Same name, different suburbs: Eivlín Roden and Joyce Hickey look at a pair of period properties - one with a traditional feel, the other oh-so-modern

Monkstown/€2.9m: A Victorian terraced five-bedroom house at 6 Belgrave Square in Monkstown, Co Dublin, is set to make over its advised minimum value (AMV) of €2.9 million at auction on May 11th.

The house is in apple-pie order with 304sq m (3,320sq ft) of floor area. The current owners have lived here for over 30 years but the house gives the impression of having just been done up, with a cool neutral palette, attention to period features, a beautiful first floor drawingroom and a glamorous contemporary basement conversion. The hall is paved with marble-like porcelain tiles while two large interconnecting reception rooms to the left have polished boards and period fireplaces. The kitchen on the return has Shaker-style units, recessed lighting and a door to a deck and the garden.

The five bedrooms on different levels are all good doubles with the main one a fine retreat on the first floor. The drawingroom is a very bright room with two windows (one a large bay), ornate plasterwork and an imposing white marble fireplace, and muted wall-to-wall carpet. On the upper returns are two more bedrooms, the family bathroom with original roll top bath and a separate toilet with original stained glass window.

One of the well thought out designs for the house includes lots of storage and nowhere is this more apparent than in the basement. Floors here are white porcelain and warm walnut.

There is a large livingroom/kitchen with pretty cast-iron fireplace and smart kitchen units with white stone worktops, two good bedrooms and two spacious shower rooms, as well as a separate utility room and door to the back garden.

The 45ft x 24ft back garden is a low maintenance space with a patio at the end with a specimen tree and a door to Trafalgar Lane which is a few minutes' walk from the sea at Seapoint. In front, the railed garden is paved with quarry tiles from the lower floor of the house and granite steps to the front door.

Rathmines/€3m: One of the only two villa-style houses on Belgrave Square in Rathmines, Dublin 6, number 49 has an interesting history, having been home to the sculptor Joseph Watkins who died in 1871.

By the time the current owners bought it six years ago, it had been carved up into 11 bedsits. Their lavish yet thoughtful renovation has restored it to a fine home of 270sq m (2,900sq ft). Douglas Newman Good is quoting an advised minimum value (AMV) of €3 million prior to auction on May 11th.

The front garden has off-street parking - very handy as the house is located on the north side of the square, which is the road between Ranelagh and Rathmines villages. Once inside, the hall gives a good indication of the well-proportioned interior. Floored in limestone and with a simple cornice featuring cherubs' faces (revealed when years of paint were removed from blobs of plasterwork), the hall invites viewers up to an informal livingroom in the return; a large dual-aspect drawingroom with a white marble fireplace on the left; a cosy aubergine-painted den overlooking the square on the right and a formal diningroom at the back with an original fireplace. The hall also leads downstairs to the heart of the house, a beautifully understated kitchen with Siematic units and plenty of windows that add to the bright, modern feel. Off this, forming an L, is a sunroom leading out to the formal, square garden with a second patio hidden around the side of the house.

A small toilet and a utility room are off the sunroom, and the space under the front steps is occupied by the guest bathroom. The three bedrooms are also at garden level, with two rooms at one side and a huge main bedroom incorporating an en suite bathroom fitted out in Villeroy and Boch, and a walk-in wardrobe.

There's a feeling of calm luxury throughout the house, with shades of soft aqua and other Farrow & Ball colours, discreet dimmer switches, some underfloor heating and an integrated sound system in many rooms. Electronic gates and a security camera outside, as well as an alarm, provide security.