Timeless elegance
1930s stone house in Quebec made use of bygone eras to create its unique look
Unlike the bold black and white decor, there’s no clear distinction between old and new in this 1930s stone house that’s been reborn for 21st-century use. And that’s just what the owners intended.
“We wanted it to be very classical, timeless,” says Daniel Guenette, a retired businessman in Quebec. “You can’t put a time on it.”
He and wife Claude Mainville-Guenette wanted to keep the “spirit of the house” when they renovated it and doubled the 4,500-square-footage with vertical and horizontal additions.
The result was a large family home that’s both elegant and comfortable, blending features of the original house with materials, built-ins and furnishings from current and past eras.
The two-year project, completed in 2010, followed six months of weekends spent in the house in SainteAdèle, 45 minutes from Montreal. The couple, who had been “entranced” by the property when they first saw it, wanted time to think about the space without rushing the rebuild.
“We measured, we walked, we did a huge number of sketches and we compromised,” Guenette says of the visions he and his wife had for the residence. “It’s a love story.”
It was also a labour of love, adds real estate broker Joseph Montanaro of Sotheby’s International Realty Quebec, noting that every detail was carefully considered to blend into a coherent whole.
Guenette credits his wife for filling the role of architect and interior designer behind the European-style home suited for family visits and entertaining.
Two kitchens were added, one to allow prepping and catering for large parties and the other in a separate wing for guests to use.
While the black and white decorating scheme that’s repeated throughout was Mainville-Guenette’s idea, the couple collaborated on purchases of antiques and materials at auctions and elsewhere, her husband says.
For example, floor-to-ceiling cabinets that came from a century-old general store now hold kitchen utensils in shallow drawers that were once used to stock women’s gloves.
On one occasion, they bought “half a church” for first pick of its wood and incorporated columns, railings and other trim in the renovation and expansion.
Much of the original structure was gutted, but the couple kept and restored the best features such as stonework and hardwood plank flooring.
Other elements from the 1930s, like doors and bedroom design, were re- produced in the new sections of the house.
Set on 32 hectares of woodland and boasting its own waterfall, the prop- erty offers panoramic views of the Laurentians. It was Guenette’s visceral response to the setting that helped sell him on the place.
“I walked around and I was in shock, struck by lightning,” he recalls of his first visit. “Just listening to the falls was enough to be entranced.”