Houzz Tour: A Midcentury Modern Dream Come True

A Toronto interior designer moves her family into a 1960s house she’d admired for years

Becky Harris July 7, 2016

Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe as "collected." I got into design via Landscape Architecture, which I studied at the University of Virginia.

Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe... More

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It was kismet and a dream come true. “I drove by this house on the way to the design showrooms all the time, and I always knew, scratch that, I always dreamed that it would be my house one day,” says Toronto-based interior designer Shirley Meisels. “I love the midcentury modern era, and I could see it had fantastic windows.”

By chance, her ex-husband sent her a link to a real estate listing one day because he knew she loved the era and was curious about what she thought of the house. “I thought, ‘I’m quite settled, thank you very much,’ but then when I saw where it was on the map, I thought, ‘Oh, my God — that’s my house!’” she says. When she told her partner about it, he asked her if she was crazy, but by then the designer had already decided that she was going to talk him into yet another renovation adventure.

Shirley Meisels

Photos by Kim Jeffery

Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Shirley Meisels and her blended family of five
Location: Toronto
Size: 4,200 square feet (390 square meters); four bedrooms, five bathrooms

The 1960s house had great bones and didn’t require much structural work, but it did need new heating, air-conditioning, electrical and plumbing systems. The single-pane windows were replaced with double-glazed, insulated aluminum windows, and a lot of cosmetic work was done to the kitchen and bathrooms.

In the entry hall, Meisels had an arch removed to keep the more modern squared-off look. The black outline around the sidelights plays off the black frames on the large painting and the mirror. The floors are 2-by-4-foot porcelain tiles digitally printed to look like marble.

The bench, a modern take on traditional Shaker style, is an unexpected touch. “I wanted to do this house modern but not necessarily midcentury modern,” Meisels says. “I had enough retro pieces to bring with me, and I wanted it to look more current; I wanted to mix it up.”

The entry also foreshadows what’s to come. While Meisels loves a light background and strong contrasting black accents, she adds in dashes of color in a carefully edited way, as you see here with the saturated rug.

Shirley Meisels

Just off the hallway in the dining room, that color is lavender, also via the rug. Against the wall are a pair of vintage midcentury rosewood-and-Lucite bookcases with a desk in between. They came with the house, and Meisels repurposed them from bedroom piece to dining room buffet.

The string chairs are by well-known midcentury modern Canadian designer Jacques Guillon. A walnut table lends warmth, while a Patrick Townsend Orbit chandelier adds a sculptural touch overhead. Meisels and her family brought everything with them from their old house; it was as if all the furniture and art had been waiting to be placed in a home from this era.

The spaces throughout the house were open and bright, thanks to expansive windows and doors as well as white walls and ceilings. “I wanted to make it feel a little cozier and dramatic,” she says of the choice of a long black accent wall. “Also, there aren’t really any architectural details in here, and the black makes the walls more interesting.”

Dining table: Formstelle

Shirley Meisels

A midcentury modern chair and a striking piece of art occupy a corner of the dining room. New flooring throughout is brushed white oak.

Shirley Meisels

The living room and dining room are open to each other in one long space that goes from the front of the house to the back. The black wall in the dining room continues all the way through both rooms.

“I kept everything else light in here because of the black wall,” Meisels says. The sofa fabric is washable, and she layered a cowhide rug on top of the cream rug for its durability and to keep the room from looking too stark. “I strategically arranged it for wherever feet would tend to be,” she says. She added a blue Womb chair and throw pillows for color, and a fiddleleaf fig tree for softness and greenery.

Shirley Meisels

The kitchen’s layout stayed intact, but a bad 1980s renovation needed to be redone. New white oak cabinets painted white show a bit of grain, while a custom steel vent hood painted black adds a strong element that contrasts with the white ceilings.

Shirley Meisels

A tall cabinet serves as an appliance pantry.

Shirley Meisels

Meisels livened up a corner of the white kitchen with a little attention-grabbing color. “I’ve had so many people ask me about the Queen Elizabeth portrait. The truth is, it’s a scarf a friend gave me as a gift. I loved it, but I knew I’d never wear it, so I had it framed,” she says.

The faceted lamp adds glitter and an unexpected light source for the kitchen.

Lamp: Nate Berkus for Target

Shirley Meisels

At the other end of the kitchen is an eating area where the family gathers. Meisels didn’t wind up buying any new art for the home, but rearranging the pieces she’s been collecting for 15 years made them new to her. Her favorite pieces are arranged on a gallery wall.

Chandelier: replica of a vintage Sciolari

Shirley Meisels

In the powder room, the drapes resemble the artwork Meisels has been collecting for years. She had a wallpaper pattern she’d admired custom-printed on fabric. Black faucets and a black mirror frame add sharp contrast to the light walls, Carrara marble and light floors. The cantilevered walnut vanity adds warmth.

Faucets: Rubinet; mirror: Umbra

Shirley Meisels

Meisels’ daughter has a cozy sofa in her bedroom, which also enjoys lots of natural light from the large windows. A sheepskin thrown over a black-and-white striped rug adds another comfy spot for sitting and reading. The portrait is of her as a little girl. The window treatments were a bargain; Meisels found the shirting material at a local fabric outlet and had it fashioned into drapes.

Rug: Ikea; modular chests: Aspect collection, Crate & Barrel

Shirley Meisels

There are a lot of playful elements in her stepdaughter’s room — a Juju headdress, mirrored nightstand and sparkly lamp. “I found that at a local lamp store that was going out of business, and I laughed at how ridiculous I looked carrying it around the store. I felt like I was carrying an Oscar around,” she says. The sequined lampshade was a lucky $5 Target score. She repurposed a headboard herself, reupholstering it in a new fabric.

Art: Lulie Wallace, Anthropologie

Shirley Meisels

In this bathroom, the glittering wall is mosaic tile with a silver leafed pattern by Bisazza. The floors are porcelain tile digitally printed to look like Calacatta marble. (This tile is more durable and less slippery than marble.) The cantilevered vanity is walnut with a lovely grain, and the countertops are charcoal gray. The sinks have a view outside, while medicine cabinets on either side of the vanity have mirrored doors inside and out.

By the way, we’ve been following Meisels’ renovation adventures for years. Check out her last house and the one before that. It’s fun to see how her furniture works in different styles of homes and how she moves things around. A pottery collection all rounded up in one house is dispersed in another; artwork from the dining room moves to a hallway; a sofa moves from the living room to the kitchen; a Juju headdress goes from over a mantel to over a headboard — you can make a game of it.

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