Take a look inside the three-bedroom Temple Bar party pad on the market for €565k

It may be located in the middle of Dublin’s party scene, but this three-bed apartment at 13 Old City, Saul’s Court in Temple Bar is surprisingly quiet.

Designed by architects O’Dowd O’Herlihy Horan, the fourth-floor home is one of 29 award-winning residential properties on the west end of Temple Bar, which came on the market in 2000.

Hailed at the time as the very best in modern urban living, these were the last of the Temple Bar Properties urban regeneration scheme developments.

While people queued up to buy them in the early days, residents over the years have found themselves plagued by noise from bars and nightclubs.

Luckily, the apartment opens out on to Cow’s Lane, a quiet pedestrianised street. At short remove from Dublin’s main streets and the bar scene, it’s relatively peaceful.

“You don’t hear the noise of the cars, or the people on the street at night. It feels residential,” says owner Elena Sugrue, who bought the property in 2013.

In fact 34-year-old Elena previously lived in a flat above the Temple Bar Pub so she’s fully qualified to make the comparisons. “That was a very different story,” she says. “There was a constant din from the pubs at night. It was always noisy.”

The double-glazed windows at No13 also help to keep the noise out, whilst letting in plenty of light in this dual-aspect property, which has been gutted in an effort to maximise the space.

The work was carried out with the help of Elena’s father, Eoin Sugrue. “He’s fantastic at creating interiors,” says Elena. “He has great ideas for everything and really enjoys it.”

It was Eoin who suggested replacing the existing floors with parquet flooring throughout. He also increased the storage space by building cupboards in the hallway and in the cubby holes of the three spacious double bedrooms.

Double wardrobes were added to two of the bedrooms, with the mirrors giving the illusion of more space.

An en suite bathroom was created in the master bedroom and Elena had the existing bathroom re-tiled in neutral shades of cream and warm beige.

Although born in Kerry, Elena grew up east of Strasbourg and later lived in Nice, as her family relocated because of her father’s work.

Moving home to study business in her 20s at Trinity College, she found she loved the vibrancy and multi-culture of Dublin and decided to settle here.

She now works as a sales manager in a tech company.

It was important to her that the interior of her apartment reflected the lifestyle she’d known in France.

“I wanted to create an area that was spacious and would lend itself to having people over, for cooking and for entertaining,” she says. “In France, open-plan spaces are a common set up. Dinner parties, for example, are a big thing over there.”

There’s a touch of France too in the clean lines and minimalist colour palette of the entire apartment. The kitchen has a monochrome colour scheme. The existing units were replaced with modern white fixtures and the counters are black.

It opens into a minimalist dining space, which has a table and chairs and features little decoration, save for a painting on the wall and some black hanging lights.

This opens into the living space, which although simple in design, benefits from pops of colour in the bright turquoise couches and artwork on the walls.

The neutral colour scheme throughout has allowed Elena to add splashes of colour here and there in the furnishings and with her own art. In fact, she studied art in France before doing business at Trinity College and still enjoys painting.

Elena was single when she bought the apartment but is now married and lives there with her husband, Eduardo Delgado from Venezuela, who works as an account strategist in a tech company.

Having postponed their wedding twice due to Covid, the couple finally tied the knot last September in City Hall, just a two-minute walk away from their home.

They met seven years ago at a salsa class and bonded over their love of dancing. “We often have people over and end up salsa dancing in the living room now,” laughs Elena.

Their salsa activity came to a halt however during the lockdowns of the last two years. But the apartment served them well during those times. Two of the bedrooms were turned into offices so they could both work from home, and the two balconies on different sides of the property allowed a little outdoor living.

While the one off kitchen gets the sun in the morning, the balcony leading from the master bedroom is flooded with light in the late afternoon and evening.

“I was hugely grateful for the balconies during Covid,” says Elena. “I could sit outside beside the lemon tree we have growing there and look out over the city in the evening with a cocktail.”

While the city centre was very quiet at times, it helped that they had friends locally. “There’s a lovely sense of community here,” says Elena.

“I know the staff in Queen of Tarts, which is the coffee shop on Cow’s Lane. I know the people in the Saturday craft market, and many of the neighbours in the building are my friends.”

She will miss them when she moves, but the couple are now planning on starting a family and want to buy a house with a garden on the outskirts of the city.

“If a family wasn’t in the plans for us, I would honestly stay here forever,” says Elena. “I will definitely be sad to leave the apartment. It’s been our first home together.”

Despite her years spent in France, she has no intention of leaving Ireland. “Everyone asks if I miss France, but I love Dublin and I’m really happy to be living here,” she says.