“It feels nice to be on this groovy but soothing area, surrounded by timber and tranquility”
(Pictures by Renaud Lafrenière)
In 2019, Martin Dumas, a graphic designer, and Maude Beaupré, a TV producer, felt cramped of their Montreal condo. That they had been renting a three-bedroom place within the Little Burgundy neighbourhood for the previous 12 years, paying $865. After their daughter, Simone, was born in 2009, the couple realized they have been exploring town much less. They began imagining a change—ideally to a leafier, pastoral setting.
Dumas and Beaupré hoped to discover a rambling previous home within the countryside full of classic character, versus a cookie-cutter new construct in a suburb. That November, Dumas sketched a crude illustration of an A-frame cottage with a squat addition on a pink Put up-it word. He joked to Beaupré that he had simply drawn the home of their desires. A day later, their realtor despatched over a list for a small residence with a stucco exterior that bore an odd resemblance to his illustration. “My boyfriend doesn’t consider the universe despatched it, however we have been in shock,” says Beaupré.
She runs an Instagram account, @stalker.fever, the place she collects photographs of quirky interiors she finds on actual property listings. The home match proper in—a useless ringer for the dwarves’ cottage in Snow White—however it was farther from Montreal than they favored in rural Rawdon township, which is an hour’s drive north. The couple nonetheless agreed to see it, and as quickly as they toured the place, they have been offered.
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Inbuilt 1968, their residence appears to be like like a tiny bungalow from the surface and a Seventies fever dream on the within. The decor emphasizes a retro brown and orange color scheme, which inserts nicely with the mid-century aesthetic Dumas and Beaupré had already cultivated of their Montreal condo. They moved in most of their previous furnishings, and the remaining, together with the orange sofa with chrome detailing in the lounge, was left over from the earlier homeowners.
“It feels nice to be on this groovy but soothing area, surrounded by timber and tranquility,” Beaupré says. The visitor lavatory options an avocado inexperienced rest room, bathtub and sink, and the abundance of wooden detailing provides heat—particularly when the day approaches sundown. Mild floods the expansive lounge, which is elongated with cathedral ceilings and a split-level format. Ground-to-ceiling home windows body a panoramic view of the yard, and a black hearth is ready towards a red-and-white brick wall.
There are additionally sensible issues relating to trendy life in a classic construct. Dumas, who’s six-foot-one, typically hits his head on the kitchen’s archway. The home just isn’t as power environment friendly as newer locations, so the month-to-month hydro payments are excessive. If one thing breaks, service staff are sometimes hesitant about doing repairs out of concern they are going to harm the home. “One in every of my worst fears is that one thing will occur to the plumbing, and I must rip up one of many loos,” Beaupré says. “I preserve pondering: ‘Simply maintain on for yet another yr!’”
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Sure retro design selections have been additionally initially off-putting. The kitchen’s putting decor included vivid orange tiling and picket partitions, a built-in Jenn-Air grill and a supposedly soundproof padded ceiling that, based on Beaupré, resembles “cooked spaghetti.” However over time, the couple noticed how these options slot in with their place’s total aesthetic, and so they determined to run with it. The house’s distinctive design has even grow to be an object of fascination for others. After Beaupré joined a location scouting group on Fb, it was featured in a number of Québécois artists’ music movies and a trend marketing campaign for the glasses model Bon Look.
“There’s one thing very attractive about this residence,” says Beaupré. The first bed room has a mirrored ceiling, however the crown jewel is the jacuzzi room, which is furnished with a built-in sauna, beige carpeting and textured partitions. Each time friends go to, she all the time tells them to deliver a showering swimsuit. At some point, she additionally hopes to ask over the unique proprietor to swap tales about what these partitions have witnessed within the copacetic 70s. “It’s fairly uncommon that you just see classic homes on the market which might be in pristine situation,” Beaupré says. “I prefer to think about the events that have been thrown right here.”
