Story and Photography by Perry Mastrovito
It was love at first sight for Alain Blanchet and his wife Mélissandre Chicoine when they came upon a house for sale in Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, in December 2013. “What immediately struck us was the 92,000-square-foot lot the original house sat on and its wooded area at the back,” explains Mélissandre. From the facilities for housing animals to the proximity of grocery stores, schools and businesses, the property offered a lifestyle close to nature — exactly what the couple, their four kids and the family cat were looking for. The former owner also kept a mare at the time, which the couple bought as well. It was paradise.
The only downside was the house was smaller than the one they were already living in and didn’t quite meet their needs. “Since we enjoy having family and friends over, we made the decision to demolish it and build a bigger one, better adapted to our tastes and that made better use of the land,” recalls Mélissandre.
A new house plan was conceived with the help of the architect François Lévesque of Mont-Saint-Hilaire. It called for a rustic-chic style farmhouse/cabin with timber beams to give it an old-fashioned appearance, as if it’d been standing there for decades — if not centuries.
Alain built the new house himself, with the help of his father-in-law and a few family members. The structure has three blocks, a bit like most old homes in which annexes or extensions were added over time. Hand-cut natural stone cladding was chosen for the main house (central block) with weathered timber beams inserted above the windows. But what really adds to the illusion are the two decorative chimneys placed at opposite ends of the main house. Their presence accentuates the feeling of antiquity, giving the home a sense of solidity and country comfort. In reality, the only working chimney is the wood-burning fireplace in the living room, which forms the left block of the house.
Marie-Lise Frenette of Antique Design, a specialist in the restoration of old homes, suggested the use of reclaimed barnwood to clad the exterior of the glassed-in living room and garage extensions. A painter by training, Marie-Lise is an expert in applying a patina to new and old wood furniture surfaces, floors and more, using durable and ecological stains and colors. The end result is an aged finish that makes the difference between new and old indiscernible.
While Alain was busy with the structural aspects of the home, Mélissandre took care of the interior design — the division of the rooms, the drawings for the basswood kitchen cabinets and the selection of other materials and colors. She incorporated subtle touches to add a sense of age, like the stained-glass windows above one of the entrances to the kitchen. She chose shiplap coated with Benjamin Moore’s Simply White paint to cover the walls and ceiling. This makes the space, in Mélissandre’s words, “bright, light, cool and airy.” To keep this visual sense of textural continuity from one room to the next, all the walls and ceilings of the rest of the home, even inside the closets, are covered with shiplap and the same paint.
In the kitchen, Marie-Lise recommended the 5-by-12-foot spruce wood to top the island, and gave it a deep brown finish. “She helped us find quite a bit of ideas to make the home’s interior look as close as possible to that of an ancestral home,” says Mélissandre, who points out the decorative ceiling beams, antiqued larch floors and bathroom finishes as examples of Marie-Lise’s exceptional work.
A hand-woven, earth-toned rug and white shiplap boards convey a country charm in the entryway. The large, functional, late-Victorian cast-iron radiator with embossed floral motifs was found along with three others on the website Les Pacs. The Windsor-style bench has a well-worn, smooth-wood look to it, but it’s actually made of metal.
When you’re a family of six, you need a proper size dining table. Built by Créations Robert Labarre, the pine table is an antique reproduction with extensions and drawers, stained in two tones of brown like the chairs. The stained-glass doors feature the same treatment and have an alternating pattern of clear and frosted glass squares in lead frames.
The large windows that almost touch the floor in the living room provide abundant light and a clear view of the scenery, no matter the season. The natural cut-stone chimney surrounding the fireplace has a niche carved into it for storing firewood. As for the Ektorp sofas from Ikea, Mélissandre has two options: dressed in dark gray or in white. The two sets of removable slipcovers are ideal for creating different, seasonal moods.
The family’s sleeping quarters, an ensuite and a bathroom for the kids are all located on the upstairs floor, with each bedroom boasting its own color scheme and decor. There’s a harmony of colors in the primary bedroom, where walls swathed in a pewter tone gently contrast with the white of the ceiling and moldings. Given a beautiful antique white worn look by Marie-Lise, the 6-inch-wide larch floorboards were even put down by Alain using a historical method: with a board in the opposite direction at every 12 feet. The rocking chair was destined for the trash in front of a house nearby until Mélissandre spotted it and asked the owners if she could take it away.
The en suite’s tall, south-facing square window offers a rarefied view of the woods at the back, all the while letting plenty of light stream through. The rustic wood countertop and vanity, with gilded wood handles on the drawers, perfectly transcends the look of old, which Marie-Lise is renowned for. The honeycomb patterned ceramic tile floor is heated, and the antique black chandelier above the claw foot tub is about the only item saved from the former house. The same honeycomb patterned ceramic floor is found in the kids’ bathroom; its darker shade makes the “Simply White” shiplap stand out more. The quartz countertop and backsplash holds two sunken sinks fitted with antique-style faucets.
In Émy’s bedroom, one of the couple’s three young daughters, a long wood plank runs opposite to the others on the floor, adding a design element inspired from the old days. The heart-shaped foot rug, whose color matches that of the tartan bedspread, conveys a sentimental mood. Different width shiplap boards cover the lower wall and slanted ceiling. The secondhand chair at the desk was a flea-market find in Mont-Saint-Hilaire.
A wooden replica of a vintage airplane hung on a wall and the iconic Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket (first made more than two centuries ago) with its bold colored stripes at the foot of the bed creates a nostalgic ambiance in their son Étienne’s room. An ambiance that reflects the overall theme found throughout this magnificent home built and designed by the couple over a four-year period, all the while working full time and caring for four young children.
The rustic-chic ancestral-home style they sought for their project made it often difficult to find the right objects, furnishings, suppliers and artisans needed to make their dream come true. It took dogged determination and some sacrifices, but today, the family, which has grown to include three horses, four rabbits and 20 hens, can finally enjoy it all.
“We just love the lifestyle, caring for the animals and collecting our fresh eggs every day,” says Mélissandre in a gleeful tone. French-Canadian country living doesn’t get any better than this.
Home Details
Square footage: 3,168
Bedrooms: 5
Baths: 2 Full, 2 half
Architect: Françoias Lévesque
Builder: Alain Blanchet
Interior Design: Marie-Lise Frenette
