Family Dinner

STORY TIFFANY MAYER

PHOTOGRAPHY JASON HARTOG

Read a few interior design blogs or magazines and you might think the formal dining room is dead, sacrificed to open-concept designs featuring more casual, multi-purpose spaces.

But the dining room is alive and well in this Ancaster home. In fact, it’s the heart of the family abode, given prominence during renovations in 2020 at the homeowner’s request to builder Rob VanderBrugghen of Ridgeline Renovations, and splendour at the hands of decorator Mary Cath Altobelli of Alto Interiors.

“We’ve always used the dining room,” the homeowner says. “That’s always been the space we eat in as a family. When you say you use your dining room, people say, ‘No one has a dining room anymore,’ but it was actually my favourite room in the house.”

It still is, and now there’s more of it to love. Rob shifted the dining space from its cramped quarters off the kitchen at the back of the house to where the formal living room used to be at the front.

The living room was rarely used but in its new incarnation, it’s a space for gathering. Design touches include a firework pendant from Gerrie Lighting & Fan Studio over a Penwood Furniture dark wood dining table, and a luxe area rug warming sprawling hardwood and improving the acoustics. Combined, they do away with any stuffiness and create a place to lounge when the occasion calls.

The walls are covered in grasscloth wallpaper, timeless and subtle enough to not distract from the artwork on the walls, including a panoramic view of Locke Street by Hamilton photographer Paul Elia and two original Gordon Leverton paintings that honour Hamilton architecture.

Along with custom drapery by Alto Interiors through The Decorating Centre, they are invitations to linger, Mary Cath explains.“The challenge was how to showcase the art, and they had many great pieces, and how to make the room feel cosy,” Mary Cath says. “It’s not just for celebrations. It’s for Tuesday night pizza.”

Two built-in navy cabinets by Silverbirch Cabinetry | Millwork flank the passage to the kitchen and neighbouring great room. They replaced original plans for a butler’s pantry, keeping the dining area spacious and in proportion to neighbouring rooms.

Scrapping the living room also doubled the size of the kitchen, now a generous area for the homeowners to indulge in one of their favourite pastimes of cooking together.

Friday night is date night for the couple, parents to two teens, and with the help of a blue La Cornue range from Goemans Appliances that conjures a French country galley, they prepare elaborate menus featuring lamb, duck or pork tenderloin.

“It’s like having a Mercedes in your kitchen,” Mary Cath says. “I told the homeowners, ‘We can do whatever you want in a kitchen but the range is the star of the show.’ It’s old and new combined and it’s unique and inviting.”

On weekends when the family dines together, it’s spaghetti and meatballs or roast chicken done up in a space that oozes form and function with plenty of gleaming white cabinets by Silverbirch and additional open shelving for lightness.

An oversize island is topped with grey Cambria Queen Anne quartz that boasts dramatic veining and expands the work and gathering space.

Further enhancements to the kitchen included removing a wall between it and the family room, creating a more open and efficient layout.

Thoughtful touches in the family room include two swivel chairs in front of picture windows, offering a view of the ravine in the backyard and a place to quietly sip morning coffee before shifting attention back to the action in the home.

A new fireplace surround in hand-hewn stone came together like a jigsaw puzzle at the end of the renovation, giving a ski chalet vibe that channels the family’s love of the sport and outdoors.

“Fireplaces aren’t so much about the flame as they are about a texture or focal point,” Mary Cath says. “They bring warmth even when the flame is not there.”

Knocking down the wall between the kitchen and family room meant less wall space for a robust collection of art, however. The solution was to treat the upstairs hallway like a gallery where the experience of “getting lost in” the paintings of local artists Julie Veenstra, Marina Randazzo and Gordon Leverton is helped along by a Solatube that funnels natural light into the hallway.

A freshly stained staircase and new spindles make it easy to peer upstairs from the main level and be intrigued by the view.

“Hamilton does have a really great (art) scene and there are so many artists locally that we don’t have to go outside our community,” the homeowner says. “It’s important to us to put something up on our wall that’s from our community.”

The en suite and entryway to the main bedroom were overhauled and “put back together (by Rob) like a sanctuary,” Mary Cath says. Rob made space for a large glass shower, double vanity with custom-framed mirrors and a new freestanding tub from Wolseley Plumbing that’s surrounded by new built-ins under the eaves of the gable where it sits.

Back downstairs, the finishing touches on the main level include a striking boutique powder room and a mudroom that took over the laundry room – which was relocated to the basement. Cubbies for each family member were carved into the space to tuck away outdoor gear, shoes and cell phones. Beyond the dining room, the walls are painted in classic Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray.

Two years after the renovation, the novelty of the changes haven’t worn off. It still feels like a new home, and the homeowners are grateful to have had both Rob and Mary Cath’s expertise. OH

Decorator Mary Cath Altobelli of Alto Interiors.