Water. Trees. Cottage. You could say these are the only elements that matter to Canadians who 'summer' – in grand or semi-grand tradition – away from cities and congestion. As they say in commerce, location is everything. But usually it's the cottage itself that creates the memories. The echoed slam of a screen door is perhaps the element most indelibly imprinted in the memory of any youth who grew up beside water and wilderness.
Perfection is in the details. And this fine cottage, on Lake Simcoe, about an hour's drive north of Toronto, is the model of simplicity. Built in the 1920s, it is typical of the area and immediately inviting, with a boxy style and sloped grey roof curving over a screened sun porch. It's a classic country home, decorated in country style that, over the years, has meant a little of this and a little of that. It's now been updated – but not renovated – and given a fresh face that's decidedly 'preppy.' Miraculously, this has been accomplished on a shoestring budget.
The interior style – a kind of '50s diner esthetic via New England preppy – is, in a word, perfect. The property has been owned by a single family for three generations. It was beginning to fall into disrepair when one of the children took control a few years ago. The challenge has been to restore the place with no new construction and no new purchases – just to work with what was at hand in more than 50 years of accumulated furnishings, appliances and assorted things. This would require careful editing – which can be difficult when memories are involved.
In addition to the main cottage, there are three small guest houses. When interior designer Carol McFarlane was called in, all four buildings were full of furniture, as was the garage. These were not posh antiques, just practical things – be it flea market find or swap-meet castoff – snapped up on a whim when something was found to be particularly pleasing, such as the beds with headboards of swans shaped like lutes, or particularly necessary, like the old kitchen stove with two ovens, a broiler and a warmer.
"The owners didn't want to do any renovation, they just wanted to make it completely livable and really, really pretty. So we took from what was in the main house and what was in the garage and reworked every room." McFarlane's first move was to go through all the furniture to find the perfect things for the main cottage. The second move was to paint everything – walls, furniture, fixtures. "I just painted the heck out of it to make it clean and fresh and work together."
0 Comment