the place I call home- Calgary. Ab
After selling our home in Edmonton, we managed to buy a house in Calgary’s booming real estate market in January of 2006. Its a 1958 house that had a great modernist feel to it, right beside the LRT station and in a mature neighbourhood. The house was a rental that obviously needed some serious love and attention. As a designer, I have a hard time dealing with images like the one above, (which, believe or not, is a photo of our kitchen when we bought it). I began thinking about possibilities of the space by sketching on paper and physically drawing on the walls. (Note the in grey paint on the wall we wanted to remove).
My wife Jenn and I went to work repainting and removing the parts of the house we disliked most. We put together some sketches and with my brother Grant, and we built what is shown in the images below. Our project took over two-straight months month of very late nights and long weekends, but we’re very happy with the result. We are indebted to our great family who all invested their time with our house, and look forward to future projects as we evolve and continue shaping this space to facilitate our new lives here in Calgary.
The newly installed martini bar complete (in place of existing wall) with glasses, liquor, and PURE design’s Karim Rashid “Arp” stools. Otto chair by Greg Ball on the right. Shown in the back, our custom designed shelf filled with our favorite Art, books, ceramic by Artist: Chuck Wissinger, and a few items from Geoff Lilge’s ceramic object collection.
Evening view of the hall. My favorite print called “Transgression/ Progression” by Eric Dyck.
Bar detail with arp stool.
Living room with “Longview 4” painting by: by designer: John Greg Ball
A ceiling fixture that reminded me of the Calgary tower that we saved and repainted. (removed from a historic home in the Inglewood district of Calgary).
Our custom designed- Zurich font house numbers, and PURE design’s No.10 Mailbox.
