Open house: a breeder from the 70s becomes a modern and bright classic

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Celia Dawson knew what kind of home she wanted. She just had to watch the market and wait.

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Vancouver’s Polygon Homes senior vice president of interior design had been renting in Kerrisdale for years. But she had an image in mind of her ideal home: a U-shaped, one-story house with a pool in the backyard and space for her and her two daughters in their twenties. And close to his parents, aged 91 and 84, on the West Side of Vancouver.

“I liked the mid-century modern feel, where it’s open, front and back, with full flow to the landscape at the front and back of the house,” she says. “I just waited for this house to appear.”

In 2018, it does: a 2,100-square-foot rancher on Musqueam lands near UBC, eight homes from his parents’ house. Originally built and designed in 1974, the house had hardly been touched since, a time capsule with original avocado plumbing fixtures, a sunken living room, dark stonework, and high pile carpet.

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In collaboration with Fiona Sinclair Design Studio and entrepreneur John Meaney of MDM Solutions, Dawson set out to modernize the layout. Ripping it to the studs, they leveled the floors, demolished the walls between the dining room and the kitchen, and removed a heavy stone fireplace that blocked the view of the garden.

With so much experience and knowledge in career design, has Dawson been overwhelmed by the number of interior options? “Focusing on a single idea for your home can be very difficult, but I kept the main goal in mind, which was an all-white palette,” she says. “I wanted my art to be color and the landscape to take over. The sightlines would be wide open; bright and perfectly integrated lighting.

Notable exceptions are the antique chandeliers in the dining room and powder room, which Dawson inherited from his parents. The fixtures “were crumbling with age” and the crystals were missing, but she was able to find a local antique dealer to restore them to their original sparkling splendor.

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Other antique and vintage items – First Nations-made bentwood boxes in the bedroom, Chinese chests in the living room – also help balance the modern aesthetic. “I like to incorporate collectibles, old and new,” Dawson says. Built-in bookcases house his favorite books on art and landscape, alongside knick-knacks and small art objects collected on trips.

Elsewhere, Dawson’s art collection takes center stage, contrasting with the understated white palette. She started amassing early in her career, she says, when she decided to buy a piece of art each year – later framed in that passion by Polygon president and collector-philanthropist Michael Audain. Today, it owns works by British Columbia artists Gordon Smith, Fred Herzog and Tom Burrows, among others.

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The walls without art are mostly glass. “The windows and the light were the most important aspect of my reconstruction,” explains Dawson. Full glazing and sliding doors open onto the back and side yards of every room in the house. Instead of a backsplash in the kitchen, a long horizontal window frames a view of the greenery. Even the master bathroom has a full glass wall. “I wanted to feel like I was showering outside,” explains Dawson. When guests are nearby, a remote-controlled blackout screen descends from an exterior soffit for added privacy.

Outside, the house wraps around an inviting patio of concrete cobblestones, with a cozy outdoor seating area and fire table. A pool-hot tub combination, made from a repurposed shipping container, arrived at the property via a crane, with cobblestones to appear integrated. An original two-story hedge at the house gives privacy to neighboring properties.

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The renovation process has been mostly smooth, Dawson says, after about a year of waiting for permits from the City of Vancouver and consent on designs from the Musqueam Lands Governance Office. The project was about 90% complete when COVID-19 hit, she adds, so the team could finish without major disruption. The project has since won the Georgia and Homebuilders Association of Vancouver 2021 awards for renovation excellence.

Once she moved in, the Dawson girls came to stay with her while working remotely during the height of the pandemic. “You could be in the kitchen, family room, dining room, bedrooms, back patio. All of these spaces became usable office spaces, basically, and the house was so soundproof you couldn’t hear a thing, ”she says.

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Today, the house is an oasis of calm for Dawson. “I love to come home and I hate to leave,” she says. “It’s just the feeling of relaxation when I’m at home, of peace and beauty.” The space was also well used for entertaining family and friends. “I like that people want to come and even drop by unexpectedly.” And live near her parents, whom she now sees daily? “It’s been a blessing,” she says.