See how this Edwardian home in Dublin was transformed 

When old and new architecture are joined together focusing on practicality for modern living, the result can be exceptional

This Eaton Square, Terenure, extension modernises an Edwardian house with a kitchen and dining space, and the enclosure of yard space to make a charming courtyard. Pictures: Shane Lynam

Remember before Covid when we’d traipse around other people’s homes on the Open House weekend?

Every year, usually in September, historic buildings, modern architectural marvels and private homes opened to the public to foster an appreciation of good architecture. It was also a chance for us interiors voyeurs to indulge in design, maybe get ideas for our own homes and, in my case especially, to come across a particularly photogenic house with the bonus of an interesting back story to feature on these pages.

For some visitors, it was a chance to get inside a house to view close up the work of a particular architect they might have considered for their own house building or extension project.

For others looking for ideas, it could have meant coming across a project so in line with their personal taste they ended up asking the homeowner for an introduction to their architect.

Brick from a demolished wall is reused in the kitchen hearth around the range and in the enclosed courtyard, linking the old and new parts of the house. 

Something just like this happened about five years ago when a young couple was in the process of buying a once handsome, but decaying four-bedroomed Edwardian red-brick on Eaton Square in Dublin’s Terenure neighbourhood.

Mature red brick houses surround the central park on Terenure's Eaton Square with autumn leaves falling. 

The house was in poor repair, old fashioned with a tiny scullery-style kitchen at the back, and not suitable to meet the needs of a young modern family with a baby. Their idea was to enlarge the kitchen area to the rear, incorporating a dining space in addition to renovating the original house. Not an unambitious project by any means and one needing the right architects to design and implement it.

By a stroke of serendipity, Dublin-based architect Lucy Jones had just completed a design project for her sister’s house, also located on Eaton Square, and had managed to persuade her to participate in the Open House weekend and throw her doors open to the public.

The view from the kitchen extension takes in the low maintenance garden space bordered by a mix of original stone wall and a plastered and painted section.

To give an indication of just how popular this event has been with the general public, a staggering 1,000 visitors traipsed through Lucy’s sister’s home that weekend, including the couple buying the house across the square who were keen to see what had been achieved by a neighbouring property to bring it up to date.

They were impressed enough by what Lucy’s firm, Dublin-based Antipas Jones had done that they decided they wanted something similar, so Lucy met them for coffee and to talk ideas.

“We got on well and made a wish list of things we wanted to do,” Lucy says.

“A complete renovation was needed with an extension to link into the old house, but modern and outdoor looking with lots of light.”

But typical of this sort of project, it wasn’t just the exciting bit of extending the property and chatting about finishes that needed to be addressed, but also those budget hungry, heavy-duty, behind-the-scenes jobs which you don’t necessarily see in the finished product but are absolutely necessary. In this case, they included changing roof timbers and putting in damp proofing.

Additionally, as with any project, adjustments had to be made along the way with an initial idea for the roof of the extension being shelved due to budget constraints.

An ambitious plan inspired by the work of Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn’s Venice Pavilion of 1962 proved to be too expensive, but there’s nothing like working to a budget to foster creative thinking and come up with a perfectly suitable alternative. In this instance, it saw oak beams stretching across the ceiling and the inclusion of roof lights.

Lighting the new space involved lots of conversations, according to Lucy, and doing it effectively is not always easy to achieve in a north-facing extension.

The finished structure, however, has floor-to-ceiling glass doors and windows maximising light from the rear; a large window to the side overlooking a courtyard, plus the roof lights and, internally, a glass door to the hallway and a window created in the wall between the kitchen and playroom, all contributing to maximising light through the space.

Light into the extension was carefully considered with large windows overlooking the garden, the courtyard, and internally with the inclusion of a window between the kitchen and playroom.

Eco-friendliness and sustainability were also at the forefront of the project.

These references help to link the older part of the house with the new, as does the innovative idea of putting the window in the wall between the playroom and the kitchen. And who knows, maybe it’s proving handy for keeping an eye on quarrelling kiddies and calling them into the kitchen for snack time.

But while the extension is all about

modern design, including a finished concrete floor in the extension running to the outside so there’s a sense of continuity and the feel of an unbroken flow from indoors to outdoors, Lucy was discerning about the character of the original house, its age and the importance of retaining the historic features that mark out its Edwardian genes.

“We managed to take down the coving and repair and reinstate it, and tried to keep the wooden floors and bannisters,” she says. “The client was sensitive about the appropriateness of colours. There’s blue in the main bedroom and sharp white in the new extension.”

A leitmotif in Antipas Jones’ projects is their approach to space planning and storage. It means the separate toilet and bathroom upstairs have been broken into one space. The washing machine and dryer are located under the stairs in what might have once been the coal house, as the client didn’t want to hear appliances rattling when sitting in the kitchen.

The extension’s uncluttered, minimalist look is softened by well-considered and contrasting finishes in exposed oak beams on the ceiling, concrete flooring, reclaimed bricks and mid-century modern furniture. 

The kitchen units have been custom made so every centimetre of available space is used to the max, including the alcoves on either side of the hearth which house floor to ceiling banks of cupboards.

A lovely touch that adds interest and an alternative route into the kitchen is the creation of a little enclosed outdoor space, accessible through French doors from the playroom which would have functioned as the dining room in days gone by now repurposed for 21st-century family life.

Typically, the space would have been a narrow, yard-like route to the garden but is now enclosed by the kitchen extension running across the back to form a delightful courtyard from where there is also direct access through glass doors to the kitchen and the garden beyond.

Echoing the little backyards that are often found in so much of our older housing stock, it’s an intimate private space away from neighbour’s eyes; somewhere to park a cup of tea and read a book undisturbed, away from a busy locality and the rest of the house.