Chantilly House, Ballybride Road, Rathmichael, Dublin 18

Exceptional period home on just under 2 acres offering the perfect marriage of country and city living. Sensitively and tastefully restored. The entire includes the main house, which is a fine four bedroom house, a two bedroom cottage, a one bedroom apartment, swimming pool, two garages and additional ancillary buildings, carefully curated into the original courtyard.

A great sense of wonder awaits at the end of the avenue to Chantilly House. That sense of mystery and anticipation through the electric gates, followed by arrival, when you finally see this amazing period home in full, is one of the more special experiences you can have in a landscape - one that shapes Chantilly's unique character. Nestling into its gardens of just under 2 acres, Chantilly House is a once in a lifetime hidden gem, with an exceptional level of privacy, belying its proximity to local amenities and transport links.

The house is incredibly pretty, with approx 8,500 square feet of properties in total; divided between the main house, cottage, apartment, pool, garages and outbuildings, carefully curated into the original courtyard of Chantilly and surrounded by almost 2 acres of gardens. Box hedges surround the large lawns and flower beds, epitomizing the country garden with gloriously full borders rich in texture and colour, generously planted with a variety of trees, shrubs, thousands of bulbs and a myriad of acer trees in many different varieties, ensuring colour throughout the year in this magnificent garden - and also providing a different view of every part of the garden from each window. A parterre with a sundial is also cleverly hidden from view behind a yew hedge adding to the charm of this glorious garden.

Originally built as a stud farm, Chantilly has been carefully refurbished, enhanced and improved by the current owners, with outstanding attention to detail; with a vision seeming casual yet emphatically chic, that has brought the house wonderfully to life, whilst retaining the original features of the elegantly proportioned Georgian reception rooms, preserving the original window frames, glass, sashes and architraves, reconstructing any damaged details with equivalent care and fidelity.

Working shutters, fireplaces in all the main rooms including the grand reception hallway and bedrooms, while contemporary styling and modern fittings have been added, creating a stylish and spacious space for both living and entertaining.

The result was a thrilling and thoroughly enjoyable collaboration ensuring that the house belongs unmistakably to the present, yet retains a connection to its original Georgian era, with a defined connection to the incredible garden.

The main house is layered with furniture and fabrics, antiques, family photos and books - enabling architecture, furniture and decoration to serendipitously collide - with all of the wonderful elements combining to create an indelible and highly personal sense of place, functional, comfortable and with elegance. Ornate double gates leading from the courtyard to the gardens.

As previously described, the gardens are magnificent, surrounding the house and have been extensively landscaped by the current owners with a gravel avenue from the electric gates leading to a pond with an ornate statue to the front of the house; box hedging surrounding the lawns, landscaped flowerbeds, yew hedging providing shelter and the surprise of the hidden parterre. There are also mature trees, laurel hedging, extensive planting of acers, camellias, rhododendrons, magnolias, herbaceous borders and beech hedging ensuring colour all year round in almost two acres of beautiful gardens and making the great landscape payoff an integral component of the house; with the arrival a kind of unfolding adventure.

There is also a gravel path around the main lawn leading to an unexpected granite walkway between a delightfully full flowerbed to a large gravelled south facing seating area underneath an ancient pink cherry tree. Another walkway behind the children's playhouse with drystone granite walls and low maintenance shaded planting leads back to the side lawn, completing this children's' paradise, with plenty of safe spaces to hide in the garden, to run wild and bounce on the in-ground trampoline - a rarity in today's more usual compact gardens - whilst allowing parents to relax in the sunshine and enjoy the view down the spectacular gardens that complete Chantilly House. The lawn to the side of the house is currently used in the summertime as a croquet lawn but the current owners have looked into adding a Paddle Tennis court to this area subject to necessary planning permission.

LOCATION: Located at the Stonebridge Road end of Ballybride Road, Chantilly House enjoys a rural setting with the convenience of being within minutes of the M50, providing ease of access to the north and south of the country. It is no wonder this is a much sought after location. With a number of excellent primary and secondary schools within the area, including Aravon (Ireland's longest established preparatory school in Ireland), St Gerard's School, Rathmichael Parish and St Annes National Schools.

Shankill is a short drive and provides a number of services and amenities such as shopping, St Columcille's Hospital, Dublin Bus, the DART station as well as the LUAS at Cherrywood. Easy access to the N11/ M50 means that destinations such as Dundrum and Dublin City Centre are within easy reach. Tennis, horse riding and golf clubs are but a few of the sporting amenities provided locally. For those looking for scenic walking routes the Sugar Loaf, Bray Head and the Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk are ever popular.