The moment Maureen Coates stepped through the door, she knew it was a house she would love to live in, despite the need for a top-to-bottom modernization
While Maureen Coates has brought the house into the 21st century, it retains much of its Arts and Crafts feel, including new windows with a traditional design of three panes above and a single one below. The house is now bright, clean, and singing with style. High on her list of things to do was a coffered ceiling in the living and dining rooms to replace the original stucco with swirling designs through it. “I kept thinking that I wasn’t going to be happy if I left the ceilings as they were,” she says, “and I really wanted a wow factor in these rooms.” So she had six-by-eight-inch coffers with simple mouldings installed. Then she looked at the original wood trim in its mid-brown tone and realized it wasn’t working for her either. “So I stripped, sanded, and primed all the mouldings myself,” she says, “and it took five weeks!” Then she painted it all White Dove by Benjamin Moore.
The ground floor is painted in soft tones of green and beige, except for the dining room, which is a deep, luxurious red from Farrow and Ball called Terre d’Egypt. All colours were inspired by one chair in the living room, a flea-market find now covered with a traditional patterned tapestry-style microfibre fabric in bright, funky colours. That same chair also inspired the side table, which now boasts a unique glasswork centre panel created by Oded Ravek. “When I found the table, it had four horrible dark grey slate tiles in the centre, and I really didn’t like them,” says Coates. “So at a Christmas craft fair, I asked Oded to create something inspired by my colours. Now, even if I get fed up with the table, I have something beautiful I can hang on my wall.”
The dining room recently won an award from CDECA, the Canadian Decorators’ Association. “I think they liked the red,” jokes Coates. More likely, they liked the balance of the room, with its bespoke table, chairs, and sideboard made in a Mennonite community in southwestern Ontario and a pendant lamp that casts a soft glow on the central coffer of the ceiling at dinnertime.
Maureen and her husband, Michael Coates, moved from a large house on three acres in Manotick to this 2,100-square-foot traditional house in the Glebe. Beginning anew has been a challenge that Maureen, an interior decorator, has relished. “I love this house, as it’s so much easier to look after even though there are still four bathrooms,” she says. “By the same token, I love working with clients who are having downsizing issues.”
The colours on the ground floor were inspired by this chair, a flea-market find now covered with a traditional patterned tapestry-style microfibre fabric in bright, funky colours.
This Nova Scotia seascape by Michael Coates’ mother is one of the first oil paintings she ever executed.
Maureen had a custom art-glass centre created for this table to replace the original grey slate tiles. The lamp is from HomeSense. “I love mixing things up,” she says.
Throw cushions were all made by Maureen with fabric from C&M Textiles.
Coffered ceilings were on the wish list for that wow factor. Six inches wide by eight inches deep, they are painted White Dove by Benjamin Moore.
The carpet, in tones of soft green, cream, and brick, is made from 100 percent wool coloured with vegetable dyes and came from Canadian Rug Traders in the ByWard Market.
The Coates’ house is part of the Glebe House Tour on Sept. 19. Tickets ($25 each) are available at the Glebe Community Centre, 175 Third Ave. www.gnag.ca