitchen in a bone grey with simple open shelves on the walls and a black range cooker to complement the solid fuel 1920s Mano stove.

Flooring is wide plank oak and worktops are a similar material with a sturdy island unit. The utility faces onto the north side of the house and is tucked way to the side, along with a cute, guest bathroom. The dining area of the kitchen faces east and south.

The sun then tracks around the house moving onto the main living room, which is turned into a sunroom by overhead glazing panels and this well proportioned room has 1920s cast iron fireplace and simple, but classic furniture arrangement in raspberry and rust.

The smallest of the three bedrooms, (which still fits a king, cast iron bed) is to the rear of the living room and to one side, there’s access to the study/ office, facing south.

Behind it, is the second largest of the en suite rooms, which faces over the rear garden. A good size it also has a large bed at its centre and comes with a built-in wardrobe.

The final bedroom commands the best position of all three, a west facing location with double door access to a gravelled courtyard and views over rolling countryside.

This room is very comfortable with a big bed, soft carpet and an en suite bathroom that includes a modern suite and full bath, all finished in the same, gently luxurious style.

The gardens, meanwhile, are almost professionally laid out, with a surround of lawn, gravel beds, thriving climbers which include hydrangeas, solanums, clematis, and a variety of roses.

The vegetable garden at the rear has deep raised beds, with strawberries in place in one and another ready for the year’s planting. Frothy parsnip greens indicated the last remaining roots for the ‘hungry gap’ in an overwintering bed.

The soft fruit cage has a range of juvenile bushes but they produced furiously last summer, says the vendor, who has a number of summer fruits in the large rectangle, including an unusual Josta berry, a cross between the blackcurrant and gooseberry.

The old lodge, meanwhile, was fully restored and is now used as a studio, while the adjoining gates are distinguished by the artist’s collection of gargoyles.

The property is now for sale with Malcolm Tyrrell of Cohalan Downing and Associates, for offers in the region of €485,000 for this true, one-off buy.