COMFORT AND COOL DESIGN
Couple bring their touch to condo
Monique St-Jean is a booking agent for musician Enzo De Rosa and his wife, soprano Isabelle Metwalli.
St-Jean’s husband, Daniel Gackowski, is also an artistic type. A retired civil engineer, he is an amateur painter (his canvases hang throughout their home) and he has also designed one of the sideboards at their condo in Laval.
St-Jean and Gackowski, who are in their mid-60s, have lived in Laval for almost four decades but earlier this year they decided it was time to make a change. They didn’t want to move away — they both love Laval — but they did want to be a little closer to Montreal. To that end, in June of this year, they found a condo in a new highrise at the southern edge of Laval, under the Viau Bridge, which spans Rivière des Prairies.
Their new abode, which is on the third floor, has two bedrooms, an open living/dining room and kitchen and a walk-in pantry, which also functions as a wine “cellar.” The smaller of the two bedrooms is St-Jean’s home office, but can accommodate guests with a pull-down bed that is an integral part of a built-in storage unit. The condo has a wraparound, glass balcony with a partial view of the river.
Q Did it take you long to find your new place? A Well, we did look for quite a while. I think we visited about 20 different condos.
Q Just in Laval? A All over the place. We finally found this one through an advertisement in a newspaper. This building is brand new. In fact, it’s not quite finished. As you probably noticed when you came in, the contractor still has to install carpeting in the corridors and there’s some construction going on in the penthouses.
Q It sounds as if you were you among the first residents? A We were. We’ve been here for five months but people are still moving in.
Q Given that you were buying a brand-new home did you also buy brand-new furniture to go with it? A We emptied out our previous house and got rid of probably 75 per cent of the stuff that we had. I’ve kept some of the things, of course, but you can’t always mix the old and the new. It depends on the styles, because they don’t always go together.
(St-Jean points out the furniture she kept — a turquoise, Frenchsalon style chair with a pale-grey wood frame, which stands beside a bow-fronted chest of drawers in the hallway, a patterned, Orientalstyle rug, and another bow-fronted, antique-style chest of drawers with brass drop handles. This one serves as a stand for the couple’s large, flat-screened television.)
Q I love your white leather couches and the red, accent armchair. I presume those are among the new pieces? A The red chair came from Mobilia and the couches from JC Perreault. Believe it or not, the couches arrived only the other day. It took 12 weeks from the time we ordered them to the time they were delivered — perhaps because they came from Italy.
Q You obviously like clean, modern designs. Is your kitchen also from an Italian company and was it custom built? A It is indeed an Italian design, but it wasn’t custom built. Because we bought the condo from a plan, we were able to choose from a number of styles for four things — the ceramic tiles, the flooring, the colours and the countertops (they’re quartz). We liked this model for the kitchen but we did pay extra for the storage unit and the glass shelves opposite the kitchen island. That was a small alcove and it was just wasted space.
Q When you were deciding where to put everything, did you look at design magazines or websites for inspiration? A It was really a combination. I certainly did some research but I also incorporated some of my own ideas and Daniel’s suggestions. My goal was to make the interior feel roomy and uncluttered and I think we’ve achieved that.
Q So all in all, you’re happy with your move? A Absolutely. There are four nearby parks where we can walk or cycle and we’re only three minutes’ walk from a métro station. Most people don’t realize that Laval is very spread out, but in this area, we’re so close to Montreal. I no longer take the car to go downtown. From the Cartier station, it takes about 20-25 minutes on the métro. We’re very pleased we decided to move.