Flashes of bright colour inject joy into this Villeray condominium
BY SUSAN SEMENAK
PHOTOGRAPHY: DREW HADLEY
STYLING: JEAN MONET
Floral arrangements: Le Marché aux Fleurs du Village.
Red is Fred Di Salvo’s signature colour. Bold, flamboyant, uninhibited red.
He’s used it to full advantage in his Villeray condo to punctuate an otherwise neutral palette of white, black and grey with excitement.
There it is in a studded ruby-coloured leather sofa pulled up to the dining table. And in the richly patterned oriental rugs that warm up the cool gray of polished concrete floors. There’s a splash of red in the Chinese vase and ginger jar and decorative boxes displayed on floating shelves in his shiny black-lacquered kitchen and on the ottoman in the living room.
Fred, an interior designer at Ambienti Design on Decarie Blvd., says he set out to create a “lounge look” with a masculine feel by blending contemporary decor and modern art with traditional design and flashes of grandeur. He knew he had succeeded, he says with a smile, when the caterers who arrived for a party he threw recently wondered if this were a home or a club.
Other homes he has decorated and lived in have been somber and serious, the walls painted charcoal grey and hung with black wallpaper. But when he first visited this ground-floor condo in the Villeray neighbourhood, he was mesmerized by the light pouring in through floor-to-ceiling windows and he decided to lighten things up for a change.
Fred was born nearby and after a 40-year absence, he finds living in Villeray, near the Jean Talon Market and the green expanses of Jarry Park, both convenient and convivial. He especially likes the fact that his home has its own street entrance, so when he walks his dog, he steps right outdoors.
Originally, the building, which dates to the 1940s, housed a clothing manufacturer – during a time when Montreal’s garment business was booming. It was converted to condominiums about a decade ago. When Fred first saw it, he loved the high ceilings and wide-open space, spread over three levels. But the time and price weren’t right and he bought another property instead. Then last year he came across it again, and it just happened to be on the market. “In five minutes, I knew I would buy it,” he says. That was despite the fact that the place was shabby and tired, having been occupied by a tenant whose idea of decor was a Murphy bed and dog-eared posters taped to the walls.
Fred, a self-proclaimed renovation junkie, renovated the condo completely, based on his own design. On his first visit, he sat in a chair in the middle of the bare, open space and knew right away that he wanted a wall of shiny black-lacquered cabinets at one end of the dining room. They would hide his entertainment system and offer ample storage. But most important, their sheen would bounce the light around.
The kitchen is adjacent to the dining area, linked by a 12-foot-long island counter, so Fred continued the black-lacquered theme there. With so much cabinetry to install, he shopped around before finding the ones he wanted. “I love how clean and bright a lacquered finish feels,” he says. “I’ve always had dark decor, but this time I didn’t want things to be heavy so I kept the walls pale, in off-white tones. I went dark only in the kitchen.”
To continue with his gleam theme, Fred chose stainless steel subway tiles for the back splash in the kitchen and high-gloss finishes for the countertop and stools. And then in a dramatic flourish, he hung an oversized smoked-glass chandelier over the round dining room. Sure enough, the chandelier has become a focal point, its reflection captured in numerous surfaces around the kitchen and dining room.
One of the homeowner’s favourite spots is the round pedestal table around which are clustered two club chairs and the famous red sofa. He knows it’s not a conventional dining-room set-up, but it suits his lifestyle perfectly. “Entertaining today is finger foods and wine and champagne. Or pizza and a drink. It’s very relaxed,” he says. “I went through a fancy stage with fine dishes and all that. But now I’m more casual, and entertaining is easier.”
Fred has only one sit-down dinner a year. That’s on Christmas Eve, when he hosts an Italian seafood dinner for family, keeping up his mother’s tradition. Relatives gather at the long island counter while he cooks. “I prepare and serve and talk and have a few sips of wine. I’m still part of what’s happening and not hidden away cooking,” he says.
Much as he loves his condo, Fred recently put it on the market. Now that he’s got this place just right, he says he’s itching to start “creating” again.
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Cutlines:
The bathroom:
Fred Di Salvo adheres to a grey palette, with floor tiles laid in a herringbone pattern for textural appeal.
The kitchen:
The lacquered cabinetry reflects light from the windows at the other end of the condo. It also captures the oversized chandelier in dramatic silhouette.
Fred injects his signature red in the accessories displayed on three floating shelves over the counter.
There’s plenty of cabinet space in this kitchen. To create a uniform wall of gloss, Fred hid ductwork behind lacquered panels.
The dining area:
For casual elegance, club chairs are clustered with a red sofa around a dining table. Usually though, Fred eats at the 12-foot-long counter.
One of the condo’s most dramatic flourishes is a smoked-glass chandelier, which is four-and-a-half feet in diameter.
The chandelier is reflected repeatedly in the condo’s many shiny surfaces.
The homeowner relies on large pieces of contemporary art to provide punches of colour in an otherwise black, white and grey palette.
The bedroom:
The bedroom is housed in a suspended, glassed-in loft that seems to float above the living room.
In his bedroom, Fred painted the floors black and then varnished them to a high gloss for a masculine look. The prints above his bed depict scenes from his favourite city, Florence. The traditional walnut nightstands hold narrow lamps that seem to hug the wall.
The stairway:
The stairway to the bedroom is camouflaged behind a frosted glass wall.
The living room:
Fred’s favourite painting is a pop-art re-imagining of a black and white snapshot of his parents and himself at age 6, by artist Marie-Pierre Ayoul.
A pair of Louis XV chairs Fred has owned for years get new life with black paint and black-and-white upholstery.
