Carefully Considered

This three-storey Victorian red brick terrace in Dublin has been completely restored by property scout and interior designer Wesley O’Brien and his wife Patricia.

- BARBARA EGAN/REPORTAGE.

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It was the most unloved house I had ever seen, so not a project for the faint-hearted,’ says designer Wesley O’Brien of his latest project, his new home in Dublin’s suburb of Terenure. ‘It was a huge challenge and an exciting one for me to take on, because I could see a lot of potential there.’

The three-storey Victorian house had been divided into seven flats many years ago and liberties had been taken with the interiors. Few period features remained, there were additional walls, kitchenettes and WCs dotted throughout, with scant regard for light, space or original plasterwork and joinery.

‘But I loved the front façade, I liked the elevation of the house above the road and the fact there were seven rooms upstairs,’ says Wesley. ‘Also the stairs were original and solid as a rock, although it had been largely obscured by partitions and even an extension over it containing a kitchenette! I really loved the idea of restoring it and the rest of the house to its former glory. My vision was to create a warm bright family home and my mission was to make a sad house into a happy one again.’

Having bought the house it took ten months to carry out the restoration. The major structural challenge was opening up the ground floor return to create a bright open-plan kitchen/dining area. It had five rooms and contained a chimney in the middle, which Wesley wanted to remove, but it was three stories high and the attic portion was shared with the house next door. ‘This meant a lot of steelwork to support the chimney’s structure above and was quite a complex issue,’ says Wesley. He worked hard on the structural dimensions and his drawings were then submitted to a structural engineer to be signed off.