‘We saved for years in Australia to create a dream family home in Dublin’

Silk grey-painted fluted panel front and garage doors with round handles — popular in Australia — feature on the renovated detached 1950s bungalow, which was vacant and in need of renovation when the couple bought it

After looking — remotely, with family members doing the viewing and evaluating — at houses over the next couple of years and getting close with a few of them, they turned to Margaret Penrose, a buyers’ agent, for help.

“She was brilliant and really helped us figure out what exactly we wanted and what we could afford,” Wallace says. “We were lucky we didn’t end up buying anything before Margaret came along. She really helped us with the area, the school, the sort of life we wanted to have, what was important for us and what we value.”

Soon after, a detached 1950s bungalow in Mount Merrion came on the market. “It is next to schools, a park, shops, great transport and close by my family home where I grew up,” Wallace says. “Most importantly, it was in a budget that we could stretch to, so we jumped at the chance to make it ours. The house was in need of renovation and repair having been vacant for some time but we could see the potential to have our dream home within those walls.”

They went sale agreed on the property, which they’d still only viewed through videos and photos, in October 2019. Closing took another 12 months, during which time the arrival of their first daughter, Sienna, and Covid lockdowns made them rethink their plans and they moved back — and in with Wallace’s mother — in August 2020.

The airy dining area in the extended space has a picture window that overlooks the lawn and sliding doors to the terrace

Although the house was a reasonable size, some of the rooms were poky, the flow didn’t work for the family and the converted attic was accessed by a spiral staircase. Wallace and O’Brien wanted a more open-plan arrangement and greater connection with the large back garden.

After researching numerous architects, Wallace came across McDonnell on Instagram. “She had worked with Suzie McAdam on a house in Sandymount that I thought was very classy and yet contemporary. At the time she offered limited online one-to-one consultations and through this she reviewed initial designs we had for the house.

“She offered ideas on simple changes to improve the overall flow of the home and maximise the space that would make most sense for us as a young family. She is also an interiors architect so she helped us visualise how it would look and feel at the end. I moved from being very anxious to really excited about our future home in that one call and so engaged her services for the rest of the project.”

Planning permission was granted on a design that included an extension at the back, demolishing the garage and building out by one metre at the side of the house and adding two dormers upstairs. However, by the time they were ready to start the job, building costs had rocketed and they could no longer afford the work. “We considered selling and spent a stressful Christmas thinking about this option, having valuations done and searching for a new home.”

The kitchen is sleek with white silestone countertops

Instead, they worked with McDonnell on a revised design that kept the dormers upstairs and the small extension at the back but scrapped the plan to build at the side. Then, with the help of a quantity surveyor, they made various compromises that allowed them to move forward with “a fantastic builder”, Luke Sloper of LJS Building Group, and Aoife Grogan of Courtney McDonnell Studio as the architect who was mainly on site. Work began in summer 2022 and the family, which now includes two-year-old Annelise, moved in on the June bank holiday weekend in 2023.

Wallace describes the look and feel that they loved in Australia and wanted to recreate here as a mix of minimalist, coastal and Scandi. McDonnell says the design was informed by certain words the couple used such as “breezy” and “calm”.

This overall aesthetic begins on the outside with a light render and custom-made — and silk grey-painted — fluted panel front and garage doors with round handles. “Those doors and handles are everywhere in Australia and they’re nowhere here,” Wallace says.

Inside, the clean and uncluttered look continues. A bedroom and an office are at the front on either side of the hall, which continues down to the new open-plan space.

The streamlined oak cabinets with built-in joinery in the kitchen were created by Leonard Breslin of the Irish Furniture Store. A hidden door conceals the utility room

The dining area is in the extended space and gets the best of the light and connection with the garden: a picture window with a wide built-in seat looks onto the lawn, while huge sliding doors on the other side open to the terrace. Around the corner, the living room has a wall of glazing that includes a door to the terrace.

The kitchen is sleek with white silestone countertops and lots of floor-to-ceiling units, plus a hidden door to the utility room. The joinery throughout was made by Leonard Breslin of the Irish Furniture Store.

“The interior palette is neutral with an emphasis on whitewashed oak cabinetry and curved forms within the alcove shelving, cabinet hardware and joinery, which provides a softness to the breezy feel of the open-plan space,” McDonnell says. “In this house it felt there needed to be a lot of built-in joinery to help the space feel open and bright, and kind of streamlined.”

Overhead, joists have been incorporated into the long rooflight. “They’re a nod to the oak in the cabinets and give a bit of interest to the rooflight but they also give a more diffused light,” McDonnell says.

Light floods through the single rooflight into the open-plan dining area

Pocket doors from the living area open into a small snug with a big side window that’s used as a playroom for the girls. Two more bedrooms are upstairs where dormers have been added on either side of the A-frame roof to accommodate a new stairs and the family bathroom as well as the en suite and walk-in wardrobe in the main bedroom suite.

Many of the adaptations made to cut down on costs have benefited the end result, Wallace believes. “For example, keeping the garage turned out to be a huge space saver in the house. It stores things that otherwise would have been difficult to have in the alcoves of our attic bedrooms and provides great access from front to back. Not extending to the side also allowed us a window in the snug and floods that space with great light.”

Three rooflights were originally planned for the open-plan space. “We made something better out of the one,” says Wallace. “It probably brought it back even more to that minimalist, coastal, Scandi thing. Now it’s one window with a nice tieback into the rest, rather than three skylights that didn’t have that. It doesn’t feel like we lost anything.”

After just over a year in their new home she says they’re still in the honeymoon phase. “Seán loves the dark and moody bathroom, which has the splash of spa luxury with a rainfall shower and gold taps. My favourite part is the kitchen and being able to see and appreciate so much of our home and garden from behind the long island. Courtney, Aoife and our amazing joiner Leonard brought it to life and it’s even better than we could have hoped.

“We feel incredibly lucky to be here, living in our dream home and seeing our daughters so happy racing around the house with their cousins and friends.”