IT’S GOT PERSONALITY
An artist’s love of vintage and colour harmonizes with the newly modernized canvas of her family’s home.
An artist’s love of vintage and colour harmonizes with the newly modernized canvas of her family’s 1920s home.
When interior designer Sheree Stuart joined the design team overhauling the circa 1928 Toronto home of Nancy Macdonald and Don Findlay, architect Bill Dewson had already gutted the dark, chopped-up interiors and was planning an airy, openconcept space with classically modern good looks. So when Nancy extolled the virtues of battered finishes and thrifted furniture, Sheree was thrown for a loop. “Nancy said, ‘I love charming items with a story and nothing shiny. I love tarnished, battered and old details,’” Sheree recalls. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense – patinated surfaces deeply resonated with the artist in Nancy, who runs an art school from the now renovated home.
The overhaul of Nancy Macdonald and Don Findlay’s 1928 detached brick all but gutted the original 2,200-square-foot structure, modernizing and opening up the living spaces and adding 1,000 square feet, but leaving the bones of the pretty Tudor-style facade intact. “The house fits beautifully in the neighborhood, and they didn’t really want to change that,” Sheree says. A wide, welcoming new porch has space for lounging, and updated windows and double front doors boost light inside.
“The curved staircase is a piece of art that we didn’t want to hide with the closet at the entry, so we floated this closet off the ceiling,” Sheree says. Uplighting above the closets plays up the unique architecture, where gallery-white walls are enhanced by wood floors finished in a mid-tone grey. The new front doors were inspired by time Nancy spent living in Paris, but also dovetail nicely with the Tudor facade. A whimsical rug by Kate Thornley-Hall is thematic and references the pink sconce and a vibrant painting by Nancy nearby. The side addition – half a level down – is visible through a glass wall, while a second-floor window was situated to line up with the well for this peek-a-boo view.
“A home should reflect its owners. This home has its own personality – it’s casual, fun and surprising. Elements contradict each other, yet they work.” – Sheree Stuart
Ultimately, the design team turned the interplay of modern design and rusticity into a lynchpin for the relaxed, welcoming home Nancy and Don wanted for their blended family of seven, a changing cast as their young-adult children come and go from university. “Nancy and Don aren’t lovers of pure modern, but loved the contemporary architecture Bill proposed,” Sheree says. They especially liked the idea of a blank modern canvas against which to layer everything else. But Sheree was cognizant that too much vintage can negatively impact a modern space; part of her role was to get the balance right.
The old-meets-new dichotomy starts with the home’s exterior. The quaint Tudor facade in front gives little indication of the broad, angular lines of the rear addition, where wall-to-wall glazing maximizes connectivity between indoors and out, and creates a sense of expansiveness rare in 1920s architecture. Inside, the designer carefully avoided cluttering the modern space. Says Sheree: “It’s that balance and negative space that allows the vintage pieces to shine.”
Likewise, Sheree balanced the palette, which shifts from area to area. Splashier colours reign in the four bedrooms and basement studio, but Sheree took a quieter approach on the main floor. “I knew Nancy loved colour. Her art is brightly coloured, and we wanted to incorporate that,” she says. In addition, they chose a vibrant teal wallpaper to highlight the 40-foot-long wall in the side addition. “It’s visible throughout the main floor – more colour would have been just too much.” Instead, Sheree layered in understated earth tones and evocative textures.