One of south Dublin’s oldest period houses has been given a completely modern look over the past 14 years. Number 47 Montpelier Parade, Monkstown, Co Dublin, one of a terrace of houses built around 1800, has been refurbished in a simple, elegant, very minimal style. It still manages to look like a comfortable family home (the owners have three children) even though every room is painted white.

Strikingly modern furnishings underscore the design. The front hall has a limestone floor, the interconnecting living and dining room have stripped and limed timber floors, the kitchen has stainless steel countertops and a polished concrete screed floor and the huge family bathroom on the first floor has a freestanding white oval bath.

But the fanlight over the front door, working shutters on sash windows, dado rails and some original simple plasterwork in this listed house testify to its Georgian origins – as do two tall arched windows over landings leading to the first and second floors.

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Now the 245sq m (2,637sq ft) three-bed, three-storey over garden level property is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald for €1.5 million.

Clear ideas

The owner had very clear ideas of what she wanted and Belfast architect Aidan McGrath implemented them. The interconnecting dining and living rooms, opening off the limestone-tiled front hall, have marble fireplaces. A few steps at the end of the front hall lead down to the long kitchen/breakfast room: it's bright, with Velux windows and a wide slit window over a countertop and two walls of sliding glazed doors opening from the breakfastroom into the small landscaped back garden.

Stairs lead from the kitchen to the garden level where there’s a utility room, toilet and a long room – “the children’s domain” says the owner – stretching from the front to the back of the house with doors opening into the back garden. There’s also a door to the front of the house. New owners could create a fourth  bedroom at this level.

Oak floor

The very large family bathroom, with its oval bath and double shower, is on the first floor, next to the main bedroom stretching the width of the house overlooking Monkstown Road through three tall sash windows: it has an oak floor and marble fireplace. Bucking modern trends, the owner opted not to install en suite bathrooms with bedrooms.

A double bedroom at the back of the top floor is fitted out as a children’s bedroom; another double bedroom to the front, spanning the width of the top floor, has a dressingroom area behind the bed, separated by a partition.

The mostly decked and very private back garden, landscaped by Paul Meagher, has a raised area with two small circular artificial lawns. There is residents' permit parking to the front. The terrace is separated from the main Monkstown Road by a strip of green space and an inner road.