Escape to Karine Vanasse’s Chic Farmhouse in the Woods

Hello house and home. I'm Corine Vanasse. Welcome to my home. This was supposed to be not a renovation, not a restoration. It was just supposed to be me and my son moving in. That's it. And maybe moving the kitchen. I had been visiting a few houses but it was not very precise what I was looking for. I saw this home just in photos and right away something clicked. I made an offer, promised my mom and my agent that I wouldn't do any renovation. That it would be a very easy move in. One of my best friends, she's a producer and she kind of suggested that maybe we could do a TV show. My first answer was no, no, no, no, no. Shyness is part of my personality still. So it felt contradictory to having a TV show about renovating my home. But as we were talking about it, it became clear that it could be more than a renovation show. It became how you connect with other creatives. Me meeting with the artisans, getting closer to certain jobs that we don't hear about often. The craftsmanship. The TV show forced this whole project to become way more than just a home. During the first season of the show, it got to a point where I was completely overwhelmed by everything that in the end needed to be done with the house. And Les Ensembliers Richard and Maxime, I've been a big fan of their work for many, many years. So I asked them to come and they saw the despair. So it really became a beautiful encounter. But then the barn, which was not part of the plan really, it became clear that it was just going on one side instead of standing straight. Richard and Maxime really helped with the idea of connecting the barn to the house so that it doesn't feel like another property. It doesn't feel like a different building. It feels like it's the continuity of the house. I really wanted to be closer to nature. We feel the wind and we hear the water. I can hear the birds in the morning. Just the fact that I'm with nature. So they suggested, well, okay, let's do these big openings and it's going to be that covered porch that you don't have around the house. Let's start with this fabric, this amazing fireplace. So this could become an exterior living room basically that I could use early in the spring, late in the fall, early winter, which I did last fall. With the screens coming down, if it rains, if it's windy, even if it snows a little bit, I'm protected. And obviously to bring it more to the elevated side of things, Luminaire Authentique, which is also in the area, they created with Richard from Les Ensembliers these amazing pieces of lighting. So the art is still present in the room. I come with my son to read. My sister was here not very long ago with her baby. It's very chic and elevated, but at the same time, I feel like it's the adult version of a cabin I would have loved to have in the woods when I was a teenager. I didn't want to have a cabin in the house, in the woods as a teenager. I'm like, okay, let's go back younger, maybe when I was eight. Lavender syrup, lavender lemonade. It's my new obsession. So I go out in the morning, take a few pieces of lavender and yeah, you infuse it for a little while. Lemon juice. We're higher than the ground. It needed to be safe still. So with Maxim, we decided to do this little area, which feels like a prow almost. And I love to just sit there with my son and my boyfriend. When I'm here, I'm just not even conscious of the house anymore. I feel like I'm just observing nature. There's so much happening. The birds are flying by, the ducks. I just love that this area allows for different stages of the day. Even like in the morning where I love to be with some incense burning. So it makes me feel like I'm in Bali. But I love to be in the spa and just like watching the sun. It's magical. I'm going to use it also in the fall. So it was the perfect choice for me right now. And eventually, anyway, the idea is to jump in the pond. So that will be the pool. I'm just not sure of what kind of living are at the very bottom. So I need to test it. I haven't tried it yet, but it's coming. I love this whole idea of a farmhouse, yes. But the connection to me feels much more modern. The straight line with the slight angle, but coming from the house to the barn and then stepping down from it to come here. And then this section that we added. And I love the fact that it feels like its own little island almost. That's where my son pretends to be an acrobat and jumps on my shoulders and everything. But I love this area. It's always the case with gardens. I mean, you just hope to see them grow and blossom. It was planted last year and this year. Most of the plants. And early in the morning, I love that when I come out, the smell of lavender is there. And I love it. I love that I can just walk, touch some leaves and smell my hand. And it's just like, I love it. I don't know when my love for mini chairs started. I have two at the front door as well. And I'm always on the verge of getting rid of them. But always last minute, I'm like, no, no, I can't. I just have to keep them. I just find them cute. I find like it's a really great, beautiful object. So yes, I'm keeping my tiny chairs. The colors of the glass, you can't really see them from outside. You mostly see them when you're inside. Listen. When people use that bell here, when I open the door, they're smiling for sure. Like you cannot do this and not smile. So I love it. Good beginnings. I'm going to show you everything I love. I'm not saying that it's a perfect choice. I'm just saying it was a perfect choice for me. And it makes me happy when I see it. I love the wallpaper on the ceiling. It was supposed to be just on the walls. I went with this wallpaper first, and it was missing some joy. So when I added this striped yellow wallpaper on