Bright and beautiful, great and small

Space and budget were tight but Ciara Murray didn’t skimp on style to make the most of her home, says Rose Martin

The little terraced house was a cutie for a couple — now with a baby and three-year-old to contend with, it’s a different matter

IT’S a familiar old tale now, the hangover from the largest party ever — but it’s left couples with young children in small houses — and in negative equity.

The story is played out right around the country, but more particularly in cities where families are squeezed into top floor one-beds, two-up, two-downs in the inner city and small semis on the far rim of God-knows-where.

The real story behind the headlines, behind the posturing, is one of proud resilience, make-do-and-mend, putting up with it and hoping for a new dawn around the corner.

Those space-restricted families that can move are renting their homes and moving into larger, rental accommodation themselves, while some are finding the space they can at home, by adding on, or by moving around their internal space.

The rental market is proving the saviour of a generation where heavy mortgage debt prevents the kind of mobility needed for growing families.

Ciara Murray is one of those: an architect who set up her own practice at the tail end of the boom and who invested most of her earnings in her Dublin city home. Now it’s worth less than half of what she paid — same old, same old.

The little terraced house was a cutie for a couple — now with a baby and three-year-old to contend with, it’s a different matter. Which is why Murray is now focussed on the twin problems of space and storage — and a tight budget.

Her little two-up, two-down already had a double-height extension when she bought it and she was lucky to get in before new regulations cut off extensions on these back-to-backs.

Murray went for an overhaul of the existing footprint as part of the move and that included extending out further at the back to give a dining area in the kitchen along with a reconfiguration of the entire, ground floor space.

Closed off and in little rooms, No 9 had a problematic staircase with little head clearance from the ground-floor approach. The staircase has now been shifted around to face the front door and also serves as a divider between the living room and kitchen in what’s effectively an open-plan space.

The surprise element of the house, (and a knacky little extra that could be shoehorned into any number of city spaces), is the first-floor terrace.

“We had a very small yard at ground floor and a flat roof extension. This roof could be seen from the children’s room, so we replaced the window with a door, got planning permission for a 1.8m screen and built this using polycarbonate opaque sheets, which are 20 times stronger than glass for a children’s playing space. And the opaque panels allow light through but give complete privacy,” she says.

Despite the density of housing beneath, it doesn’t impinge on the privacy of others either because of the height and opacity of the shelter, and it’s cheap to erect. Win-win.

This little terrace is tucked away off Harold’s Cross, with a new generation of green, recycling, upcycling and cycling families who’ve moved into the area, and it’s alive with personality.

Space may be tight, but there is the reward of living in a vibrant, arty community, having village shops on the doorstep and all the amenities of buzzy Rathmines within a buggy ride. So why move?

That’s the challenge facing designers like Murray who appreciate the location but also need to wring more space from very expensive, small properties.

The roof space is a great response, creating a private courtyard garden for a small amount of money. In Murray’s terrace there’s a small table and seating for three, with plants and trees that will grow to a green wall at some stage. She’s used the system on the ground floor too where, although there’s only enough room for one adult at a time, the little 6’ by 6’ space is decked and has a tiered planting system to provide enough fresh herbs all year round.

In the rest of the house, the space has also been carefully managed and the tide of children’s toys is held at bay by annexed areas of storage.

The bathroom, for instance, is fully lined with birch plywood and fitted with brightly coloured plastic storage bins. Easily accessible and on show, they hold rubber ducks, cosmetics and all the attendant needs of a family in an easy to reach, but out of reach way.

“Birch ply is great for shelving and storage units and economical (about €85 per sheet). Sections of sheet can be used to nicely frame doors or for the edge detail of shelves. You can tidy up open shelving with storage boxes from Ikea. Using bright coloured boxes can be more playful,” says Ciara.

With the bathroom fittings, she advises buying standard bath and toilet fittings, but spending money on the sink, as that’s used continually. Her makeover was done on a tight budget, with joinery completed by her furniture-maker brother and artist partner.

They helped build the kitchen, which she designed, using Ikea units, birch shelving and a bright, lime green worktop.

“Brighten up a white/neutral kitchen with a coloured counter top. We had a RAL colour chart, picked this green and got it made up in Formica at In-house. Total cost was €280 and the use of colour on one wall or a piece of joinery, furniture or wall print can brighten up rooms and add personality to spaces.

“It can be better in small spaces, however, to keep main items neutral: walls, tiles, kitchens, with colour added to elements that can easily be changed at a later stage.”

This small room shows how good design can work in any space: the colours are primary bright against white to create space and light and the dining area is flooded from above by a white-finished Velux window.

“When there is no space for a window or a view you don’t want to focus on, a roof light gives that added light and also gives light at a different time of day than you may get from your windows,” says Murray.

“This is a flat roof light which only costs about €400 but which brightens up this previously dark room.”

And in this extra corner hewn out of the remaining yard, a plywood bench is affixed to the back wall. Painted in yellow, it doubles as storage around the original, ‘-50s drop leaf table in Virgin blue. Additional seating is in birch white and red chairs from Ikea.

The kitchen units form a U behind the staircase, with a window overlooking the external space and accessed via a clear glass door which allows even more light inside.

Original ’60s fabric is used as a curtain blind and the light shade is also original. One clear run of wall is covered in a blackboard — allowing the children to draw and play while parents cook.

“We painted a large sheet of MDF, only €30, with blackboard paint and got magnet boards from Ikea and put these up beside it. The kids get great fun from both.”

In the front room, the primary cheerfulness of the kitchen is muted into soft blue, green and grey colours and furniture is Roche Bobois with mellow oak flooring and birch ply units built into one long alcove. Here the insert stove was second-hand and it works beautifully, says Murray.

“We removed a bulky fireplace that took up much of our firebreast wall in a small room, filled and plastered the wall, painted it white and inset the built-in stove. It’s very neat in a small room and safer with young children and also more energy-efficient than the previous open fire.”

The main front door, in zesty yellow, opens directly onto the living room, save for a small draught-excluding wall that doubles as a coat hanger. Thankfully, for buggies and baby gear, there’s great storage under the stairs. Overhead, the space is divided between a fairly large master bedroom and a cute, kids’ room with the new bathroom in between.

Old doors and old floors have been retained and the off-white walls are a repository for art, photos and drawings — not an inch goes to waste. It just can’t.