The House Specialty

DESIGN
The House Specialty
AN INSPIRED KITCHEN, POPS OF BRIGHT COLOUR
AND EDGY HITS OF SALVAGE TOP THE INGREDIENT LIST
IN CELEB CHEF TRISH MAGWOOD’S FAMILY HOME.
By JENNIFER HUGHES | Photography by STACEY BRANDFORD
Chef, TV host and cookbook
author, Trish Magwood, in her
kitchen with Findlay, Olivia (on
stool) and Charlotte. Interior
design, island design, Rebecca
Muha; island construction, Jmac
Productions; contractor, Toby
Schertzer; stools, Studio b;
black windows, Bliss Nor-Am.
OPPOSITE: The home’s front
door was replaced with a metalframed door that matches the
new windows. Painting the entire
façade a deep blue-black unifies
the brick, shingled roof, fence
and lattice, and creates a dramatic
backdrop for the bright green
foliage. Mat, Restoration Hardware.
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High
Style,
Low
Cost
STRETCHING THE BUDGET:
WHERE TRISH SPLURGED AND SAVED
• Salvage as much as possible to keep costs
down. Trish kept most of the existing floors
so she could spend more on priority areas:
the kitchen, bathroom and new windows.
• Customize off-the-shelf items like cabinetry
from big-box stores. The lower kitchen
cabinets here are inexpensive Ikea cabinets
treated to a custom paint finish.
• Mix pieces inherited from family with new
items for a fun, layered look on a budget.
• Put off investing in expensive rugs; have
basic broadloom cut to size and simply
edge-bound. When kids are older and less
accident prone, invest in a showpiece rug.
• Keep bedroom decor simple. Minimalist
arrangements of affordable furniture,
vintage finds and eye-catching linens
equal inviting sleeping quarters.
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Tucked into the opening between
the kitchen’s pantry wall and living
room entertainment centre, this
floating ash desk acts as Trish’s
home office, as well as a dramatic
focal point in the open-concept
main floor. Interior designer
Rebecca Muha convinced Trish
that one oversized family portrait
made a bigger impact than many
small photos sprinkled around the
home. Portrait by Brian Summers;
stainless steel cabinets, Perfect
Stainless; desk, Jmac Productions;
stool, Pottery Barn; white throw,
Hollace Cluny; rug, eFloors.
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t’s not unusual for designers to be asked to recreate a room
from a movie. But a cartoon? Now that’s a new one. While
noted chef, cookbook author and mother of three Trish
Magwood was watching a Disney favourite with her kids, she
had an idea — you could almost see the animated lightbulb
pop up over her head. “The restaurant in Ratatouille has a
classic Parisian kitchen with an industrial feel,” she says.
“I knew that was what I wanted.”
Interior designer Rebecca Muha, who Trish brought in to
collaborate on the top-to-bottom renovation of the Toronto
home, had a good chuckle at Trish’s request but took up the
challenge. And with that, the four-month renovation began.
When Trish and her husband, Bryce Conacher, purchased the
quirky 1950s infill home in a leafy central neighbourhood in
June 2008, the main floor was a cluster of small rooms. Now,
with the space totally opened up, the hub of the house is the
generous kitchen. It’s what you’d expect from Trish, who
founded Toronto’s popular Dish Cooking Studio 10 years ago
and was also host of the Food Network show Party Dish.
Despite the home’s modest 1,600-square-foot proportions,
Trish and Muha managed to maximize both function and
style. In the bistro-style kitchen, for example, they balanced
splurges like top-of-the-line appliances, custom stainless steel
cabinetry framing and a “big, honking” stainless steel range
hood with a flared edge (a design that’s straight out of the
kitchen in Ratatouille) with more affordable elements like
ABOVE: In the newly opened-up
space, the enormous ash kitchen
island acts as family headquarters.
Carrara marble on the island and
on the 24"-deep pantry counter is
a classic French choice. The lower
cabinets on the pantry wall are
stock Ikea cabinetry custompainted a warm grey-white shade.
The stainless steel upper cabinets
are made to look like vintage
medical cabinets. Stainless steel
cabinets, Perfect Stainless; cabinet
hardware, Upper Canada Specialty
Hardware; wall tile, Cercan Tile;
range hood, BlueStar.
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Made from the same ash as the
kitchen island and desk, the
on-trend sliding doors on the
living room’s entertainment
centre are an easy space-saving
trick in smaller homes. The
warm, rustic finish was inspired
by a piece of driftwood, which
Trish displays on the mantel.
Door design, Rebecca Muha;
construction, Jmac Productions.
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OPPOSITE, TOP RIGHT: Olivia and
Findlay spend hours at the antique
drafting table that acts as the
family’s dining table. The long
banquette is covered in forgiving
charcoal linen, and features
spacious storage drawers below
for table linens and art supplies.
Photograph (on wall) by Colin
Faulkner; light, French Country;
charcoal linen (on bench), Designer
Fabrics; pink pillow fabric, Y&Co;
chair, Kiosk; table, Hardware.
BOTTOM LEFT: An intimate patio
at the side of the house allows for
private alfresco family dining and
daily barbecues in the summer.
