Decorating & Design
September 26, 2022
A Fashion Designer’s Historic Montreal Rowhouse
Can a house be a muse? It seems that way for fashion designer Tu Ly, whose circa-1885 Montreal rowhouse inspired a stylistic sea change. Tu’s former home, which he shared with partner Marc Garand, was a cool, industrial loft that he styled in sexy black and white minimalism. “After living there for 15 years, we wanted something different,” says Tu. “Can we have doors, a roof garden, rooms for entertaining and a front porch?” Currently vice-president of design for Canadian fashion brand Moose Knuckles, Tu has enjoyed a long career designing for legacy brands such as Hudson’s Bay and Roots Canada. Tu and Marc, who’s a digital consultant, bought their house in the city’s hip Little Burgundy neighborhood in 2015.
The Victorian grande dame, with spiky wrought- iron balustrades, a mansard roof, stained glass windows and gingerbread detailing, hadn’t been overly modernized and still had a lot of its original character. With plenty of wood paneling and frothy plasterwork medallions, the house was the polar opposite of the “white box” renovations the couple had seen elsewhere. Bonus: It had once served as a rooming house for nuns in the 1930s. “I guess that’s why it has such a good spirit,” says Tu. “The minute we walked in, we knew it just felt right.”
Scroll down to step into Tu’s tailor-made home!
The home is set on a double lot near the Lachine Canal in Montreal’s Little Burgundy area.
The pine stairway (a favorite perch of the couple’s cat, Hanoi) was upgraded with a darker stain and new wool sisal runner trimmed in grosgrain.
Marc Garand (left) and Tu Ly on their 10-year-old sofa, which Tu had upholstered so the stripes would run horizontally. Tu sourced many items from auctions and local flea markets like Marché aux Puces St-Michel, and he even found a Quebec-made pine hutch on Kijiji.
The pine floors were stained a more formal walnut hue, and rooms were decorated with vintage multitiered chandeliers, framed prints, tufted sofas and Venetian mirrors to accentuate the home’s innate grandeur. The original mantelpiece was stained matte black. The coffee table base is a giant teakwood tree root.
The former owners had updated the house by extending the kitchen and adding a skylight, but the pine floors and cabinets created a vibe that was a bit too rustic. An artisan and trades were brought in to rebuild damaged moldings and inlay wood floors, as well as reinforce some crooked ceilings. Tu painted the kitchen cabinets a pale blue-grey for a French feel and maximized storage by extending the cabinet over the fridge to the ceiling.
They kept the kitchen’s checkerboard floor, painted the cabinets and added bistro chairs and a fashionable white leather banquette in the breakfast nook. It’s a classic look that Tu knows he’ll always appreciate: “In my wardrobe, I still have pieces from Prada that I bought with my first paycheque out of fashion school. Invest in something you love and it’s going to be forever.” A new spiral staircase outside accesses the roof deck.
A lower entrance, which opens to the mudroom, is dressed up with hydrangea-filled pots and a bench.
In the dining room, the traditional look is played up with tufted chairs, architectural prints, antique Quebec pine furniture and a metal chandelier. As a fashion designer, Tu is sensitive to color, so Marc let him orchestrate the house’s grey palette, which ranges from light dove to dark slate.
Tu calls this den his man cave. New custom bookshelves and paneling were painted slate grey for a cocooning effect. The easel-mounted TV reads as art and displays a still from their favorite movie The Godfather. While renovating his office, Tu was so thrilled to unearth burgundy William Morris wallpaper under the wood paneling that he saved a piece and framed it. “We wanted to pay tribute to the history of this house,” he says.
On the second storey, a wall was removed to increase the footprint of the principal bedroom. The bench is designated exclusively as Hanoi’s bed. Tu jokes that it’s as if the whole house was designed around the silvery blue fur of their beloved British shorthair cat, Hanoi. “He came into our lives three years after we bought the house, but it’s almost like we did the color scheme for him,” he says. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence.” Sounds like there’s competition in the muse department.
Tu and Marc knocked down walls to enlarge the principal suite and expand the ensuite bathroom.
Tu planned out the ensuite to mimic bathrooms you might find in a five-star hotel.
Maxime Desbiens
House & Home September 2022
Nicola Marc
Tu Ly