Rooms to roam in heart of Dublin 4

Buyers looking for a substantial family home will not pay too much attention to the layout of 33 Northumberland Road as that is one of the first things they will reconsider.

Unless it’s a buyer with an eye to turning this house into a boutique hotel they are not going to want seven bedrooms. They will focus instead on its location in Ballsbridge at the city end of Northumberland Road, the generous proportions of the Victorian house and the potential that comes with 324sq m (3,490sq ft) of space.

The current owners have lived here for less than 20 years. Before that the house appears to have been a guest house which probably accounts for it having seven bedrooms and some other quirky layout features.

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At hall level, on the right, there are two fine interconnecting reception rooms. The house has been stripped of furniture except for these two rooms which have been staged for the sale with smart new furniture to allow viewers to get a better idea of what they could look like.

The layout of the rooms on the left have been changed, with two rooms having being knocked through. Now the front reception room, originally the Victorian parlour room, has an arched opening and a couple of steps into a large kitchen at the rear.

Off these is the sunroom that runs the depth of the house; there is also a small outdoor terrace with access down to the rear garden via a spiral staircase.

The original bedroom-to-reception-room ratio in Victorian houses often seems peculiar now. This vast house has just two bedrooms upstairs, one that runs the width of the front, the other at the rear. There is also a dated bathroom on this level. A smaller bedroom is on the first floor return.

There are three more bedrooms at garden level as well as a shower room. Two more large rooms here look perfect for conversion into a roomy, family-friendly, eat-in kitchen.

Previous owners built a two-storey, flat-roofed extension at the rear to house two bedrooms with en suites. While it did provide useful space, it is ugly and will likely be reconsidered, especially as changing it will improve access to the lovely west-facing garden. It has a greenhouse and an outhouse and is bordered by attractive old granite walls.

The sunroom at the side is built over a garage, which is an usual feature in any house in this part of Ballsbridge.

There is off-street parking to the front where the garden has been covered over with gravel and cobblelock.

Number 33 Northumberland Road is for sale through Knight Frank for €1.75 million.