CHRISTMAS HOUSE TOUR

A Heritage Perth & District treat

Think of it as a home that’s welcoming Christmas by celebrating the global and the beautiful in a world that feels increasingly isolationist and coarse.

Resplendent with furniture and artifacts primarily from Africa and Asia, the heritage home on Beckwith Street East is part of the 11th annual Heritage Perth & District Christmas House Tour Dec. 3 and 4. In all, eight homes are throwing open their doors to the public as a local fundraiser.

Owners Connie Strang and Norman Macdonnell have lovingly updated their 1880s Beckwith Street home beside the Tay River and filled it with treasures from their years living and travelling abroad.

When you visit — two urns at the front door filled with pine, spruce, juniper and Ilex usher you inside — pay special heed in the dining room to the masks from Mali and elsewhere, along with the statues of rice gods from the Philippines. Together, they lend both gravity and a whimsical touch to the room, which is painted in shades of dramatic orange and cayenne. The dining-room table, with its place settings of English china (a wedding gift), boasts a centrepiece of richly coloured Murano glass from Italy, along with seasonal decor.

Keep your eyes open, as well, for the Santa Clauses who help carry the yuletide theme through the home. The little fellows are from the Philippines.

“There’s a jovial sturdiness about them that I love,” says Strang.

She also relishes how the Santas embody the character of the country. Filipinos, she says, “love Christmas (and) go over-the-top. They’re the most generous people.”

One of those Santas holds down an honoured spot in the kitchen, where the couple has had custom cherry, Shaker-style cabinetry installed. The kitchen table, topped with a seasonal display of berries and pine boughs, has a massive wooden base that was once the top of a column gracing a home in India.

The living room (its view of the Tay helped sell the couple on the house a decade ago) is decked out for Christmas with a profusion of cedar and pine on the mantel above the stone fireplace. Like the greenery in the urns at the front door and elsewhere, the boughs are all locally gathered and arranged by Sylvia van Oort of Sylvia’s Plant Place in Perth.

The room brims with tantalizing art, artifacts and furniture, including an antique chest from Madura in Indonesia and statues of a wedding couple that Macdonnell’s parents brought back from Java in the 1960s.

On the wall opposite the fireplace nestles a nativity scene. Carved from ebony by members of the Makonde people in Tanzania, the figures are at once elegant, exotic (at least to Canadian eyes) and exquisitely human.

There’s much more in the home to savour including, upstairs, the original wide-plank pine flooring, an ornate Chinese-style bed and puppets from Indonesia. When you visit, be sure to ask about the delicate wall stencils spread over two floors.

This Beckwith Street home in Perth contains masks and statues from around the world — including jovial Santas from the Philippines.

A board-and-batten exterior yields to a contemporary, minimalist interior with eclectic decor and art thanks to the vision of the owner, a local artist.

Chic heritage: Built in the early 1800s, this stone farmstead retains traditional elements such as its heritage fireplace, but it also surprises with contemporary flair. It boasts reclaimed wood flooring and sports a chic, new kitchen.

Traditionally modern: Perched atop a knoll at the end of a maple-lined lane, this reproduction, red-brick farmhouse was built just 24 years ago. Inside, bright and airy are the order of the day.

Grand and cosy: Built in 1837, Haggart House blends the grandeur and formality of bold architectural detail and soaring ceilings with snug hideaways for quiet family moments and imaginative decor.

A time machine: This brick Victorian home hearkens back to times past, including a dining room set for a lavish high tea and a living room that nods to old-fashioned festive seasons.

School’s out: What began life as an early 19th-century, tworoom schoolhouse is now an industrial-modern living space with a connection to gardens and rural vistas through large windows.

Looking back: A huge hearth, ample charm and country setting characterize the early 1800s stone home known as Haddon Hall Farm. It’s been restored and updated by its owners.