House Tours
This Serene And Modern Farmhouse Is An Escape From Reality
DESIGN, Manon Thibault Design. SOFA, Ethan Allen. ARMCHAIR, COFFEE TABLE, Pottery Barn. CHRISTMAS GREENERY, Les Belles-Soeurs.
House Tours
This Serene And Modern Farmhouse Is An Escape From Reality
A busy family settles in for a lighter, brighter holiday in their freshly updated home in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.
In 2001, Julie Gagné and Kevin Hill built their dream home in Hemmingford, Que. The home was colourful and busy – tailor-made for life with two young daughters. In 2018, they hired designer Manon Thibault to update the girls’ bedrooms, then called on her again in 2020 to open up the kitchen to the living room. “The house is filled with family on weekends, and Julie needed a space big enough for everyone to gather,” Manon says. The plan to remove one wall snowballed, and soon Manon was redoing the entire main level to accommodate the family’s active social life. But the new aesthetic Julie now wanted was just the opposite of busy: she loves the serene modern farmhouse look. Manon delivered with airy white spaces layered with down-to-earth pieces in sturdy cotton, natural wood and rustic wicker. It’s the perfect backdrop for a quiet life à deux when the girls are away at school. But it’s most enchanting at Christmas, when it’s dressed in ethereal white decorations, set aglow with twinkly lights, and brimming with friends and family all gathered together in the welcoming new heart of the home.
DESIGN, Manon Thibault Design. SOFA, Ethan Allen. ARMCHAIR, COFFEE TABLE, Pottery Barn. CHRISTMAS GREENERY, Les Belles-Soeurs.
With its serene white envelope threaded through with chestnut browns and tawny neutrals, Julie Gagné and Kevin Hill’s living room epitomizes the modern farmhouse look they love. Designer Manon Thibault, who refreshed the home, was invited back to decorate it for the holidays. Twinkly lights, fragrant evergreen boughs and a tightly edited collection of baubles help ring in the season stylishly.
Round TABLE, Pottery Barn. PAINT, Chantilly Lace OC-65, Benjamin Moore.
To underpin the new, restrained aesthetic, the 3,500-square-foot home’s main level was refloored in wide-plank oak, and its walls were washed in a snowy white hue. The oak floors blend well with the existing hardwood on the stairs. For the holidays, Manon dug into Julie’s big collection of Christmas decorations, pulling out just the subtlest white, wooden and glass baubles, including this pretty flocked tree, to create an enchanting winter wonderland look.
CHAIRS, Boutique Cassine. TABLE, Wayfair.
When the bay window in the kitchen didn’t work for a banquette, Manon turned it into a sweet reading nook with two armchairs and a tray table. “It’s our favourite new detail,” says Julie. “We sit here all the time. It’s a little gathering place.” Black accents, like the vase and chair legs, give the mostly white space some needed contrast and edge.
CHAIRS, JC Perreault. CHANDELIER, Déco Luminaire. ART, Boutique Cassine.
The dining room is reserved for formal events like Christmas and Easter dinners. Kevin and Julie, who run a transport company, had already invested in quality pieces here, so Manon simply tweaked the look to bring it up to date. She added an edgy light fixture, removed the top half of the hutch for an airier feel, and paired the dark traditional table with contemporary chairs clad in white to lighten the look. The elegant rug is actually machine washable.
“It’s a modern farmhouse style, simple and friendly, with airy spaces and lots of white to let light travel.” – Manon Thibault
The place settings suit the breakfast area to a T. The inky plates riff on the sideboard colour, and the little pine, dried orange and cinnamon stick posies are sweet and rustic. The nubby woven seagrass placemats echo the wicker and wood elements in other parts of the house and help to temper finer pieces like the white table linens, delicate wineglasses and gold cutlery that might read as formal in another space.
SIDEBOARD, Ébénisterie AGR. SIDEBOARD PAINT, Cheating Heart 1617, Benjamin Moore.
Beyond its serving and display capabilities, the stately custom sideboard in the breakfast area provides masses of space for Julie to store tablewares and seasonal decorations. “She’s so organized!” Manon says. “She has drawers for everything – all her linens, placemats, cutlery, vases. I don’t know how many candles there are in those drawers!” One tall section houses the broom closet, and the other hides away the water cooler and bottle (brilliant!).
TABLE, Une Touche de Bois. CHAIRS, Woodstock & Cie. CHANDELIER, Déco Luminaire.
Kevin and Julie’s main ask for the renovation was opening up the kitchen to the living room. Where the wall was taken out, decorative oak beams were installed to visually delineate the rooms. The opened-up space means that the breakfast table, which was custom-made by a local artisan, can be extended (into the living room area, if needed) to seat up to 12 guests.
WALL PAINT, Chantilly Lace OC-65, Benjamin Moore.
The kitchen is the heart of the home and it’s where the family gathers when daughters Lauren and Avery are home from school on weekends and holidays. Both the pale wood trestle table and the white-painted Windsor chairs help establish the new modern farmhouse aesthetic. For Christmas, the sideboard and shelves were layered with fragrant fresh greenery, candles and huge bouquets of dried hydrangeas from Manon’s garden.
PENDANT LIGHTS, Déco Luminaire.
