Nestled in a neighbourhood celebrated for its quiet, charming streets and traditional homes, is Etoile Residence, a former 3,500-sq.-ft., five-bedroom, four-bathroom heritage home built in 1925. The owners are a retired couple who wanted to enlarge and modernize the structure while honouring the building’s century-old heritage and its historical surroundings.
They desired a home that embraced simplicity and understated elegance, with high-quality craftsmanship and subtle luxury. The overall goal was to preserve the home’s essence while updating it for contemporary living, and the architectural strategy was to maintain the integrity of the original front façade, while introducing a modern twist to the rear façade. The result is a stunning 6,280-sq.-ft., six-bedroom, six-bathroom home where the homeowners can welcome their grown children and extended family.
Joy Chao, lead interior designer with John Henshaw Architect Inc., a Vancouver-based architectural and interior design firm, shares some of the design work that went into the transformation of this home.
Did meeting the homeowners’ goals require any structural changes to the exterior and interior of the house?
JOY CHAO: To realize this vision, several structural changes were made. The basement was expanded, and the house was lifted and shifted forward on the lot to increase space at the rear. Internally, the floorplan was redesigned to improve openness and ease of cleaning, enhancing both functionality and comfort. These updates seamlessly integrate heritage elements with modern features, embodying the homeowners’ values of simplicity, luxury and balance. This approach holds a high standard of craftsmanship. The outcome is a living space where traditional charm and contemporary convenience beautifully coexist.
Each bathroom seems to have its own unique, yet luxurious look. Can you explain the process behind their design?
CHAO: The home features one powder room on the main floor, four bathrooms on the upper floor, and a spa room on the basement level. The secondary bathrooms follow a muted, simple design that aligns with the home’s cohesive aesthetic. The primary ensuite offers a touch of decadence while maintaining a soft, understated luxury, emphasizing an airy and serene atmosphere.
The homeowners granted the interior designers more creative freedom at the basement level, allowing them to incorporate bolder materials, colours and designs. This is particularly evident in the spa room, which contrasts with the more subdued bathrooms elsewhere in the house, showcasing a distinctive and vibrant flair.
The house has two kitchens separated by a pocket door. Can you offer insight into why this was done, and are there any unique features that set them apart?
CHAO: The two-kitchen layout effectively separates high-heat, aromatic cooking from everyday meal prep. The wok kitchen, designed for greasy cooking, features heavy-duty appliances and a pocket door with a textured glass window. This setup confines odours and grease to that space, minimizes visual clutter, and lets light flow into the adjacent area, making the smaller, centrally located kitchen feel more open.
We opted for a sliding pocket door rather than a solid one to avoid obstructing appliances and cabinets.
The seedy textured glass offers a soft, blurred view, reducing the visibility of the inevitable mess in the prep kitchen while letting in light. In contrast, the main kitchen is spacious and benefits from abundant natural light. This thoughtful separation improves efficiency and keeps the rest of the home cleaner and more inviting.
The colour palette seems light and airy, with various shades of blue seen in different rooms. What was the inspiration behind the colour choices?
CHAO: We collaborated closely with the client to choose a colour palette that matched their lifestyle and taste. They were particularly drawn to warm wood tones, which became the foundation of the design. To complement this, we introduced blue as a contrasting colour, enhancing the natural wood’s warmth. This colour scheme flows throughout the house, creating a serene environment that not only fulfills the client’s vision, but also highlights the home’s features.
This home is the very essence of quiet luxury. The rooms seem to flow comfortably into each other. What are some of the design elements that went in to creating such a graceful and elevated space?
CHAO: The understated elegance and high-quality materials showcase superior craftsmanship, emphasizing that luxury doesn’t have to be overdone. The neutral colour palette is soft and cohesive, which creates a serene, elegant atmosphere that feels airy and subdued. The custom millwork highlights expert, and exceptional, craftsmanship. Quality LED and lighting fixtures complement and highlight the home’s materiality, while the large windows and strategic lighting maximize natural light and amplify the sense of space.
The house is now energy efficient and was designed with Passive House principles at its core. Can you explain some of the ways in which this was done?
CHAO: We began with enhancing the insulation throughout the walls, roof, and floors to reduce heat loss and maintain a stable indoor temperature. Coupled with that, high-performance, triple-glazed windows also contribute to improving insulation and minimize heat transfer. An efficient mechanical system consisting of heat pumps and other electrical systems reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide effective heating and cooling. And finally, the building’s construction ensures a high level of airtightness, minimizing drafts and air leakage for better energy conservation.
What was the biggest challenge in this home’s renovation?
CHAO: One of the key challenges during the design process was balancing the contrasting styles of the home’s front and rear exteriors. The rear elevation is a more contemporary design, while the front façade draws inspiration from the Dutch Colonial Revival style, commonly seen in Vancouver. The goal was to create a harmonious transition that not only made sense architecturally, but also complemented the surrounding streetscape.
The original house also required an intricate lift and relocation by 24 inches – an incredibly complex task. On top of that, achieving high energy-efficiency in a heritage renovation like this is always tough. However, by collaborating closely with an outstanding construction team (View Point Construction) and leveraging their advanced construction techniques, we achieved an exceptional level of air tightness that’s nearly unprecedented for a residence of this size in Vancouver.