Answer: hire celebrity designers Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Diarmuid Gavin to design a jaw-droppingly gorgeous showhouse and series of gardens that are high on style and space clever.

Offer houses, not apartments.

And throw in a host of impressive 'standard features' as part of the purchase price, such as a choice of four custom-designed kitchens, a choice of six paint colours, satin chrome light switches, contemporary white sanitaryware in bathrooms, white oak hardwood internal doors, custom-designed wardrobes in all bedrooms, and preinstalled wiring infrastructure for digital services. That's exactly what forward-thinking developers Stanley Holdings has done.

Belmayne, located just off the Malahide Road in Dublin 13, near the new four-star Hilton Hotel and Clarehall Shopping Centre, is set to become Dublin's newest neighbourhood, housing up to 2,650 houses and apartments as well as a town square with a wide range of retail and leisure facilities, post office, cafes and restaurants, a health centre, doctors surgery, creches, parks and even a school.

The developers are offering buyers the chance to invest in a scheme that's that little bit special, and they've pulled out all the stops in getting the look just right. A move that will surely have other developers out with notebooks and pens looking for new ideas to steal. And they won't be the only ones. Visitors to the launch of the first phase of 100 homes on sale today are set to be seriously bowled over by what's on offer, including the star attraction . . . the four-bed showhouse.

"What I've created is a rockand-roll showhouse, " says interior designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. "This isn't about bland, seamless living.

The idea of beige-ifying everything, the way traditional showhomes often do, is just awful. This is about texture.

It's about sensual experiences.

It's about eclectic stimulation.

It's about breaking the design rules. I don't want visitors to come here and feel they're being patronised. I want them to walk away with at least five or six things that they want to do at home, " adds Bowen.

His design lives up to every expectation you have of Bowen . . . something a bit wacky, a bit weird and definitely not understated. In fact, so un-showhouse and different is the design that visitors coming here will instantly be aware that it is possible to create a sense of individuality in a development where from the outside everything is perfect and the same. A key selling point surely?

Bowen has treated each room as an individual space with its own look. This entrance hall (so wide that your outstretched arms wouldn't even touch the walls) is papered in his own Georgian print paper. The living room is an inviting space painted in calming green with walls adorned in striking stencil designs. The kitchen features a flaming red feature wall and sexy high gloss black units.

Upstairs, bedrooms are just as impressive and with loads of ideas to steal and adapt at home, such as the positioning of beds on raised platforms, wall-panelling created with some clever paintwork, rugs sunk into the flooring and an ingenious walk-in wardrobe in the master bedroom.

The garden of the showhouse demands just as must attention as the interior and Diarmuid Gavin has created a fantasy space with three giant, interlocking metal balls. "It's fun, flamboyant and not at all practical, " says Gavin, who has also created three other gardens on the site. "The new reality is that we now have smaller gardens but that doesn't mean we can't do anything with them. With these gardens I want people to see that you can create a garden that's different, that's instant and that makes the best use of the space possible in an exciting way."

To help buyers get started Gavin has put together a handbook of budget-conscious advice and ideas on design and planting.

This is family-run Stanley Holdings' flagship project, and they're certainly off to an impressive start. For Joseph Stanley Senior, a former partner in the highly regarded Shannon Homes Group, Belmayne is the culmination of his entire career.

"What distinguishes this development from other schemes is that we're offering new houses, which has become something of a rarity to see just five miles from the city centre, " said a spokesman from Stanley.

The scheme, designed by award-winning architects McCrossan O'Rourke Manning, features houses built around wide golden coloured tarmac streets with landscaped areas. It's urban with a suburban feel.

On offer is a wide choice of house types through selling agents Hooke & MacDonald with 12 different plan types ranging from 97sq m to 188sq m (1,045sq ft to 2,020sq ft) with a choice of two, three and four-bed houses, all with private gardens and patios.

As well as the four-bed showhouse on view today, visitors will also get a chance to look at three other showhouses each designed by a different interior designer, and all equally impressive.

Price: terraced three-beds from 420,000 and double fronted four-beds from 525,000 Viewing from 12pm-5pm Agent: Hooke and MacDonald 01-631 8402