This Toronto Home is an Earthly Paradise. Colette Van den Thillart

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Written By Jim J Neal

Alex LukeyColette van den Thillart began her latest project brief with a whimsical list. One of her Toronto clients had slipped a note to her. It was simply called “Things I Love”, and contained among other items idiosyncratic lions, flowers and books. This kind of mix might not be enough to inspire a whole home for most designers. Van den Thillart is well-known for her playful, yet consistent style, which includes bold tones and elegant proportions as well as classical motifs. Van den Thillart says that this home is about the couple’s history, their travels together and the things they have collected.
A cultured couple with grown children had seen van den Thillart’s work at several of their friends’ and relations’ houses and decided to hire the designer to remodel their 1920s home. The cherry-colored vestibule welcomes guests to the home. However, the family prefers a side entry. The cerise entrance is the visual introduction to all the other rooms in the house. It is flanked by a classic, all-white staircase hall, from which the majority of the main rooms, including the living room, family and breakfast rooms, are visible.

The entry was sprayed in cherry-red (hue 00240 from Fine Paints of Europe). It was then infused with patterns from Osborne & Little fabric on its ceiling and Flora Soames linens on the bench. She explains that the room was a small white box used for cocktail parties when we first started. However, it took up almost a quarter of the house’s square footage.
The sterile palette was banished and the walls were covered in Pierre Frey tree-of-life grasscloth with hints and plum, light pink and grass green. The room’s back wall is covered in pink graphic bookcases, while the green rug is based on one at Edward James’s Monkton House. The rug was covered with his wife’s footprints. However, the one in this home is covered with feline paw prints (the client requested lions). The rug is dreamlike and stretches around the room, connecting the space around a custom sofa (where their children often nap) and a small table at the opposite end.

Van den Thillart’s signature fireplace was inspired by historical surroundings. The Willy Daro tables from the 1970s and boomerang-shaped bench are vintage. Vintage Willy Daro-style tables from the 1970s and boomerang-shaped benches are also vintage. A leafy Soane Britain ceiling light and Willy Daro-style sofa make the room feel like a forest. Surrealist sunburst fireplace surround is the crown jewel. It was inspired loosely by Renzo Mongiardino’s terrifying mantel for Elsa Peretti’s Tuscan tower and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s flame-lit fireplace. The designer explained that the original mantel was too heavy and let the room fall. This is a more sculpture-like design.
The breakfast room connects to the couple’s kitchen via a bright palette of stone floors and timber walls. It also features a set vintage rosewood dining chairs that the designer covered with deep ocean-blue velvet. Van den Thillart shares, “I knew that we had to do something special with the chairs.” He says, “So we covered the backs of the chairs with a 1960s-embroidered textile I purchased in the U.K. because it was amazing.” The chairs now sing like a siren around the Saarinen-sculptural dining table.

Van den Thillart restored a set vintage rosewood chairs using a midcentury textile that she had sourced from the U.K. Van den Thillart reupholstered a set of vintage rosewood chairs in a midcentury textile she sourced in the U.K. The designer says that clients use the room a lot. “So much so that they wore out their sofas so we started there.” Van den Thillart kept the walls as is and replaced the sofa with a malachite-hued sectional in order to brighten up the space. This room is a showcase for the book-loving clients, who filled the bookshelves with leather-bound volumes.
The whole home reads almost like a novella. There are elements from the natural world, travel and pursuit of knowledge that show up in beautiful and interesting interventions. The designer says, “I believe I’m well-known for creating interiors that have a narrative quality.” “I hope this one tells the story of curiosity as well as the transportive side of spaces.”