A neutral palette has allowed family life to take centre stage in this lushly planted extension in Dollymount Avenue.
Pics: Elyse Kennedy
With a background in high-end projects in Australia, on returning to Ireland, architect Jean Delaney worked on haute hotel and hospitality projects with interior architecture and design consultancy 21 Spaces.
The projects in Australia were very high-end, costing in the region of Aus$20 million and allowed her to play with all manner of materials, she recalls.
Back in Ireland, she worked on a slew of hotels, including the bijou The Wren, along with The Mont and The Alex, all in Dublin.
This combined experience has given her work an exacting sense of flow, light and spatial savvy, attributes that you can see in the select residential projects she undertakes, since she went out on her own.
Operating under Studio Delaney, a recent upgrade of a semi-detached house on Dollymount Avenue in Clontarf, Dublin 3, demonstrates this skillset.
The owners wanted to have a better flow and circulation within the house.
Part of the brief was to demolish the existing extension and reimagine it in a way that connected it to the south-west facing garden.
The client wanted to use natural materials throughout.
So the interior walls feature the same pale buff brick, Casa Lena by Outhous, as the exterior, Vinder’s slimline system glazing takes up much of the wall space and the remaining surfaces are limewashed.
By inserting a lightwell between the original back wall of the house and the new extension, it ensured both were drenched in light.
“It has also acted as a buffer between the playroom and the adult space. You can see the kids but don’t hear them,” she explains. This courtyard is lushly planted.
In the lounge, the edges of the chimneybreast have been curved to soften its look and make it more feminine. Underfoot, a pale oak engineered floor, supplied by Bearfoot Flooring, knits the spaces together.
The rooflight over the lounge area had to be craned in over the property; it was so big. She added timber fins to splice or diffuse any harsh, high summer sunlight. It also creates interesting shadowplay on the walls as the sun circumnavigates the globe.
Ballymahon-based Kestral Kitchens supplied the units and Dekton countertop in the kitchen.
It leads out to the dining area, which is set around built-in seating and features more glazing.
This consideration means you don’t end up with floor-to-ceiling glass walls that you then have to try to fit furniture into.
This custom approach maps out each area of the open-plan room and fits the glazing around those needs.
It makes the end-result look seamless. “It anchors the kitchen table,” is how she puts it.
The garden is south-west facing.
With building costs rising, once the client has agreed on the design, she conducts a feasibility study with a quantity surveyor to give the client a sense of the costs involved.
“It gives everyone comfort,” she says.
Contracts, which were put out to tender, were signed on this project three years ago, and it was completed within 12 months.
“A lot of builders price cheap and then bring in variations,” she explains.
That’s why when she is looking at builders she hasn’t worked with previously, she always gets references from other architects and also goes to see their work in person before committing.
Darrin Fagan of First Class Building did the work here.
The sums involved require a lot of consideration.
“You need to decide it’s your forever home, that you’re going to commit to it and not move again,” she counsels.
For example, if you were to commission this extension work now, it would cost in the region of €500,000.
That figure doesn’t include work to the main house, including preparing the attic and adding the reading nook on the second floor that forms part of the principal bedroom.
The client, an avid reader with a very demanding job, asked for a space where she can curl up with a book. She now has a zinc-clad window seat in her bedroom where she can soak up the afternoon sun and lose herself in a book,
To find out more, visit Studio Delaney
