Old, new & touch of France
Kitchen is the heart of revamped Elora home
DOROTHY AMES was walking the Grand when she first spotted the riverside property in Elora. Years later, it went on the market and became the home she’d always wanted.
The grey stone house dating back to 1865 seemed full of potential. For the first five years, it was a weekend retreat for Ames while she added her personal touch. Then, having fallen in love with the house — and with Elora — she moved in permanently in 2001. The house is also the base of operations for her business, Dorothy Ames Design Studio, which was formerly in Toronto.
However, her special project has undoubtedly been her own home. She calls it Heart Song because “it truly makes my heart sing.” The house had been through many renovations under previous owners, so she followed her guiding principle while making changes: to keep the >>
>> best of what is there, its character and feel, while moving a house into the future.
She kept some old doors, the wide pine floor boards upstairs, and the cherry bannisters. Main doorways on the main floor were widened and she restored the deep baseboards and cornice mouldings which had been removed.
Her favourite room, the kitchen, is where she had the most impact. The kitchen had been added on to the side of the house, which meant one wall was still grey stone. As an interior wall, Ames found it cold and uninspiring.
She covered the stone with a special paint, creating a rustic look reminiscent of European country kitchens. “I like to think there’s a touch of France in this kitchen,” she says.
She loves to cook and enjoys entertaining friends and family, wanting them to feel welcome, cared for and appreciated. It’s a feeling, she says, that really should begin at the front door. She makes a point of keeping her hallway uncluttered to suggest generosity of space. “It’s important that the house feel warm and happy.”
Ames’ kitchen is truly hospitable. At 15.5 by 26.5 feet, there is room for mingling at one end of a long island where she sets out appetizers for guests to help themselves. On the side wall, a substantial black McClary Chef Jr wood stove with double ovens and a stovepipe was repurposed as a bar once a sheet of glass was set on top.
A previous owner, who bought the stove from the Guelph Armoury, used it to help warm the house, but Ames is too nervous to try lighting it. Besides, as a bar, it effectively keeps the drink-mixing and cooking areas separate.
A gas cooktop is set into the island. Not wanting a hood suspended over the island,
Ames chose a Thermador range with a selfcontained downdraft unit, which slides up to capture steam and smoke, then retreats into the cooktop at the press of a button, venting the air out through the floor. She lowered the high, sloping ceiling by packing insulation around the top of the exposed wood beams and installing new drywall over it. Spot and track lighting abounds. “These high ceilings just gobble up light,” Ames says. To bring in more natural light, she added a porthole window high on each end wall of the kitchen. The wooden island, 11 feet long and three feet deep, was likely a counter in a country general store in its first life. Ames spotted it lying in a field and immediately bought it from the farmer. Despite its battered appearance, she knew it could take on another life with sanding, new wood trim and several coats of a special crackle-finish paint. A new wood interior was built to house drawers, shelving, the ovens and a microwave within the island. She also designed the wall cabinets and talked an Elora carpenter into making some cupboard doors with inset panels of chicken wire. She likes to be able to look into cabinets, and wanted the informality of mesh rather than glass. As for the hardto-define colour of the island and cabinets, she describes it as a soft, warm yellow with green and ochre influences washed on the painted finish.
Ames “steps” paint colours, making them darker or lighter than the manufacturer’s colour palette. She likes Benjamin Moore products, and painters she works with have come to understand what she means by “mooshing” a colour by mixing in hints of other colours. It begins as an experiment to find just the right tone and results in subtle, interesting blends. The kitchen’s side wall is a good example: “We started with soft yellow and then mixed and mixed, adding ochre, until it felt earthy and quiet.”
The countertops and backsplash are off-white tumbled marble, anchored with wide bands of grout. Floor boards are set on the diagonal to make the room appear wider and more open. When Ames bought the house, the kitchen had a plywood floor, which she painted dark green before eventually replacing it with hardwood.
All the changes mean the kitchen is a room to which guests gravitate — and where they linger. It is also the favourite place for Ames to relax with her morning paper and coffee. If she looks up, it’s to admire the garden, pretty in all seasons, through glass doors opening to the deck. Her views of the Grand River, free-flowing in summer, snow-covered in winter, aren’t bad either!