HISTORY MEETS HIGH-TECH
Point St-Charles apartment is a place where smart products blend with old brick walls
Guillaume Aubé loves high-tech gadgets, and he talks about them with the passion of a wine connoisseur. He’s an industrial designer who works for Smartika, a twoyear-old Montreal startup that makes “smart” lighting and other sophisticated gizmos for the home that can be controlled via GPS and Wi-Fi, with a remote control or smartphone.
His partner, Mireille Simard, has a background in historical artifacts and works as a designer and project manager for Tenue de Soirée. Her job involves sourcing decorative accoutrements (tablecloths, centrepieces, chair covers and the like), which her company rents out for special events.
The expertise of this couple is evident in the place they call home — a two-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot apartment in Point St-Charles. Their home, on the second floor of a four-plex, is mix of old and new. Old brick walls harmonize with white walls and the track lighting, products from Smartika, casts a glow on the wood from the flooring, the doors, the window frames and the original ceiling beams.
Q: You seem to like a blend of the old and the new?
A: I like straight, clean, simple lines. The Scandinavian look. Mireille likes more decorative elements than I do, but our styles seem to work pretty well together.
Q: How old is the building? 1920s?
A: I think it’s probably older than that, maybe around the turn of the 20th century?
Q: So were you looking for something that had a bit of history?
A: Not really. We’ve actually made a down payment on a brand-new condo in Little Burgundy — not very far from here. We’ve bought it off-plan and it’s supposed to be ready in 2018.
Q: So this is just an interim place? A: Exactly.
Q: I gather you took your time to choose it, though?
A: We looked at about a dozen places over a month or so, and eventually found this one on Kijiji. It had been recently renovated and my office is only a three-minute walk from here.
Q: You said it was bigger than you would have liked?
A: It is. We like to live in small places. The apartment we had before this one was 630 square feet and our new place will be about 710 square feet.
Q: Is there a reason you like smaller places?
A: First of all, we’re very aware than we need to reduce our environmental footprint, but also it’s more of a challenge to optimize a small space than a large one; and of course, it’s also easier to maintain a smaller home. (Aubé walks me around their dining/living room, which is sparsely
but elegantly furnished with a black sectional sofa from Ikea and an entertainment unit featuring an enormous flat-screen TV. Stacked at each end of the unit is a collection of vinyl records and on the opposite side, against the exposed brick wall, is a metal-framed bookshelf.
(Flanking the television are a couple of small, voice-activated speakers. One is a Google Home. The other is an Echo — a small black cylinder inside which “lives” Alexa, Amazon’s virtual personal assistant. Aubé decides to demonstrate how these gadgets work.) “Alexa, switch on the lights!” (Alexa apparently isn’t in the mood to obey because nothing happens at first. Aubé moves a little closer and Alexa wakes up. A ring of blue lights spins around the top of the cylinder, a mechanical voice answers and lo and behold, the lights all come on!
(As we move into the kitchen — it’s open but in a separate room — we pass the dining table, a thick slab of wood supported by two sets of splayed chrome legs.)
Q: That’s an unusual table. Is there a story behind it? A: Several years ago, Mireille got some old furniture from one of her aunts. The legs originally belonged to a couple of those tables with Formica tops that were so popular in the 1950s. You remember those?
Q: I’m afraid so! A: Well, anyway, we got an office desktop from Ikea and installed it on top of the chrome legs.
(We move into the master bedroom and here, too, is an interesting table. It has a rough, uneven surface and sits on top of a black, metal U-frame. A tall, skinny mirror, which reflects the light from a nearby window, is propped up on top of it, against the wall.)
Q : Is your table top made from barn board? A: It’s teak. When we got the table, the top was grey and dulllooking but once we oiled it, the reddish colour came through. Now you can really see the grain. I love it but I think Mireille preferred the way it looked before!