HomeDesign

Both my wife and I love giving old homes a new lease on life ( and us a new mortgage!) After restoring a downtown three-storey Workman's Victorian back to its old gracefulness we decided we were old enough (!) for a bungalow. Marie found a 1960s throw away in a superb location which needed more than tender loving care. Though we ripped out walls and floors and ceilings and roofs from one end of the house to the other our pride and joy are the great room & kitchen.

The great room once had a wall to wall angelstone fireplace. I got to rip it out - right down to the building blocks. (Yay!!!) Marie got to rip out the low seven foot ceiling in the kitchen eat-in area and family room giving it a vaulted rise to a height of fourteen feet. I designed the new Provençale fireplace as well as the long art-deco sofa table which backs one lengthy side of our corner couch. Marie designed the sophisticated cottage feel of the new ceiling in the kitchen - using tongue and groove pine boards.

Designing furniture and other things. . . demands a naïve craziness which allows you to do things you've never done before - simply because you don't know it can't be done - and by the time you discover it can't be done, it's too late. . . the cost over-runs are so high, you can't afford to give up! Ha!

Before

This was the fireplace in our great room. It hadn't changed its look since the nineteen sixties and still retained its "faux" wood paneling and angel stone hearth. The fireplace overpowered the great room's vaulted red cedar ceiling - which seemed to disappear despite its grandeur.

So,

it went from the look above to this. . .

Then this. . . .

(side book cases and stereo cabinets were added later)

After

The rich red vaulted ceiling is now the highlight of the great room. It crowns the fireplace with its book shelves over closed cabinets (housing a stereo system, a tv and dvd player) on either side of the hearth

Sofa Table

The sofa table backing the length of the corner couch is eight feet long and eleven inches wide. It has a frosted glass top with a bevelled edge. It sits atop three brass art-deco vases supported on three figures each. These stand on a circular disk of black marble. The vases were purchased "on sale" at a local shop. the marble bases were inserted into precut holes in the long wooden base which was cut to spec and has been lacquered in ebony.

Kitchen Ceiling

The vaulted ceiling from the great room ends in the kitchen area where it houses two large skylights which brighten the area extensively.

But. . . the add-on eat-in area had a flat seven foot high (!) ceiling which was claustrophobic at the best of times. Marie chose to rid herself of this bad design flaw by adventuring beyond it. . . She had the contractor rip out the low ceiling (no matter what lay hidden in the vaulted attic).

Kitchen Views

With the low ceiling removed, the eat-in area immediately became bright and airy. (Great eye that Marie!) Though the hidden beams were not (as hoped) red cedar, Marie's goal to give prominence and airyness to the kitchen was immediately obvious. The ceiling now houses one of the two large skylights in the kitchen. The tongue and groove boards are painted a washed grey allowing the pine's knots to show through. A faux beam joins the real thing in the great room, giving this new vault a connected feel to the rest of the common areas. The step-down family room (connected to the eat-in area) was once separated by a wall. This has been removed giving the kitchen a vast roominess which was never considered possible before.

I can't believe the kitchen once looked like this- (left).

Yes, the cupboards were orange. . . (Note: the low ceiling over the eat-in area has already been removed.)