Family home with class: Castletroy, Limerick €680,000

Size: 380 sq m, (4,050 sq ft)

There was a lot of attention paid, and cash expended, when this Castletroy, Limerick, area home was built in 2006. Set on tastily landscaped grounds with raised circular limestone beds, of two-thirds of an acre at Killonan, this is a 4,000 sq ft home built in timber-frame back in 2006, when the economy was at full pelt and houses grew in size to match the feel-good factor.

Many of the Celtic Tiger mansions built then have all the signs of bling, but that’s definitely not the case at this one-off — it’s calm, considered and designed to deal with clutter, by providing masses of storage and display space; in fact, it’s a paragon of good storage ideas. Admittedly, that’s a whole lot easier when you have thousands of square feet of ‘discretionary’ space to play around with.

Carrying a €680,000 AMV with agent Gillian Dunne of DNG Cusack Dunne, it’s a family home par excellence, with a restrained exterior in stone and dash that manages to understate the size within, and its rear facade is as easy on the eye as the front, with lots of Marvin windows, some of them sliding sashes.

And, says Ms Dunne, the house’s deft design gives interesting and interlinked spaces internally too, while materials used are pleasing to the eye.

There’s a feature staircase, in mahogany, with overhead galleried landing which runs to a library/ seating area, and the stairs’ dark timber is set off by chequeboard black and white hall tiles.

Off the hall are ranged a number of linked reception rooms, several with high vaulted ceilings and whirring ceiling fans, and the heart of the home is a kitchen with creamy Aga, inset into a brick-finished wall. This room has wood-sheeted ceilings and looks out over a broad granite worktop to a family room with bay window and broad window seating with storage, as well as to a dining area with garden views.

There’s also a more formal drawing room, with double aspect, oak floor with mahogany trim insert, along with a white marble fireplace and black granite hearth. Other rooms include a dining room with vaulted ceiling and feature arched window overlooking the back garden, while competing for attention is the tall chimney breast, with raised fire basket and gas feed, with wall-to-breast integrated bookshelves alongside. This room links to the drawing room, and also has a kitchen hatch.

On a more workmanlike front, there’s a home office with extensive shelving, oak wall panelling and gym.

The house is essentially an oversized dormer and a half, and the ground floor also has a utility with banks of shelved storage (individual cubbies for pairs of shoes) and guest WC, while overhead all five bedrooms are doubles, with the master bedroom en suite along with a walk-in wardrobe.

Sited in the middle of its 0.62 acre gardens, there’s lawns, groves and fruit trees and bushes, with raised Liscannor stone fringed beds and paths, with good privacy and hedge boundaries in escalonia, beech and griselinia.

VERDICT: Big, but not brash, understated style.