Interior designer brings outside in at €695k Ballycotton village rebuild

Designer Joan O'Grady Walsh put her stamp on seaside village's Troy House

Troy House now has large picture windows overlooking Ballycotton bay: agents Hegarty Properties guide the creative professional revamp at €695,000

Ballycotton Village, East Cork
€695,000
Size	2,100 sq ft
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	4
BER	C1

WHEN deciding to move out of Cork City’s suburbs for a life change, interior designer Joan O’Grady Walshe looked around the county’s coastline, east, then west, then back east again.

Then, she landed up at a rather tired Troy House in the heart of Ballycotton village, back in October 2020, a time when pandemic lockdowns still rose and fell like the tides.

Moving east, she fell for the sea, of course, yet keeping her professional design hat on, as well as possibly the occasional hard hat, too, as it needed major works.

Troy House is right on Main Street Ballycotton

She knew she could do a whole lot more with her purchase by opening it up to the views of beaches and sea, just across the road.

Her move to the coast saw her pick up the two-storey, five-bed Troy House, an end-terrace home that had once been a shop, later known as Nell’s House, with a then odd-looking two-storey front projection and some oddly-placed rooms.

Essentially, Joan flipped it on its head as an upside down house, putting a scene-stealing and scene-setting main living room upstairs, with sit-down and stand-out views in three directions from the old ‘projection,’ and only discovered after a bit of a ‘hide and reveal’ sneak preview, via what Joan dubs a ‘pillbox’ window on the first floor/main living level’s landing.

Pillbox window on landing and  8' high salvaged old pine doors, from a French convent

It’s quite the inspired use of this front-facing section, with views both up and down Ballycotton’s Main Street and of all the comings and goings of the village, of neighbours, and day-trippers alike to either side, while the sea, bay, and beach views are the clincher, in all weathers, with sight of seals, otters, dolphins and more in the water, and abundant birdlife, from wheeling gulls to sundry divers and friendly doves, and every size, shape, and feather configuration in between all on the wing, or water.

That ace viewpoint links back into a dining area, and a superb kitchen, all under high, 11ft vaulted ceilings, and a really smart move was to have the two main front windows (triple-glazed) just as simple, plain, large square panes, with no opes or divisions: Now, in a sense, they are less windows, and more pictures, or picture frames.

The end result at Troy House — for it is a fully-finished entity — is an utterly transformed and reimagined home, full of understated, quality touches and top workmanship, after a bit of sweat and tears at the time.

Joan recalls painfully chipping back plaster to reveal lovely old brickwork, in the first floor’s seating eyrie, and in a downstairs front bedroom, also, among other niche creations and aesthetic reveals.

What was a late 1800s old house/shop with rear extension now is a so-smart, 2,100 sq ft four-bed home designed for all life stage adaptations (provision is made for a lift/dumbwaiter from the utility/pantry to the kitchen above), with three ground-floor bedrooms, one front, two to the back with sunny patio/garden access via French doors in one and patio doors in another, and front living room — like a traditional parlour of old, only updated.

Downstairs reception

A mid-section in the deep floor plan now off a side lobby sensibly houses a bathroom, and a utility/pantry/plant room (full quotes for a solar set up to bring it to a B3 BER have been provided) with massive amounts of storage, as well as giving access to the view-full front bedroom.

The hall, meanwhile, has been opened up front to back, through the main/original and back section, with three doors removed for long sightlines, over perhaps 50ft in overall depth.

The result is eye-catching, as engaging from the porch through to the large, vertical, single-pane window (door shaped) at the back, or from the back to the porch with the sea visible beyond, while door architraves have appealing roundels or rosettes on the corner, plus block plinths, with deep skirtings for period-home character.

A painted staircase, done runner style, leads to a bright home office overlooking the back garden (it has its own rear-garden, external access, also, via Barrack Hill) on the return, before coming to the landing with alluring glimpses out to the bay, via a 6’ wide ‘pillbox’ window, designed to show only a section of what’s on the other side (like looking through letter box?!) with a grand reveal.

That ‘reveal’ is kept for the installation of vintage, 8ft-high, old pine double doors, bearing the full patina of age and scrapes, sourced by the builder, who said they had come from a convent in France.

They are, strangely, right at home in this recreated top floor, with main en suite bedroom up here too, like some Parisian apartment, in a slight way, save for the East Cork coastline along linked beaches all the way to Knockadoon head. Really, once you get up here, it’s like the rest of the house below barely matters: This is the place to be, easily mixing old and modern, in an easy-on-the-eye way.

Easy living at Troy House

This one-room wonder — T-shaped, with the projecting viewing section on the front left — has wide, plank, oak flooring (from Colin Barry, of Carpets and Floors, in Ballincollig), with a bespoke kitchen by James Hughes, of B&K Services, in Blarney, painted in Farrow and Ball’s Inchyra Blue, with the island in Dulux silver birch, with oiled oak and/or quartz worktops. It’s a wholly ergonomic layout, with concealed coffee station, pot drawers, larder press, pullout spice racks, and integrated appliances, boiling water tap, the lot.

A creative plan combines task, ambient, and accent lighting, also taking full advantage of the high ceilings, with most sourced from Medlock Lightplan, Tramore Rd.

Tiles, including in bathrooms and the long hall where they really feature, came from Tile Design, on the city’s Tramore Road or Delforno Tiles, nearby on the Kinsale Road, and a number of windows have motorised blinds from Uniview, and curtains, allowing them to be controlled remotely, or by phone, from anywhere in the world, as can be lighting, heating, cameras etc , via Nest controls.

The level of thought and delivery shows Joan O’Grady Walshe’s Rhodec professional interior design pedigree (she has traded as Reflect Interiors, doing all private commissions, but is now essentially close to fully retiring), as well as an eye for property renewal and underlying trump cards.

Main bedroom

Here, top selling points include a central position in one of East Cork’s prettiest settings, with rear-aspected back garden with secondary access to it, as well as a landscaped front garden across the road, now with off-street parking created close to the road a real boon, because parking in one-road-in, same-road-out Ballycotton in high season can be a challenge.

Garden across the road, with parking, for Troy House

The Price Register shows owner Joan paid €252,000 back five years ago for Troy House, before literally turning it upside down and almost inside out. 

Rear

In the time since she did the work, her adult family have returned to Cork post-covid, as did an architect brother from London, and she’s ready and willing to to ‘one more project’, only possibly on a lesser scale.

Selling now is Midleton-based Adrianna Hegarty, who has family links to a previous owner, Nell (who was married here to the local garda).

Ms Hegarty guides it at €695,000 and she says, “it’s a completely different property now; it will be a lucky person who gets it”.

VERDICT: Hard anywhere to get a place that has kept soul, added some more soul, and has old-world touches and modern comforts. And that it’s beside the sea is even rarer.