Trish attaches new inexpensive
indoor-outdoor fabric to the table
with a staple gun each spring.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Durable new
porcelain floor tile in the entry
mimics pricier limestone. Trish
dressed up the table, which
belonged to her grandmother,
in glossy black paint and a pretty
branch-motif pull. Floor tile, Ciot.
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stock cabinetry and a restaurant-style faucet from a big-box
store. The ash island was custom-built to mimic old European
oak, and its finish — which is identical to the finish on the
floating desk nearby and living room entertainment centre’s
sliding doors — was inspired by a piece of driftwood that Muha
found on a walk in a nearby conservation area.
Much of the main floor’s lofty, industrial look comes via new
black-framed warehouse windows, which were high on Trish’s
must-have list. To let more light flood the space, the window
over the kitchen sink was enlarged to three times its size. And
all the main-floor windows were raised to full ceiling height,
which balances the fact that the ceilings are a rather low eight
feet high and helps better connect the spaces to the outdoors.
To keep the budget down, the flooring throughout the
home was simply sanded and lightened, as opposed to replaced,
with the exception of new hard-wearing porcelain tile in the
entry and marble in the new principal bath. In the living room,
the existing maple hardwood is topped with a cosy piece of
wool broadloom, cut to size and edge-bound — an inexpensive
choice that will see the family through a few more years of
juice spills and Magic Marker stains.
At the other end of the main living space, a banquette built
into a corner offers easy seating for Findlay, 6, Olivia, 4, and
Charlotte, 18 months, and drawers underneath store craft
supplies, games and puzzles, and table linens. “We can really
pack kids in here,” laughs Trish, whose home is often the
ABOVE: Punches of bold colour
come from the throw pillows,
which have luxe designer fabric
on the front and modestly priced
linen on the back. When Trish
needed something to fill the space
to the left of the fireplace, she
grabbed an old chicken coop from
her parents’ barn. An inexpensive
Ikea coffee table has the lines of a
mid-century teak collectible. Sofa,
Montauk; chairs, Elte; pink pillow
fabric, Y&Co; art (on mantel) by V.
Tony Hauser (left) and Jackson
Huang (right); black vase, pink
vase, Hollace Cluny.
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Graphic bedding and velvet pillows
liven up the principal bedroom.
Trish slipcovered an old side table
in white cotton to hide its flaws.
Duvet cover, Euro shams, white
throw, Lucca; rug, Angus & Co.; teal
vase, Hollace Cluny; velvet pillows,
Constantine; green door, The Door
Store; blind, headboard, Gail Leger.
OPPOSITE, TOP LEFT: The wicker
chair in Olivia’s room, a hand-medown from Bryce’s family,
enhances the home’s cottage-inthe-city vibe. Window, Pollard;
bed, Ikea; art (over table) by Alanna
Cavanagh; wall colour, Skylight
(205), Farrow & Ball.
TOP RIGHT: A top-to-toe reno of
the principal bath created a glam
all-white space. Bands of black
mosaic tile give the Carrara marble
floor a lighter look. The modern
tub is paired with more traditional
wall-mount plumbing. Artwork,
Alanna Cavanagh; tub, towels, tub
tray, Ginger’s; sink, Taps; bathmat,
Restoration Hardware; orange
toiletries, duck, Belle de Provence.
web
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Find decorating ideas in our
Bedroom Design Guide.
houseandhome.com/june10
4/9/10 5:41:07 PM
gathering place for her own extended family, as well as Bryce’s.
“Last Christmas dinner, we had eight kids seated around the
island, and 10 adults at the table,” she says.
While Trish and Muha made all the stylistic decisions, Bryce
— who is the founder and CEO of CleanAirPass, a carbon
emission management company — made sure choices were as
environmentally sustainable as possible. Plenty of vintage and
hand-me-down pieces were incorporated to keep the planet in
mind and the budget in check. For example, the couple chose
rustic slab doors, with their original bright green paint and
strap hinges, to lead into both the kids’ bath and renovated
principal bath. “The old doors help avoid that shiny, all-new
look,” Muha says. “We really wanted to inject some character
into the space and give it a bit of edge.” Trish also brought in lots
of vintage pieces, like the drafting table used as a dining table,
the antique French pendant over the table, an old chicken coop
found in her parents’ barn near Creemore, Ont., in the living
room, and some pieces inherited from both her and Bryce’s
grandparents. “There’s an element of nostalgia to using family
pieces,” says Trish. “I like to work them in whenever possible.”
The entire home’s neutral backdrop is a practical choice: it
can be refreshed with a handful of new accessories every few
years. For now, the bright pops of colour help camouflage the
kids’ toys. But despite the Disney-movie inspiration behind
this home, there’s nothing resembling a cartoon character in
sight — just a stylish yet truly comfortable family home.
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Findlay’s room has punchy orange
accents inspired by the silkscreen
print of a suitably named vintage
Penguin book. A headboard in
charcoal grey sets off the vibrant
hue. Artwork by Alanna Cavanagh;
headboard construction, Gail
Leger; headboard fabric, Designer
Fabrics; duvet cover, Ikea.
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