Portobello: €650,000 A series of linked indoor and outdoor spaces has greatly enhanced a traditional city home, writes Emma Cullinan.

Number 8 St Kevin's Road, Portobello, Dublin 8 offers a prime example of how to make the most of available space, a crucial skill in Ireland today.

The three-bedroom house, which is being auctioned through Douglas Newman Good on May 26th with a guide of €650,000, was a traditional two-up, two-down when the two architect owners bought it 11 years ago.

They knocked off a shoddy back extension and replaced the rear south-facing wall with a huge glass wall framed in Scandinavian timber, linking the open-plan downstairs living/kitchen and diningroom to the small, beautifully formed garden.

Such linking of indoor and outdoor spaces has become popular now, but this house was one of the first in Ireland and bears the assured touch of designers who have thought the space through, rather than combining a checklist of fashionable elements.

Their work as architects, and observations when working abroad, helped to guide their optimisation of this terraced Victorian house.

A year spent in Japan brought a knack for making the most of small spaces and has influenced the neatly planted garden, with its meticulously placed herbs and strawberries set in raised beds, and wisteria, honeysuckle and jasmine lining the walls.

The garden walls are in terracotta, a reminder of Italy where they spent time working for architect Renzo Piano, and there's a clever smaller wall, standing just in from the rear wall, where all garden paraphernalia, and bins, can be hidden from view.

Despite being open-plan the downstairs area, with its light timber flooring, does divide spaces carefully, with the kitchen set out of view of the living part, despite the spaces being connected.

A small pantry to the rear takes storage pressure off the kitchen and houses cleaning equipment, a tall fridge and washing machine. The kitchen units are in black timber topped by a wipeable black slate worktop.

The dining area is made more generous by the link with the garden which backs onto single storey houses and then the canal, enabling ample light to come in from the south. Because of the way this area is designed, say the owners, you can enjoy the garden even if it's too cold to go out in it.

Upstairs the landing is relatively large, a seemingly indulgent use of space until you realise that it's used as a play area for children who have access to it through double doors into the second bedroom.

The third, small bedroom, to the front of the house, also opens onto this area. Double doors into the bathroom at the other end of the landing open out onto this space too, which is brightened by a south-facing roof light.

The bathroom has a black slate floor and the basin and wc are set into a storage cabinet. There is stacks of built-in, unobtrusive storage through the house: this includes wardrobes in the main bedroom set into the alcoves, and shelving around the bed-head.

This room, which is not overlooked, has a large original window overlooking the garden.

The house is in a pleasing situation, with an old granite church to the north and those low-level properties to the south.

This adds to the special interior, whose allure has not been lost on advertisers: along with appearances in a multitude of magazines, this house has featured in a Lifestyle Sports and Bank of Ireland ad - so perhaps this home could be a bit of an earner for its new owners.