A Victorian detached six-bedroom house at Sydney Parade Avenue, Dublin 4, is expected to fetch over £3 million (€3.8m when it is auctioned jointly by Gunne Residential and Lisney on April 10th. A short walk from Sydney Parade DART station, the double-fronted redbrick, number 6, stands on just under half an acre of west-facing garden. It is owned by international artist Patrick O'Reilly and his wife, who divide their time between Ireland and France.

Number 6 last changed hands in 1994 for around £500,000. The interior has been altered a good deal since then, and there is also a new studio building at the end of the garden, with an extra 1,100 sq ft of space. The main house is around 3,500 sq ft and has a deep return with a self-contained apartment on the upper floor.

This is a house in two parts, with formal and very elegant rooms to the front and a large friendly kitchen, diningroom and sittingroom to the rear overlooking the garden.

The French influence is very evident in the main reception rooms, which lead off the hallway through double openings. An immaculate parquet floor, salvaged from a church in Co Kilkenny, runs right through the space, uniting the hall, drawingroom and diningroom.

The diningroom has a low French marble fireplace and soothing grey-beige walls, while the drawingroom is a sunny room with the same colour scheme enlivened by vivid yellow silk curtains.

A rear hallway leads to a small study and on to the kitchen-cum-diningroom - a big warm sunny room with a terracotta tiled floor and an Aga cooker. French doors open on to a patio where a wisteria clambers up the side of the return. On the other side of the kitchen is a small conservatory leading to a courtyard, outhouses and the garage.

The kitchen leads on through an open archway to a garden room with floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides; step out, and you're in the garden with its wide stretch of lawn. Beautifully tended, the back garden has a wide open feel to it and it's difficult to believe that it's so close to the city, until the DART shoots by.

At the end of the garden and well screened is the single-storey studio built two years ago, which has its own private garden viewed through tall windows. This is bigger than most new houses or apartments and could easily be adapted.

Upstairs, the house neatly divides again into family and guest or staff quarters. The first floor has a large and lavishly appointed main bedroom suite and two other bedrooms. There is a further guest room off a lower landing, along with a family bathroom.

Beside it, a door opens into a self-contained section which can also be accessed from an outdoor staircase. There are two bedrooms here, one used as a sittingroom, and a shower room, all pleasantly decorated and with views of the garden.