That distinction alone makes Riverstown House something of a quiet landmark in Irish decorative arts, though from the outside the building gives little hint of the ornamental ambition within.

The house began life in the early eighteenth century and was substantially enlarged and remodelled during the 1730s into the form it holds today. The western entrance front is two storeys and four bays wide, with an off-centre doorway flanked by narrow windows, an arrangement that gives the façade a slightly asymmetrical, unhurried quality. A one-bay, three-storey addition extends the elevation to the north, while the southern elevation is double-gable-ended. The eastern garden front is the more formally composed of the two principal elevations, running to seven bays across two storeys over a basement that is concealed from view at the front, with hipped bow-ended elevations to the north adding further variation. The Francini plasterwork inside, datable to around 1734, represents the brothers at the very beginning of what would become an influential Irish career. To the northwest of the house, an ornamental lake called the Fairy Pond adds a further note of deliberate artifice to the landscaped surroundings.

The house is open to the public, which means the interior plasterwork can actually be seen rather than merely read about, a relatively rare opportunity when it comes to Irish country houses of this period and quality.