ROCKCLIFFE PARK REMAKE
Renovation turns into a virtual teardown and rebuild
What does a designer do when she’s give the chance to redesign her own house from the ground up? If she’s Sylvia Grant, she creates an immaculate, classic house with solid good looks.
Grant and her husband, Greg Statler, bought a very rundown mock-Tudor house in Rockcliffe Park nearly five years ago. They thought they were going to give the house a major overhaul, but they ended up doing even more: rebuilding it with the help of architect friend Denis Kane and retaining just one exterior wall at the front of the house.
The attention to detail in everything they have done is obvious. From the five-inch-thick front door with handsome sandstone frame to expansive windows that allow light to pour in to the house, some with sills nearly two feet deep, to the generous use of natural materials such as wood, stone, marble and even brick in the vaulted wine cellar, the house has been renovated to be gentle and easy on the eye, but to give the feeling of solid quality, too. Grant’s choice of finishes and decorating style is classical and cleanlined.
Statler has been overseeing and working with the team on the house since the beginning. He designed and engineered the vaulted, brick wine cellar, even casting in concrete some pieces he needed for the project. He crafted the three-inch-thick cellar doors from old stair treads in the original house and then found a pair of decorative antique iron gates on eBay, salvaged from a bank in North Dakota.
When they bought the house, it was four storeys (including the low-ceilinged basement) with lots of wasted space in the attic. Their first concern was to use the space more efficiently, so they reduced the house to three storeys, digging a deeper basement to accommodate a living area, exercise room, the cellar and an underground garage. Then they created two floors above with high ceilings and a great feeling of volume, plus a small attic space for storage and children’s sleepovers. They chose an open plan in the kitchen-living room, which leads directly to the dining room, a central plan stairwell, four bedrooms, and three ensuite bathrooms.
An antique white marble fireplace was removed piece-by-piece, numbered and sent away for cleaning. Now, it graces the elegant living room, which also boasts extra tall painted wood baseboards (common through the whole house) and deep decorative plaster crown moulding. In the dining room, Statler installed a coffered ceiling and a giant window that looks out into the screened porch, which itself boasts a working fireplace and salvaged flagstone terrace.
In the kitchen, Grant, who worked with designer Michael Courdin for many years, chose a classic cream-and-white colour scheme with a nearly 10-foot central island painted a deep grey/black. Sofas surround a golden Kingston sandstone-clad fireplace, traditionally mortared with pigs’ hair mixed in, giving the wall a slightly spiky feeling when you run your hand over it. It’s a unique and telling detail.
Off to one side, an eight-and-a-half-foot-long cherry wood desk offers the perfect spot for a home office or for children’s homework. It, like the rest of the house, is clear of clutter. Grant and Statler have a young daughter, “but visitors don’t need to see all her toys,” she says. So she ensured that there’s lots of built-in storage all over the house.
On the first floor, bathrooms are all decorated in the same palette of grey-and-white marble, white fixtures and white cabinets “There’s continuity here,” says Grant, “and I picked the old Ritz look. I think it’s important to pick something good and classic that feels fresh and clean.”
The house is wired for sound on the ground floor and ready for gas fireplace inserts in the basement and master bedroom, “but we thought it important to leave something for the next owners to do,” says Grant, who is now selling the house because it’s just too large for three people. “They might want to install a fireplace that is completely different from my choice.”
“This house is very much Greg’s vision,” says Grant. “I was responsible for the kitchen and bathroom designs and for all of the finishes and paint colours,” she explains. “But our budget was limited. So because I’m in the business, I know where to find things at reasonable prices.” Nonetheless, the couple has created a home that is at once elegant and comfortable, no small feat for a house that was crying out for love.