Who: Mandy Clark, Founder, Tandem Lanehouse Company, with husband Chris, are expecting their first baby! They also have a dog named Maisy, 11, who thinks she is a human member of the family.
Mandy in her living room (note the M and C for Mandy and Chris, perched on the sideboard).
What: An extensively renovated, three-level, 2,400 sq ft 1920s
heritage house, with a one-bedroom, 545 sq ft loft style laneway house
in the back yard built by Mandy and Chris -- it's their
business! (The house lot is 33 x 122, which is a pretty standard size
for the area). The main home includes an open plan main floor with a
full bathroom and spare bedroom. The full-height basement includes a
self-contained, fully furnished, 450 sq ft one
bedroom, one bathroom suite, a laundry area, mudroom, bathroom
and home office.
The loft style top floor is currently used as an over-sized master
bedroom and dressing room, but will soon be converted into two bedrooms
when baby number one arrives. The plan is to lift the roof another eight
feet
to create a full size second story (including a master with a walk-in
closet, ensuite, an additional two children’s rooms and another bathroom) when
hopefully baby number two arrives.
Where: Douglas Park area of Vancouver.
Why: By combining the best of traditional architecture with the needs of
modern living Mandy and Chris have created an open floor plan home with great flow,
light and space efficiency.
Living room: sofa and chairs from Inform Interiors.
HGTV: How did you come to live in this home?
Mandy & Chris:
Prior to this house, we had lived in Dunbar [Vancouver] in a very
traditionally appointed home. After doing a similar scoped renovation
and acquiring lots of traditional furniture and antiques, we realized we
were living beyond our years. The style and size of the house and area
no longer suited our personalities, and so we moved into a more dynamic
neighborhood that was centrally located with less gardens to maintain
(and rooms to clean). We wanted to create a home that was clean,
youthful and had less stuff. So we sold all of our furniture on Craigslist and gave bags and bags of knickknacks and bric-a-brac to charity.
HGTV: What didn't work about the home when you first assumed ownership?
M&C:
When we first moved in, the house was divided into small rooms with a
semi-finished basement. It was dark with a very small kitchen, steep
staircase against the back of the house leading to an attic space and no
southern light. We opened the house up to create more space, light and
square footage.
Fireplace with mentioned trim;
clock on the sideboard is Chris’s grandfather’s carriage clock from
England, circa early 1900s.
HGTV: What did you do?
M&C:
We updated the efficiency of the house and tried to preserve as many of
the heritage features as we could during the renovations: fit new
retrofit double-glazed vinyl windows (from original single-paned glass)
into existing wooden frames, the floors in the living/dining area as
well as the entire second floor are all original, we had them all
stripped and clear coated to reveal the inlay border, and had the
fireplace trim designed to echo the floor pattern. The custom cabinetry
also took some cues from the original paneling and we saved the interior
doors, window casings and moldings, as well as all of the original
brass hardware.
HGTV: How do you choose all your accessories? Do you adhere to a specific style?
Mandy: The
clock on the sideboard is an antique (Chris’s grandfather’s carriage clock from
England, circa early 1900s, above). We love classic pieces with clean lines:
contemporary with a hint of antiquity. We tried not to buy all of the
furniture at once, but rather acquired pieces over time to see how we
lived in the space and eliminate that which was redundant. I love
design and renovating and started my company to help other people create
beautiful small spaces of their own.
Dining area looking into the kitchen.
Dining area with custom built-in bar/sideboard.
M&C: We also saved some of
the original glass from a built-in side board and designed a custom bar
area/glass cabinet just off the kitchen which features the glass as a
focal point of the doors. Our goal was to create a contemporary
interior while preserving as much heritage feeling as possible.
Custom built-in bar/sideboard with original Art Deco glass inserts.
M&C: We have collected our furniture from many different stores – Living Space (Big Foot dining table and light fixture), Inform (Benson Canyon sectional, Eileen Gray side tables, living room sofa and chairs) Martha Sturdy (coffee table).
Dining area looking into living room: 'Big Foot' dining table and light fixture from Living Space.
HGTV: How do do you ensure flow in an open, small(er) space?
M&C:
The house is smaller than our old house, but because the space is well
used we have space for everything we need, use and love. Our philosophy
is simplicity not minimalism – out with the unused, in with the old and
the new alike as long as it is either beautiful or functional and has a
place and a purpose – visual or functional. We painted all of the walls
and ceilings in Benjamin Moore Designer white to keep the space airy
and open and use pops of colour in our pillows, fabrics, accessories and
flowers (all of which can be changed to suit the season).
HGTV: Tell us about your kitchen...
Mandy:
The kitchen is the pivot point of the house; on three sides it is
connected to the exterior deck which we lounge on when the weather
permits. We love to cook and entertain and wanted a kitchen that guests
would
feel comfortable gathering in, but that had functional work stations so
that my husband and I can prepare meals together. We also built
areas for baking trays, spices and tall bottles into the cabinetry,
close
to the work triangle. We chose a cork rubber composite floor for the
kitchen, as it easy on the feet, comes in natural colours that could be
matched to the existing floor tone and was the perfect flooring to
maintain continuity and not break up the
flow we had worked hard to create.
Custom kitchen with cork+rubber composite floors.
HGTV: A word on all your art and wall decor?
M&C:
We love art. The art in the main house is primarily from BC artists.
Our biggest splurge was on the painting in the living room by Vancouver
artist, Bobbie Burgers (Bau-Xi Galleries) [not pictured]. Two gigantic peonies on a 6 X
11 foot canvass lends incredible vitality to the space, bringing nature
into the whole house and counterbalancing the masculine lines of the
furniture and built-in cabinetry.
Family room with Maisy the dog; Benson Canyon sectional sofa and Eileen Gray side table from Inform Interiors; coffee table by Martha Sturdy; painting by Kenneth Torrance.
Mandy: The family room is our place to watch movies. The modern turquoise
piece in the family room is by Kenneth Torrance from 18 Carat. The nude
in the bedroom is Jae Dougall (Harrison Galleries) and the landscape by
the fireplace was by Erin McSavaney and is called “Break in the
Clouds”. It was a gift to my husband when he left his job at a public
accounting firm!
Closeup of Maisy, 11;'Style'
HGTV: Love the use of the dead roof space in the loft bedroom, how did you come to this idea?
M&C:
In the bedroom we took back some of the wasted lower space in the
eaves, creating a recess in the wall for our bed (EQ3 'Simple' bed frame) to nestle in, hence
using less floor space, a low profile open wardrobe
(California Closets) and a central, tall hanging space for long
dresses and shoes (IKEA Pax System).
Loft master bedroom: EQ3 'Simple' bed frame; California Closets wardrobe inserts.
'Nude' painting in right corner of frame by Jae Dougall (Harrison Galleries).
Master closet in the eaves; IKEA PAX system.
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