A San Diego gal saw to it that this farmhouse reflected her coastal American roots
Asking price: €895,000
Agent: Sherry FitzGerald Catherine O’Reilly (040) 466466
It’s more Orange County than Garden County. Even a cursory glance would suggest John and Tayloe Kelly have set out to recreate a little bit of the latter’s native California in a 200- year-old traditional cottage in ‘sunny’ east Wicklow.
With light, airy rooms that mix chunky timber furnishings with slinky 20th century versions, their home Two Mile Water just outside Wicklow Town has certainly been given the ‘full Cali’.
“It is pretty much all down to Tayloe,” says husband John of the ‘beach house’ look the Kellys are about to give up. “I would say I am responsible for about 10pc of it.”
“I’m from San Diego,” Tayloe says. “So I think that beach culture is in my blood, and part of what we really liked about this spot was that we are only a stone’s throw from the beach.
The exterior of the house
“So there were a lot of elements that I wanted to bring in, that had that kind of ‘feel’. It’s not just like that kind of tranquil cottage. I tried to make it fun and playful, that there might be surfing and water fights and that kind of vibe. That’s me.”
There’ s an outdoor dining area beside the front door, with colourful furniture, a light festoon and an adjacent pizza oven, announcing the Kelly’s love for the laid-back outdoor life.
One of the sitting rooms with stairs to the two attic rooms
“Because my family is from America, it was really important to have space to be able to host them, especially when the weather is nice,” says Tayloe. “To be able to have people outside and cook pizzas.
“So you can have, you know, 20 kids over and you don’t have to worry that anybody’s going to wander into a road or just wander off.
“So it becomes kind of this little compound that houses everybody and especially when the kids were young.”
John and Tayloe with sons Milo and Leo. Photo: Bryan Meade
Having met in Temple Bar 15 years ago when Tayloe was backpacking, the couple lived in a number of locations in the States, but wanted to settle somewhere a bit more permanent and conducive to raising their children Leo (8) and Milo (6). Ireland seemed to make sense.
“Once we had kids, we kind of just had that ‘pull’ to be closer to family and because the States is so big, everybody is spread out there,” says Tayloe.
A sitting room with wood-burning stove
“My parents had retired to Las Vegas and we knew we didn’t want to be there. We would come over to Ireland down to Wicklow and visit John’s brother and his five kids, so we just kind of knew it was a spot that we really liked.”
John adds: “When we came across this house and went through the gates, we kind of immediately fell in love with the place.”
They walked into a renovated and extended cottage that had once been home to the local milkman a few kilometres south of Wicklow town.
One of the attic rooms
“To give the previous owners credit, they did an amazing job,” says Tayloe. “And I think that they did a huge part of the renovations around about 2006.
“So they created the bones for this place and they’ve really put a lot of love into it. And I think when we moved in, we could see all of the potential.”
Tayloe’s look has been achieved through the careful selection of paint colours and minimal but carefully curated pieces of 20th century furniture, which serve to complement the building’s more traditional components, such as timber ceilings.
The Cali-style continues into the sitting room from the kitchen
In the kitchen/dining area, for example, the timber ceiling is vaulted, with hanging lights exaggerating the sense of space, while a chunky timber dining table with a mix of chairs ignite the casual Cali-style look.
At the other end of the kitchen is a traditional Aga cooker, which Tayloe has seamlessly integrated into the overall look, thanks largely to a slick of slate grey paint to pick out the chimney.
A kitchen island with a distressed rustic base and a very modern top helps complete the look of a cooking area that refuses to rely on standard cupboard-type storage, which is kept to a minimum to preserve the sense of space.
The family bathroom
The main living room is sparsely decorated with more 20th century pieces, a distressed rug and a wood-burning stove as a centrepiece, making a feature of the fuel-storage to the side. Beyond this is another, more casual, living room.
There are three bedrooms on the ground floor. The main bedroom has glass doors opening out to a raised deck area overlooking the garden.
This has an en suite bathroom and dressing room. Upstairs are two attic rooms, currently used for study space/ storage.
The outbuildings house the sauna, gym and weights room
The Kellys’ favourite space in their home is not even in the main building though. Having moved in precisely one day before the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, the property quickly became the centre of their entire lives.
Being intensively active people, the couple converted the substantial outbuilding into a gym and recreation centre for the whole family, where John teaches the kids jujitsu and there is a climbing wall and gymnastic rings, as well as a separate weights room and sauna.
The climbing wall and gymnastic rings
“It’s like it was this almost magical space that we could just kind of create to house the things we are most passionate about,” says Tayloe. In addition to this space, there is also a Shomera in the garden, which currently serves as John’s office space.
The Kellys are regular visitors to Magheramore beach and other coastal spots. “The beaches are really something and I will miss them,” says Tayloe. “Even in the winter.”
The sauna
Future visits to the beach might prove more of an odyssey for the Kellys, whose next move is to Madrid. “We just decided to go there, as a bit of an adventure and change of scenery,” says John.
“We really want the kids to learn another language and to become more independent.
The kitchen with island unit
“It’s a lot of uncertainty, but there’s a lot of excitement around it as well because these are the things that we really value.
“That and the fact we’re a bit of a football or soccer-mad family and being in Madrid will align with that.”
Sherry FitzGerald Catherine O’Reilly is guiding €895,000 for Two Mile Water.