Solid period redbricks characterise the houses on Rathgar’s Brighton Road; several slightly different styles and sizes feature on the popular Dublin 6 stretch, as the houses were built in plots by a number of builders. Number 41 – two-storey, bay-windowed – is in a terrace with a west-facing back garden and pedestrian access out to Tower Avenue. Some changes in layout have been made to number 41 by the owners – who are downsizing – but not many to the 242sq m (2,609sq ft) property.

In the Victorian house off the bright, wide hall there are two fine interconnecting reception rooms with high ceilings and period details. Both rooms have their original marble fireplaces. Upstairs there are five bedrooms – four doubles and a single – and the family bathroom; the fifth bedroom is at the top of the house in the return adjacent to a shower room.

A change the owners made was in the hall floor return, where a small extension was added – with a panel of rooflights in its stripped timber ceiling – and now a small family room is open-plan to the kitchen. This opens out to a raised timber patio and down to the rest of the garden.

Buyers will probably have another look at the layout. Five bedrooms for most families is more than enough and, in this type of house and in this price range, new owners tend to sacrifice one of the double bedrooms, usually the one in the top return, to make a larger family bathroom, or the single bedroom to the front to create an ensuite and dressing area for the adjacent main bedroom. The kitchen area, too, will probably be reworked to create a larger dining area or may be extended.

Fashions in interiors come and go and this comfortable-looking house features rich paint colours on the walls, stripped floor boards and dipped pine interior doors, all once very popular.

The house is set back from the road with a railinged mature front garden and parking is on-street.

Number 41 Brighton Road is for sale through Mullery O’Gara seeking €1.35 million.