A four-bedroom terraced house with views of Croke Park and rent-a-room potential demonstrates how to work fashion’s earthy shades, stone blues to serene greens and terracotta touches, into a period property and move on from grey.
Fashion is fickle and restless. Interiors move at a slightly slower pace. It’s been 21 years since Farrow & Ball’s Elephant’s Breath wowed homeowners with a fresh take on neutrals.
The mid-tone grey worked in both contemporary and period settings, in part because of its distinct taupe, beige, and soft magenta undertones, the latter adding warmth, a key characteristic that was absent from many other copies of the colour.
Address: 46 North Strand Road, North Strand, Dublin 3, D03 R258
Asking price: €695,000
Agent: Sherry FitzGerald City Centre
Many homes were given a greyover, and with the colour officially out of favour, many homeowners have been left with vast tracts of wall space to reimagine.
With the current geopolitical uncertainties, décor has pivoted to a lighter mood, one that is grounded in nature.
These earthy shades feel reassuringly cocooning.
Number 46 North Strand Road, just over the Royal Canal, is a really good example of how to bridge the move from cool greys to a warmer-looking interior that “adds lovely depth to a period property”, selling agent Michael O’Neill explains.
The front door of the two-storey over basement terraced house is now an Airforce blue and opens into a hall drenched in muted green.
Farrow & Ball’s Lichen has an underlying blue tone that will work well with the grey carpets underfoot and with the blue walls of the front reception room.
Priory Blue by Colourtrend is a good fit; its deep blue-grey creates a sophisticated and tranquil ambience that works with the gunmetal colour of the cast iron fireplace.
The dining room is at the back. Seen as the lead shot in this story, the mood shifts again to a brighter space, a room that gets good afternoon and evening sun.
Framing the view is Croke Park, the crucible of all things GAA.
Its walls are painted a colour that resembles Portland Stone, a neutral that has some grey undertones by Little Greene.
The kitchen is in the return at garden level and is accessed via a boot room that is painted in the same muted green as the hall.
A back door opens out to the small but maturely planted city garden that is set over different levels.
The rest of the rooms at basement level could be rented out on a rent-a-room basis, earning you up to €14,000 per annum, tax-free, as long as you stay below the threshold and the sum includes all utilities.
They remain part of the house, but it gives the tenant a bedroom and separate sitting room.
These rooms have flexible uses and could become a bedroom, a home office or a gaming room for teens.
There’s also a bathroom at this level.
On the first floor, there are three bedrooms, two doubles, painted in the same blue and green as the living room and hall, and a single, which is used as a study.
Sherry FitzGerald is seeking €695,000 for the D1 BER-rated, four-bedroom, two-bathroom house which extends to 160 square metres.
