Castle Kildare

A triumph of European architecture, this award-winning home draws its inspiration from the Emerald Isle. Architect Lee Rumora designed the home to fit in perfectly at the Ballantrae development — an Edwards Land Company community modeled after the beautiful Irish countryside.

The warm and welcoming courtyard entry adds instant curb appeal. Finished in shadow stone, limestone, oversized brick, and stucco, the front elevation is a sight to behold. Five window boxes filled with geraniums welcome guests up a tumbled brick paved driveway that bisects the entry. The drive stretches past a two-and-a-half car garage on the right and a single-car master garage on the left. Copper covers the arched dormers over the two-and-a half car garage, which leads into an adjacent locker/laundry/mud room area in one spot and directly into the kitchen in another. The master garage offers easy access to the study and master suite.

The front door and every cabinet throughout the interior is custom-built with knotty alder — a popular wood in Ireland where it was once used to make shields for battle.

The kitchen, as the heart of the home, contains several arteries of traffic flow. These include access to the formal dining room, great room, casual dining, pub room, side yard, porch, laundry room, and garage. All of this lies at the opposite end of the home’s first floor master suite. Two separate stairways climb up to the second floor where three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a bonus room await.

Our European architectural theme carries throughout the interior of the home as well. The great room boasts custom-made, open truss ceiling beams above an entertainment center and a fireplace situated opposite each other on non-competing sides of the space. Our team milled the mantle and legs of the recessed fireplace out of wormy chestnut that dates back to 1925.

We also crafted custom ceiling beams for the master bedroom and pub room. In the kitchen, a barrel vault ceiling arches above to frame a grotto-style commercial range at one end and a brick-arched pub room entry at the other end.

As a final nod to the Ballantrae development’s Irish theme, the pub room deviates from the black walnut flooring that covers the rest of the home in favor of reclaimed barn wood. Rough-sawn oak for the casing and baseboard further frame a rustic aesthetic. The simple-yet-effective touch of rounded corner bead for the drywall proved to reinforce the look of old Irish plaster, lending this special home the appropriate dash of countryside character.