Nearing perfect Ber rating

EVER watch the Poirot re-runs on TV? Noticed the attention to detail?

That’s the level at which No 3 Newenham Terrace is pitched, and it’s heading that way. The Art Deco butterfly that’s nearly clear of its chrysalis.

In the past year, these property pages have dipped in and out of interior designer Ber Pey’s project located in the heart of Cork city as she made the reconstruction and renovation journey.

Now that no 3 is almost complete, we’re back for a quick, in-progress look before the ambitious remodelling is over and the glittering finished product is shown in all its glory. This week’s look should be all about the Aga because, really, it’s in the kitchen most of the new developments happened since last December’s editorial piece. This bright white 1950s stove which snow and ice had marooned up North, now sits snugly into a specially-adapted firebreast. But this little baby didn’t come quietly into the world: it took 12 hours to get the two-oven unit built in and placed.

It’s worth bearing in mind, Aga-worshippers, that most of the reconditioning companies charge separately for fitting and installation — the behemoth weighs a ton and needs a special concrete plinth on which to sit: Big jobs, in other words.

Pey’s Aga was purchased, as she says, in bits and pieces in Dublin and was then taken north of the border, where it was re-enamelled, re-conditioned and converted to natural gas.

It is now being colonised by a row of new kitchen units in an avant-garde ‘wave’ style, using a variety of solid and veneered panels.

The cabinetry, by Rob Allen, flows around two walls, across the stove and ends at the butler’s pantry. But this is no anodyne range of ‘built-ins’. This is a joiner’s sampler: a mix of oak, ash, walnut and high gloss units, mashed with ebony and cabbage bark wood.

The island unit is a small oval designed to hold a chopping board with curved integrated drawers that will sit seamlessly into the macassar veneered unit.

This highly valued version of ebony is a favourite of cabinet makers and its black and dark chocolate brown striping is also very 1920s. It should fit neatly with the retro look that’s beginning to appear all over the house.

Lights are in place and so too are fireplaces: an original fire piece is restored to the front room with a contemporary light fitting from Lightplan, Cork.

Upstairs, there’s a stunning repro Georgian fireplace from Terra Firma, says Pey.

Composite limestone and marble tiles floor the kitchen and in two of the bedrooms, walnut and ash wide plank flooring is being laid.

But the wide old floor boards are staying in the rest of the house: the scuffs and dents of the wood speak of the age and history of this house — and they’re a counterpoint to the high-gloss, Deco furniture. Gems of silk velvet and rosewood are now under dust covers, but will soon be on display, along with a house that’s sure to shine in all its glory. More shortly.