With the cabinetry, counters and backsplash being so understated, even small decorative details have impact. Simple oak trim and brackets on the range hood play up the farmhouse look and echo the beams in the adjacent breakfast area. At Christmas, holiday magic comes by way of vases full of fresh pine and cedar. Manon even trimmed the pendant lights (below) with fragrant nosegays.
“Unlike older country decor, where the tones were darker, the modern farmhouse look suggests a more refined, bright and peaceful atmosphere.”– Manon Thibault
STOOLS, Overstock. CABINETRY PAINT, Simply White OC-117, Benjamin Moore.
The original kitchen was well designed, so Manon was mainly tasked with updating aesthetics here. Dated cabinets were replaced with new ones with Shaker-style lacquered MDF doors. Functionally, the big goal was upsizing the island. “The previous one didn’t have space for stools, and Julie wanted her girls and guests to be able to gather around,” Manon says. Luckily, there was space for a larger island and four wide wooden stools.
COFFEE TABLE, Pottery Barn.
Manon went suitably low-key with the holiday decorations so they would align with the restrained decor. On the coffee table, simple candles in frosted-glass containers and bowls full of chunky pinecones herald the holidays. In the living room, she transformed an old hutch of Julie and Kevin’s into the entertainment centre (below right) by removing the upper half and refinishing the base with ivory paint.
All-white rooms fall flat without a few black elements to play up contrast. Here, Manon also balanced the understated palette with loads of textural woven pieces in colours reminiscent of toasted marshmallows. These accents – from wicker and water hyacinth baskets (below right) to rattan trays (above) to jute and sisal rugs (opposite page) – dovetail with the home’s new pale wood elements. As a bonus, they also warm up the tranquil spaces immensely.
ORNAMENTS, Les Belles-Soeurs.
Manon transformed Julie’s flocked faux Christmas tree by swapping out the usual red and green balls for huge pinecones, gar- lands of wooden beads, and glass balls filled with a variety of dried flowers. “These are so beautiful,” Manon says. “They’re all handmade by a local flower farm, Les Belles-Soeurs, here in the Eastern Townships. When you get up close to the tree, you see that every ornament is different. Julie loves flowers, and she adores those little details.”
“Manon helped me understand that less is more. The ornaments are now more natural. And with a winter theme with lots of fir trees, I can leave a large part of the decorations in place until March.” – Julie Gagné
POUF, Article. RUG, Wayfair.
The old fireplace felt thoroughly dated. “It just had gyprock [drywall] around it, with mouldings and a lot of brass – very ’90s,” Manon says. To bring it into the 21st century, she installed a more streamlined and efficient gas insert, a simple mantel and an element requested by Julie – a painted-brick chimney breast that drives home the farmhouse vibe. Manon found the little lighted tree that’s beside the fireplace in Julie’s amazing collection of Christmas decorations. The California shutters, here and throughout, are original to the house, which Julie and Kevin built in 2001.
BED, BEDDING, NIGHTSTAND, RUG, LAMP, West Elm.
Daughter Lauren’s chic, cozy bedroom was transformed during the first phase of the 2018 redesign. Then 17, Lauren was ready for a more sophisticated look, so Manon brought in fashion-forward Midcentury Modern-style wood pieces, and softened the look with pillowy bedding and a plush rug inspired by Andalusian tilework in Spain. Judicious brass accents throughout dress things up. Time flies, but the look has endured: Lauren and Avery (now 22 and 24) go to university in Montreal, but come home most weekends and holidays to cozy comfort in the country.
TABLE LAMP, West Elm.
Using a dresser as a side table is always a smart storage idea. In Lauren’s bedroom, Manon gave this one more presence by topping it with an abstract artwork that injects a splash of colour. Painting the drawer fronts white makes the piece feel lighter, and this dark-light contrast is echoed in the shelving at the foot of the bed (opposite, top right), where some cubbies are filled with woven storage baskets.
BED, NIGHTSTAND, Pottery Barn Kids. BEDDING, Zara Home. TABLE LAMP, MIRROR, Wayfair. FLOOR LAMP, CHEST, Winners.
The bay window is the focal point of the guest room, and Manon nestled the bed into the bay to play up this feature. “You don’t necessarily need a high headboard like this, but you do need a nice window treatment,” she explains. “In fact, the window treatment can be your headboard.” Textural accents like the wicker chest and jute rug liven up the palette, and simple greenery carries the Christmas spirit upstairs.
“Bay windows are tricky for window treatments because it can be quite expensive. But they’re worth it because this is a focal point. This is where you need to invest money.” – Manon Thibault
WALLPAPER, C&M Textiles. VANITY, COUNTER, Ébénisterie AGR. MIRROR, FAUCET, Wayfair. SCONCES, Déco Luminaire.
“I wanted the vanity to look like a piece of furniture, but provide practical storage, too.” – Manon Thibault
While it’s a departure from the white walls in the adjacent rooms, the olive branch wallpaper in the main floor powder room still reiterates Manon’s organic, natural design theme. (It’s a peel-and-stick paper by Magnolia Home.) Manon worried that too much pattern might overwhelm here, so she chose a paper with a delicate motif and installed wainscotting below to temper its effect. The vanity’s oak base riffs on the new oak flooring and the wood beams in the adjoining rooms, and grey subway tile looks fresh set in a herringbone pattern. Blooms nestled in pine clippings add a shot of seasonal colour.
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