Create unconventional space in your home

The minute you step into Brenda Demchuk's and Felice Olivieri's home, a few thoughts occur simultaneously. The first is that this is a deeply comfortable house, in Montreal's modest Rosemont district, where clever practicality blends beautifully with a friendly spirit of openness. The second is that it's hard to pin the home's inspiration to a single source: traditional, modern, European, homegrown. White slipcovered furniture, as inviting as it is timeless, beckons in more than one room. Eclectic art, accessories, and a range of collections arranged in an understated fashion suggest both the past and present. In particular, the miscellany of home wares and other objects the couple has gathered during extensive travels to Europe imbue the home with a casually extravagant air. Demchuk's fondness for authentic hotel style—a taste reflected in the crisp monogrammed linens, classic china, old brass hotel keys, and silver serving pieces found in Italian second-hand shops and French flea markets such as Marché aux Puces—is evident throughout the home. It all contributes to an indefinable and highly alluring style.

The home's layout, too, is momentarily disorienting, for unlike most houses, whose ground floor entry halls give way to common living spaces, this one gives convention a gentle tweak. Just off the inviting foyer, with its discernable English Country attitude, are the home's two bedrooms and one of its two bathrooms, as well as Demchuk's studio space, while upstairs lie the bright and welcoming entertaining spaces. “There's more light upstairs,” says Demchuk, “and a balcony off the kitchen; it's quiet, and more pleasant for living.”

When Demchuk and her husband acquired the duplex from Olivieri's family in 1993, it was defined by two completely separate apartments, including the one Felice grew up in. After living in the duplex themselves for only a short time, the creative couple knew what they wanted to do with it. “Because my office is at home, and because we have a lot of stuff, we needed more space,” notes Demchuk, who runs her custom slipcover and window treatment business from the house.