In pictures: €495k Waterfall home a voguish retreat with panoramic views

Vibrant mid-century zest meets 1910 cottage charm in Waterfall

The Cottage, Castlewhite, Waterfall, Co Cork.

Waterfall, Cork
€495,000
Size	105 sq m (1,130 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	1
BER	C1

If you have eaten in a stylish restaurant or visited a voguish salon and wondered what the interior designer’s own home is like, then step inside.

The Cottage, at Castlewhite, in Waterfall, was built in 1910, and has been through a dramatic makeover or two since then.

Co-owner Cathy Angelini — who set up Flamingo Interior Design — was only too delighted to put her professional skills to work when she extended and reconfigured what was once a labourer’s cottage.

First up, the family added a flat-roof extension to pretty much double the size of the home, to 105sq m, and they also converted an attached garage into a home office with its own entrance.

“I wanted a sunshiny and mid-century retro look, so there’s lots of strong colour,” says Angelini.

Even from the driveway, the strong, citrus, yellow front door (“which is very handy for giving directions for deliveries”) is an indicator of the vibe.

Inside, you’ve got soft, sunset-orange kitchen cabinetry, with practical, ceiling-mounted suspended cupboards: “Instead of ‘open plan’, you could say I went for ‘broken plan’ to allow a feeling of space, but with separate zones for the dining and kitchen areas.”

And the 2023 kitchen makeover saw the classic kitchen work triangle swapped out for a cooking zone and a cleaning zone.

Large, terrazzo-style tiles give a warm and classic feel to anchor the living area.

The confident use of colour extends to the bathroom, too, where Angelini built the decor around salvaged pink sanitary ware, with white wall tiles replaced with crackle-glazed mustard/tangerine tiles.

The family of two adults and a teenager and a two-year-old also organised some behind-the-scenes renovations, with external and attic insulation, giving a C1 energy rating.

It hasn’t been all ‘out with the old’, though, and the original cottage stonework makes an attractive feature wall in the new sunroom.

This was once a single-glazed space, but is now a warm, modern, orangery style room. “I wanted a ‘glass box’ here, you go down a step into it, and the garden outside is up a step, so it feels like you are in the garden when you are in here.”

From here, you have panoramic views over the garden, which has a patio, plenty of mature planting around the perimeter, and a room for play equipment, including a treehouse.

The views from the front of the house, though, were the real reason the owners were drawn to this property back in 2015, when they bought it (for €165,500, according to the Property Price Register).

“I drove up here one night for another look, when we were considering this house, and that’s when I decided we had to have this house. You can see all across the city, right over to Apple on the northside and and on to the Galtee Mountains. On a foggy day, the spires really stand out, so you can see Shandon and churches in Douglas and Bishopstown.”

The location also comes in for praise from selling agent Tirza Hourihane, of Sherry FitzGerald: “It’s such a beautifully designed family home, with a perfect combination of countryside tranquillity and urban convenience.

“A wide range of amenities are available nearby, in both Ballincollig and Bishopstown, while the Bandon Rd roundabout, South Ring Rd network, Cork University Hospital, Wilton Shopping Centre, UCC, and city centre are all easily accessible.”

O’Shea’s Bar at Waterfall is about 2km away and it’s a five-minute drive to the shops: “Our local shop is the ‘posh Dunnes’ at Bishopstown, which is very handy — the only drawback there is I can go in for bread or milk and come out with two new lamps!” says Angelini.

Renovations at this home also included sash windows in all three bedrooms, which are positioned to be in the darker part of the house to give a cosy feeling.

A lot of the home-rejuvenation work was inspired by numerous trips to California, where Angelini has admired projects by renowned architects Richard Neutra and Albert Frey.

Other, more public, interior projects by Angelini include The Glass Curtain on MacCurtain St and Kopper Hair Salon on Half Moon St.

The Cottage is on the market now for €495k as the owners are moving towards the coast.

VERDICT: A designer’s voguish Waterfall retreat — pleasing to look at and with great views over the city.