“The perfect praise we get is that the home appears like Megan Draper’s condo in Mad Males”
Architect Richard Pagani designed a number of progressive, modernist properties in his hometown of Guelph. (Pictures by Nathan Cyprys.)
Ever since Cass Goulding was a toddler, she’s been drawn to classic kitsch, watching outdated episodes of Bewitched and scouring thrift shops for Nineteen Fifties rockabilly-style clothes. Her husband, Chris Bowman, prefers clear strains, Scandinavian minimalism and the modernist designs of Louis Kahn, Marcel Breuer and Pierre Koenig. “I’m mid-century, he’s trendy, so collectively we’re mid-mod,” she says.
In 2017, Goulding, now a social media supervisor, and Bowman, a pilot, had been residing in a cookie-cutter three-bedroom Oshawa home furnished in typical millennial vogue, with a nightstand doing double responsibility as a TV desk. They fantasized about taking their atomic-age aesthetic obsession to the following stage and shopping for a mid-century residence. They began their hunt the following yr, limiting their search radius to inside an hour’s drive of Pearson airport.
In December of 2018, Bowman noticed a list on-line for a low-slung rectangular construction by architect Richard Pagani in Guelph, Ontario—however at $850,000, it was out of their funds. The three-bedroom home languished available on the market for just a few extra months, and its value fell by $100,000. The day they considered the home, it dropped even additional, to $699,000. They put in a proposal for that quantity in 2019, and as soon as it was accepted, the couple solely had 11 days to promote their townhouse.
The couple took their time to construct out the decor for his or her dream mid-mod residence, scouring the web and classic spots for his or her items
Their new, glossy residence brims with considerate mid-century particulars. The entrance door is flanked by massive glass panels, and a Sputnik lamp hangs from the ceiling. A set of darkish floating wooden stairs leads as much as the ethereal lounge, which got here with large, commercial-grade floor-to-ceiling home windows.
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Goulding, who’s a giant fan of director Wes Anderson’s fanciful and vibrant aesthetic, handled her residence’s inside design like a film set. She had the slate-grey exterior painted a darkish, stormy blue, punctuated by a cheerful yellow door. Inside, the unifying color scheme is orange, as seen within the couple’s alternative of space rugs, flip clock and carrot-haired troll doll. Goulding and Bowman additionally painted a blue arch and a tangerine rectangle to interrupt up the monotony of their white partitions, and so they selected an inferno orange for the lavatory vainness. Scattered all through the home are splashy and vibrant artwork prints, together with retro surrealist collages by Frank Moth and Thom Easton, together with a few of Goulding’s selfmade work.
Their assortment of mid-century furnishings features a Nineteen Fifties teak eating set and replicas of Goulding’s favorite lamp: the Louis Poulsen PH 5, which she discovered on-line for a discount value. “The perfect praise we get is that the home appears like Megan Draper’s condo in Mad Males,” she says. However the couple’s completely different tastes often put them at odds: Goulding loves the unique Sixties blue bathtub in the primary toilet and the peach sink within the ensuite; Bowman doesn’t. “Each loos want gut-job renovations in my view,” he says. Goulding has satisfied Bowman to maintain the peach sink, however they may jettison the blue tub.
In addition they have massive plans for the basement, which can finally turn out to be a retro-themed lounge the place they’ll host raucous events—the house even has a curved, picket built-in bar that homes their in depth classic barware assortment. First, they should insulate the partitions and change the inexperienced shag carpeting that their canine, Summit and Sushi, continually mistake for grass. “It’s going to be the perfect room in the home,” Goulding says.
Goulding and Bowman share their residence with two canine, Summit and Sushi, and greater than 20 crops that the couple have named
Their residence has turn out to be part of their id. Quickly after they moved in, Goulding began an Instagram account, @midmodcass, to attach with different atomic-age fanatics. For Bowman’s thirty sixth birthday, Goulding commissioned KaloolaJay Studio to attract a customized portrait of the home surrounded by palm timber, an ode to the couple’s love of mid-century paradise Palm Springs. And it’s not their solely picture of the home, both. In 2022, they noticed an illustration by artist Julie Corridor that depicted one other design by their residence’s architect, Richard Pagani, and reached out to get her to attract their home too.
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“I simply need to dwell someplace that’s energetic and enjoyable and makes me really feel blissful,” says Goulding. Their house is a full one, shared with greater than 20 crops which have names like Natalie Portman and André the Large. (The 2 pink plastic flamingos on the garden are known as Simon and Garfunkel.) “For the primary couple of years we lived right here,” Bowman says, “we might go searching and say to one another: ‘I can’t imagine we truly acquired this place.’ ”
