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UPDATING A CLASSIC Renovated Golden Square Mile apartment lives up to its heritage By PHILLIPA RISPIN • Photography: DAVID GIRAL
Design Montreal Trends 2014
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Old buildings have character: high ceilings, generously proportioned rooms, and details such as molding that one seldom encounters nowadays. Old buildings also have problems: outdated electrical systems, dysfunctional plumbing, suspect infrastructure. Witness this apartment in an elegant mid1920s building in the Golden Square Mile. “I initially thought that it would be a relatively quick job, that it needed a minimal amount of renovation,” says David Allan Charette, principal designer on the project. “But as we progressed, I realized that a new mechanical system was necessary, and a new electrical system. Previous renos had been badly done, and we had to bring it up to code. We ended up doing a complete remodelling.” Charette is partner with Jay Britto in Britto Charette llc, a design firm with offices in New York City and Miami. Britto was the original contact with the homeowner, having done a condo for him in Bal Harbour, Florida. The Bal Harbour condo decor is contemporary. The Montreal apartment, at the time feeling “very ’80s and quite dark,” says Charette, was to be different. “My client has extended family in Montreal but also entertains a lot. He loves this neighbourhood and wanted a building with character. •
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The Montreal apartment, at the time feeling “very ’80s and quite dark,” was to be different.
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“ “We love working with this client. He has a terrific sense of design.
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Design Montreal Trends 2014
“We love working with this client. He has a terrific sense of design. His work and travels and personal interests make him such an interesting person. His home should be a reflection of that. “It was a lot fun working with him. I’d raise an idea for something; he’d come back and sometimes say to modify it, but sometimes ‘I trust you. Just run with it.’ As the project progressed we put more and more into it.
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It became a labour of love, bringing this older space back to what we thought would be more appropriate for the period.” The outcome is a two-storey, 4,000-squarefoot apartment with an up-to-date style that is nonetheless respectful of the era when the building was new and has more than a hint of Art Deco in the decor. The front door opens onto a foyer with an elegant staircase winding to the second floor gallery. Immediately
beyond the foyer, “the very first thing you see is the calm sitting room,” says Charette. “At the end of the axis is the fireplace and a seating arrangement. It’s welcoming and serene. I love the immediate sense of arrival you have when you enter the living room.” • The chimney breast in the living room is a monolithic slab of Cremo Delicato marble from Ciot. Black, white and grey serenely predominate in the decor.
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Design Montreal Trends 2014
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The custom-made banquette in the kitchen hides a radiator and sits atop radiant heat panels in the floor. It was designed so that it can be dismantled and moved to allow access to the panels.
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The rest of the apartment features kitchen, dining room, library, utility room, the master suite, and three bedrooms and a tv room for the children. Luxurious touches are everywhere; they include an in-mirror television in the master bathroom that disappears when it’s turned off. Walls and floors in the master bathroom and the kitchen are heated. There is an Art-Deco-inspired bar and humidor in the living room for the cigars the owner so appreciates. One of the bedrooms features an exquisite custom-made wall covering, hand-painted in England.
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The kitchen is the owner’s favourite place in the home. He loves spending time cooking and dining with family and friends. “Life happens” around the custom-built banquette, he says, where it’s “noisy and fun.” This home has room for noise and fun, room for chess games and tv-watching, room for entertaining, room for quiet conversations or contemplation. It’s a labour of love, now lived in with love, a family home in the heart of the city. •
Luxurious touches prevail everywhere. In one bedroom (far right), a wall is covered in tarnished silvered wallpaper by De Gournay, painted over in gouache.
Design Montreal Trends 2014
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It’s a labour of love, now lived in with love, a family home in the heart of the city.
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