Monkstown: €3.1m: An 18th century five-bed in south county Dublin has been rebuilt as a bright and arresting modern home. Rose Doyle reports

Seapoint House, built originally for Dame Elizabeth Osborne in the mid-18th century, sits sideways on Seapoint Avenue, Monkstown, Co Dublin.

It is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald which is guiding €3.1 million before auction on June 30th.

Semi-detached, it has high granite walls to the front and back and a swathe of sandy gravelled driveway. On the outside, which has been preserved orreinstated (the windows), it looks very much as it must have in the 1800s.

Inside it's a different story. Two storeys in fact, both of them completely redesigned and rebuilt using American white oak, Portuguese limestone, polished steel, modern aluminium and, everywhere, glass - curved walls of it, ceilings, mirrors, and of course windows.

The walls have been painted the colour of pouring cream and architectural and design features arrest the eye wherever you look. The mood is mellow, with an edge.

A good-sized 345sq m (3,710sq ft), Seapoint House has five bedrooms (one en suite), three reception rooms, kitchen/breakfastroom and an entrance hall which is effectively another soaring and rather grand reception room.

This hall sets the tone with design features which follow throughout the house.

Standing inside the imposing front door on the Portuguese limestone floor you are faced with a glass wall reaching from the floor to the second level ceiling which frames the rear sandstone-flagged patio.

A floating staircase in American white oak with steel finish climbs alongside and a low fireplace fits snugly into the wall.

The living spaces are intimate by comparison and there's a sense of repose in the living, dining and family rooms after the hallway's grandeur. All three have granite-surround fireplaces and American white oak floors.

The German designed Bulthaup kitchen has polished steel fittings and a centre island with integrated rubbish bins and microwave oven. The Portuguese limestone floors here and elsewhere are heated from underneath.

A floor-to-ceiling curved glass window extends the breakfast area into the patio, at the other end of which there is an office/gym with shower room.

The bedrooms are bright, quiet and comfortable. The main one is in a separate suite with a dressingroom, en suite bathroom and, extending from the bedroom, a balcony curving out and over the curved glass wall below.