Houses on Killiney Hill Road in Killiney, Co Dublin, have some of the best sea views in the country – but some capture them better than others. When the owners of Palermo bought their two-storey-over-garden-level house on an acre of rolling lawn overlooking Killiney Bay in 2019, they began a complete renovation, led by architect Karen Brownlee and builder Sean Regan.
Their aim of maximising sea views was achieved by building a balcony that spans the width of the house at the back, leading down via a wide spiral staircase to a terrace with two seating areas below it that open off garden-level rooms. Halfway down the rolling lawn, another terrace with built-in seating captures views of Bray Head and the Sugar Loaf across an expanse of sea glittering in bright May sunshine.
Palermo is one of many Victorian houses in the area named after places in Italy – Padua and Montebello are farther down the road. It was built in 1848 by the Hone family, whose members included the artist Nathaniel Hone and WB Yeats’s biographer Joseph Hone. Joseph lived here until the 1920s, and the letter H is etched into the metal weathervane on the roof of a separate mews house. The late antiques dealer Louis O’Sullivan and his wife, Finola, lived in Palermo for more than 40 years before putting the house up for sale in 2017 with a €4 million asking price. It was bought by the current owners in 2019 for €2.825 million, according to the Property Price Register.
In the past six years they have undertaken substantial renovations on both the house and the mews, resulting in properties that mix period details with modern comforts – lots of storage, underfloor heating in the basement – and vivid contemporary decor. One of the bathrooms, for example, has graffiti-design shower tiles, and the kitchen has a beautiful green waterfall island unit.
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The 595sq m (6,400sq ft) property, including the main house and the mews, is for sale for through agent Vincent Finnegan for €7.25 million. The 429sq m (4,604sq ft) main house has a C2 Ber rating and is for sale by itself for €5.95 million. The A-rated 167sq m (1,796sq ft) three-bedroom mews, currently rented for €6,200 a month, may or may not be sold separately. The tenant will be vacating the mews shortly, the selling agent says.
Why move after doing all that work? The couple came here from London with two children and now want to move closer to their children’s secondary school. They also enjoy home renovation – it’s his fourth or fifth, says one of the owners.
The entrance to Palermo is roughly a third of the way down winding Killiney Hill from the Druid’s Chair pub on the left, with a newly widened and recessed entrance that makes it easier to access. The front door opens at the side of the house into a tiled porch leading into a hall with a new engineered oak parquet floor and original ceiling cornicing. A Waterford Crystal chandelier – one of many in the house – hangs from the ceiling. A stained-glass window at the far end of the hall matches one in the landing above and a cosy study opens to the right, and next to it is a diningroom with striking forest-effect wallpaper, with a bar concealed in one wall. Both have original timber floors.
The main rooms, however, are the drawingroom and kitchen across the hall, both with commanding views of the sea. The large drawingroom has a deep bay window with three tall sash windows. Painted a soft grey/green, the room has a white marble fireplace, chandelier, ceiling cornicing and, most interestingly, partial wallpaper on two walls. The owners think this is hand-painted de Gournay wallpaper, with delicate trees on a yellow background, that may have been in Palermo even before the O’Sullivan family lived there.
A door in the corner of the room opens into the streamlined Rhatigan & Hick kitchen/breakfastroom that barely looks like a kitchen: just about everything is concealed in floor-to-ceiling units with doors that fold back next to a large island. This has a sink, integrated dishwasher and seating, and a green waterfall quartzite top.
Most importantly, two very tall bay sash windows and glazed double doors opening on to the balcony enjoy the same sea views as the drawingroom. A door opens from the kitchen back into the hall, at the very end of which is a downstairs toilet with vivid green jungle-like wallpaper.
A staircase with a striking striped red, grey and orange carpet and a glass balustrade lead to the garden level. The rooms here are timber-floored and have underfloor heating: a large study at one end opens on to the terrace outside, as does the family room – which has a wood-burning stove – at the other end of the hall. There’s a gym room in between that could be another bedroom. A bathroom next to the family room has a shower with jazzy black and green tiles.
There’s a wine cellar through an arch in the old brick coal cellar, and the large utility room has a Belfast sink and lots of storage cupboards.
Upstairs, on the first floor, the main bedroom enjoys the same views as the kitchen and breakfastroom directly below it. A floor-to-ceiling built-in wardrobe curves around one corner of the room, which has a marble fireplace and a stained timber floor. Three tall sash windows with working shutters in a shallow bay are uncurtained (but have fitted blackout blinds): they have probably the best sea views in the house, from Bray Head to Howth. The en suite has a pink-tiled shower and a sink with a marble surround.
There are three other double bedrooms at this level, three with en suites, all with built-in wardrobes. One is fitted as study, another has a ladder leading up to a hidden mezzanine, much loved by their son, says one of the owners. Its en suite has graffiti tiles from Design Emporium. Their daughter’s room is dual-aspect, with one tall window looking out to sea; the timber floor is painted white, and a hammock-style swing hangs from the ceiling.
A toilet off the landing has flamingo wallpaper; a family bathroom on the first floor return has a shower, oval bath and tiled floor.
Outside, two gravelled terraces are sheltered beneath the main balcony: they look down over a rolling lawn with a magnolia tree at its centre near the sunken terrace, all sheltered by high hedges. A trampoline built into the lawn in this very family-friendly house will remain. Paths on both sides of the lawn lead around it; a gate near the bottom opens on to Strathmore Road, from where it’s a reasonably short walk (past Bono’s house) to Killiney beach and Killiney Dart station.
The three/four-bedroom A-rated L-shaped mews is completely private, with high stone walls around a large courtyard. The livingroom is timber-floored, like all the rooms downstairs in this two-storey mews; the kitchen/diningroom has quartz-topped units, a peninsula with seating and double doors opening into the courtyard. A TV room has a wide arched window looking into the courtyard; a yellow spiral staircase leads to a bedroom upstairs. The main bedroom, over the livingroom, has a few steps down into a space with a wide picture window that offers a slice of Palermo’s view of the sea.
There are a number of other outbuildings beside the main house that could be converted by new owners.
