Restoration and extension of a Victorian home in Sandycove, Dublin
A sympathetic and contrasting extension that opens up to the rear garden
Our architects’ project scope
Edge House is a period Victorian home on one of Sandycove’s residential streets in south Dublin.
Sandycove is one of south Dublin’s most coveted addresses. A coastal village within walking distance of the famous Forty Foot bathing place and the Martello Tower that opens James Joyce’s Ulysses, it’s the kind of place where people put down roots and stay. Homes here sell for some of the highest prices in the country. When you live in Sandycove, you don’t move. You make the house work.
This house had period character worth preserving – ornate cornices, arched hallways, sash windows, decorative plasterwork – but a ground floor layout that no longer worked for the family living in it.
The brief was twofold. Restore what made the original house special, and add the space and light it lacked.
Restoring the home’s original Victorian features
We started by attending to every detail the Victorians put there. We restored the period features that gave the house its identity, from the intricate plasterwork and cornices through to the sash windows and the striking geometric tiled floor in the hallway. These details anchor the house in its history and give it a quality that new builds rarely achieve.
A contemporary extension that adds the space a period home does not
At the rear, we designed a contemporary extension that opens the ground floor to the garden. Full-height sliding doors and a large skylight flood the new space with natural light, while a sedum green roof keeps the extension low-impact when seen from above.
The contrast between old and new is deliberate. Clean white render and dark-framed glazing sit confidently against the Victorian original rather than trying to imitate it.
Inside, the new kitchen is finished in deep navy cabinetry beneath a generous skylight that draws light down into the heart of the plan.
The open living and dining space connects directly to the garden through the full-width glazing, blurring the line between inside and out.
A full home extension and renovation that doesn’t affect the local aesthetic
From the street, nothing has changed; Edge House looks much as it always has from the pavement.
The Victorian facade, sash windows and period proportions are intact. You could walk past without any idea of the contemporary extension behind it.
That’s deliberate.
The front of the house belongs to Sandycove’s streetscape.
Like many successful period renovations, the transformation happens once you step inside.
Aerial shots of the Victorian house renovation before and after
The result is a home where the Victorian character and the contemporary extension each hold their own.
Neither competes.
They work together to create something that feels both rooted and modern.