the ceiling, to me, it all came together. So when I enter my house, I see this. I see this painting which I love. And the tiles make me so happy. When I moved here and when I realized that the renovations would be a little bit more tricky than just moving a kitchen, Alexandre Blaisy suggested these tiles. And I'm really glad that they're a part of the house. Yeah, they make me happy every time I see it. This is usually covered with a lot of stuff. I cleaned it up for you. So this was... I wouldn't say that it was the original living room. It was kind of... The kitchen used to be there. So it was more like a wide corridor, I would say. And I didn't want it to be too formal. This living room, to me, feels very creative and warm and cozy. And often, I'm just cooking. I'm in the kitchen, and my son is here. He started reading on the floor of this room. And that's exactly what I was hoping for. I wanted this room to feel like you wanted to stop here. I feel like it's very vulnerable when you show the books that you have. The books that you have that you haven't read. Also, which is a lot of what's happening here. Just that, to me, was an exercise in itself. It tells a lot when you look at someone's library. So I feel like great memories are already taking place here. And this is my kitchen. To me, it feels unpretentious. It doesn't feel intimidating to me when I wake up. You know, before moving here, I didn't drink coffee in the morning, except if I was going to a coffee shop. I am proudly making my own coffee in the morning now. It's interesting, because at first, this section was supposed to be just storage. And Richard was like, I don't know, you have to make it your little coffee nest. And I said, no, no, I want to look outside. But I'm realizing that when I come here, I do look outside. I saw this summer my first hummingbird. I see butterflies every morning. This was found at an antique store. It was just restored so that I could incorporate it in the kitchen. Love the stone. When I saw it first, I thought maybe it would be too much. I saw someone online recently who actually did an entire island kitchen. Top and sides with this stone. And it's called All of the Seasons. And I can't believe that nature did that. I have no upper cabinets. I didn't want a hood vent. I was very adamant about that. I didn't want to block the view. So finally, I went with this option, and it's perfect for me. So I feel like I'm not... I'm sorry, I'm going to put it down. Ah, it has to go up entirely. Ah, perfect. Bye-bye. So the fact that I have this view, and I can just enjoy it as I'm cooking, to me, it changes the whole experience of cooking. But I also have lightings that I've been carrying for years. So this finally found its place. And at the last minute in this kitchen, these beams were added. They're fake. They're not real. They feel real. So that's something that Richard suggested, just to bring back some warmth. This fireplace, I saw an image of something that looked similar to that. And the shape kept evolving because of the way it needed to fit into the walls. And then, anyway, I'm loving this. And this is not my ancestor. It's OK. It's something I found at an antique store here in Eastern Townships. And I just love this little man. This was bricks that we found on the property in the woods that we reused. And this is probably my favorite choice of the entire house. This fabric from Bitter Human. It was inspired by the cover of books when you would open a book, what would be inside. So it was inspired by that. I almost didn't go for that fabric, thinking that it might be too much. And it might be too much for some of you, and it's OK. But it was just not too much for me. It makes me happy every time I touch it, I see it. Sitting here, when we have dinner, when my son plays Lego, which is mostly what it's used for at this table. But the fact that I see the barn so close, it really does feel like the extension of the house. So now we're in the dark, moody room. When I'm watching movies here, it really feels like I'm in a cinema. Love that wallpaper. This room was already quite dark. I just went with it. Your dark room? Well, you're going to be in the dark room, and I'm going to embrace that. So I didn't try to make it brighter. The fireplace with Richard and Maxime, we kept it bright. I love the art in here. It's colorful, it's whimsical, it's a little mysterious. I'm glad that I didn't follow everyone who told me, well, maybe the ceiling could be brighter. But I love, though, that the carpet is brighter. I feel like it's the basement dream room that you would have, but I have it on the first floor, so it's very cozy. My bedroom, it's not that big, but it's covered with wallpaper. I think my grandparents had bedrooms covered with wallpaper like this. I feel like I'm in an attic, and I have this big window looking outside once again. Yeah, I love my bedroom. And I know the wallpaper and the headboard, they don't really quite match, but you know what? They still do, somehow. It's not conventional, but somehow it worked. And then you have a small bathroom, and in that bathroom you have the pink tiles that makes me feel like I'm in Morocco. It's funny how I embarked on this journey, because that's what it became, trying to find what I was looking for, but it really brought me back to the fact that taking care of your home is also taking care of yourself. It's an extension of you and who you want to be, who you want to affirm being. So it's more than just homes, and I think that by doing the TV show, that's what we were putting forward. Even Maxime and Richard, we've seen amazing projects that they've worked on, but the show allowed us to also get closer to them, their process, and even their emotions. I love that this house allowed all of us to go deeper.