Love It Or List It Vancouver: Una & Christian

Una & Christian had a lovely, charming old home full of great heritage details like coffered ceilings and stained flooring… unfortunately, some of what makes a home heritage also cramps one’s living style: separate kitchen and dining, closed-off spaces, dark trim and no storage – these elements are not quite as charming!

Jillian and the Love It Or List it design team are always excited about every renovation, but when it’s a heritage house, the excitements doubles as we love injecting new “old” details into the spaces to echo the original character of the home. In this case we retained the coffered ceiling in the living room and all the heritage trim but painted it all white – an easy change but oh so effective: it gives the impression of lifting the ceiling up and pushing out the walls, the rooms feel instantly bigger and brighter!

The new Mercier Flooring also helped the spaces breath: with a medium tone ash floor now throughout the main living space, the grain contrast of the flooring still says “heritage” but the lightness of it brings the spaces into the 21^st century.

A dramatic difference was noticed once the walls that had closed off the kitchen came down. The new openings were augmented with decorative knee braces, framing the view to the custom Merit Kitchen that now welcomes you to the heart of the home.

Carrying on the theme of creating details, Merit Kitchens supplied us with elegant cabinetry in “snow” painted Manor door front with a swooping mullion detail on the glass cupboard doors and bead board on the island – all small touches to bring the charm of the space to life. With the new generous island – where the wall once stood – the spaces feel so much bigger and guests can perch at the island, well out of Christian’s way while he cooks up a storm!

The new dining room – properly situated off of the kitchen – is no longer cramped up in one corner of the house and it feels so much larger because of the shared space with the kitchen. With a lovely new custom table by Shilo Living with a waxed fir top and turned painted legs, this table will grow with the family that eats around it every day.

After dinner, once the dishes have been put away and the table cleared, the family can curl up in the family room to watch TV or play a board game. What was their dining room – completely separate from the kitchen – is now a cozy space for friends and family.

A big thank you as always to Janis Nicolay for the gorgeous photos!!

Visit the W Network for more on this Love It Or List It episode! To watch the full episode, click here and for more before and after photos, click here!!!

Francesca Albertazzi