Tour A Designer's Restored English Cottage–Style Bungalow

Hi, my name is Orsi Panos from Orsi Panos Interiors. Welcome to my historical house in Whitby. I had always wanted to own a beautiful property in downtown Whitby, which is known for its historical grid. And as soon as I walked in, I knew this was the one that I had been waiting for. It was built in 1855 in Regency cottage style, and it was built by a local builder. His name is Thomas Gallagher. It was beautiful in its time, but through previous ownerships, it kind of lost its style. And I just felt called to bring it back to what it's meant to be. So the beautiful English classical cottage style. I love the fact that it's a compact house. It's modest, but it has beautiful character and it's got beautiful oversized windows. It's got a center hall design and it's under 1400 square feet. So it's like the perfect size. The light is amazing. There's beautiful natural light that flows in throughout the day. So I had an opportunity to really play with some deeper tones as well as some lighter hues as well. So in the living room, we experimented with a deeper color. It's railings by Farrow & Ball. And the wood burning fireplace is original. And that mantle was in place when I bought the house. It was one of the things that I fell in love with. One of the quintessential approaches to a classical English look is layering textures and patterns. It is my personal favorite way of decorating a space. I sourced this antique rug that has a strong pattern, which laid the foundation for all the pieces that are on top of it. I have some antiques that are layered in there, as well as a beautiful, comfortable sofa that is upholstered in a bold hue in a velvet textural fabric, as well as the tossed pillows add a little bit of whimsy. And I do play with the idea of the 80-20 rules. So I didn't want it to be too much leaning towards classical. So in the living room, I have this very modern booklet chair, which is very comfortable. And I just feel like it's that punch that wakes up the space and creates a little bit of that edginess. The living room is a long and narrow space, spacious at the same time. And I felt that the best way to approach the furnishing of the space was to split it into two different functions. So one area is the sitting area and then towards the windows. At the end, created a work zone with a couple of desks and a couple of chairs that look outside to the streets. Thanks for watching. This house tour is presented by Scotty's Supreme. Can a tissue box really be a decorating accessory? Yes, it can. The kitchen that we see now used to be a significantly smaller space. We combined the kitchen and the old dining room together. I love that we opened up the space because the light is just magnificent. Now we get the beautiful eastern sunshine and can actually watch the sunset from the windows as well. My approach to the kitchen was to play homage to a quintessential British kitchen. I actually went to London when I bought this house to get inspired and to really bring that sense back into the space. So classic shaker style, the open shelving. Also, the furniture style island is another element that I really wanted to introduce here, as well as bringing in antiques. So one of the cabinets that are against the wall, instead of doing a fitted kitchen, it's just a beautiful antique that we put in place for additional storage, as well as it serves as a serving station. The kitchen colors were another opportunity for me to just play with abandon. The wall cabinetry is railings, and then we have a neutral mixed in. And the island is this saturated blush stone, which I thought was just the perfect punch of color. The wall treatments are quite neat. We have this amazing custom wallpaper, which came from a couple of ladies that I met at Maison Objet in Paris. And when I saw this beautiful pattern, I knew that this was the one for this kitchen. Another approach to bringing in a little bit of that old world charm was to play with brass finishes as well as copper. I really wanted the rail for all the copper pots and pans above the range. And I've always wanted to have herringbone flooring. So here we are. Dream come true. This eating area lent itself to creating a banquet dining area. The space is limited here, so it was the perfect solution. It creates a great connection to the kitchen for a flow of conversation and for entertaining. Another great feature is all the additional storage that is built in under the seat. And it's just a beautiful view looking outside through the windows as well. The front bedroom had no storage. Originally, these old homes don't have walk in closets and there really isn't any built in storage. So created this custom millwork and the bed is recessed and the bed also has storage. It's a hydraulic lift base and there is ample storage for additional bedding and et cetera under the bed. Our approach here was to color drench to create the illusion of a larger space. So painted out with the millwork, the walls, the casing, everything in the same color. In the second bedroom, played with a more bold hue of this blue green color from Farrow & Ball. It's a small bedroom, very compact side tables and kind of a simple approach to the bed. But the bedding also is layered with a William Morris pattern mixed with a more modern duvet and a bold punch of candy striped toss pillow as the topper. These Regency cottage style homes typically have a center hall construction. So one side of the house usually is the living space and the other side is the bedrooms and the bathrooms kept the original door. And actually, the light fixture in the hallway is a light fixture that I kept from the original bathroom, and it's just the perfect fixture for this hallway. And another fun element that I introduced here is instead of a play trail that you would typically see in an English house, I have a bookcase that is above eye level to store all the books that I've collected over the years. And it just adds, again, a very personal touch. The bathroom is a super fun space. Selected a bold green color for the custom vanity and the linen tower and had the pleasure of selecting some beautiful traditional fixtures from DXV Canada. They are just a perfect touch for this space. This was an opportunity for me to play with tiles and patterns and not be hesitant about making bold choices. I was really drawn to the small checkerboard tiles that we see on the floor and fell in love with these amazing floral pattern tiles for the wall and ended up combining some solids with the pattern and decided to do color blocking at a three quarter height just to bring the eye up. It is a small space, and I wanted to create, again, the illusion of more space by bringing the eye up. So the renovation took six months, and I think it's because I really took my time to make decisions as the problems came up and I had to contemplate on them and solve them. And it was the most joyous experience to not be under pressure and to be able to just make decisions as they had to be made. And now that the project is complete, I can honestly say this is my favorite house I've ever designed.