On the Island
Shared love of music and art doesn’t extend to decorating
A Central Saanich couple found a way to incorporate their different decorating sensibilities into their home: They created distinct his- and- hers design zones.
Thirteen massive hand- hammered yak bells stand on a shelf in Timothy Vernon’s garden workshop.
No, he doesn’t raise the shaggy Himalayan beasts of burden, but the music man does love the sound such a chorus of bells makes when echoing down a mountain valley.
“I bought them from a percussionist and think I will turn them into an enormous wind chime,” said the artistic director of Pacific Opera Victoria.
Vernon has many plans for the sweeping Central Saanich property he and his wife bought 21 years ago, but he always checks with Wendy first, because they have very different tastes. That’s why they’ve divided their home into zones where each makes his or her own decisions: Wendy’s graceful style holds sway in the upper two floors, while Timothy calls the shots downstairs. He also rules the rustic roost in a small cottage he built on the lower property.
“We had to make that arrangement because Timothy and I have completely opposite taste,” said Wendy.
“I’m very classical and feminine. I like things to be light, white and pastel, whereas Tim likes red. As you can see, I’ve compromised,” she said, looking with a wince toward his brick- red cushioned deck furniture. His taste is eclectic. He goes for the rustic Italian look, which to me isn’t as refined. He also likes bigger- scaled things, and spicy food, while I’m terribly bland — even picking a restaurant is hard,” Wendy said.
Yet the result of this division of flavour is a charming and surprising home that reflects both their personalities, as well as a shared love of art and music.
The two met when she was just 10 and he was 12. Timothy sang the lead in the opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, while Wendy played a shepherdess, and her mother, renowned local sculptor, gardener and singer Peggy Walton Packard, sang the part of Amahl’s mother.
“We have always been friends and after he returned from 11 years of musical training in Europe we got married, 36 years ago. It was like we’d been waiting for each other.
“We share so much: a mutual love of art, a common history, having grown up in the same town, with many of the same people and influences.”
They also fell in love with the house the minute they saw it. Situated on 5.3 hectares, their French country house overlooks farmland. While informal, it exudes an atmosphere of refined country living.
“This house is very unfussy — there’s nothing grand about it,” said Wendy.
The mansard- roofed house was modelled after an old Quebec home that previous owners admired. Their marriage dissolved shortly after it was built, and the Vernons bought it while it was still unfinished.
They raised their four children — now in their late 20s to mid- 30s — there.
While the three- storey home is large, just under 4,000 square feet, it’s not imposing.
Timothy’s domain downstairs includes a large studiolibrary with a piano at one end, sitting area at the other and a screen dividing the two. Here, he prepares scores for orchestras and operas. A display of classical tablets hangs on a hot- red wall over a long bank of cabinets that he made and then topped with travertine. He also designed and made all the bookcases, including a freestanding one by the piano that’s double- sided.
A slab of wood that used to be a countertop in a 150- yearold butcher shop in Holstein, Ont., now serves as his desk. “It was being dismantled and I figured it would make a great work area. I love the old nails.” Timothy also went wild creating an eclectic, Italianate- style sitting room downstairs, complete with gold stencils along the walls, a pattern he continued onto the curtains.
“When I was on the McGill University faculty for 15 years, I had a tiny Montreal flat, and decorated each of my four small rooms differently. This is where all the stuff landed.” Upstairs, a large deck wraps around the house and welcomes visitors. The view strikes a familiar chord in almost everyone, said Wendy. Guests from far and wide step outside, gasp at the view, and exclaim that it reminds them of England, Germany, Tuscany or a favourite valley in France.
The latter pleases Wendy, who adores French- country style. “It’s so elegant and clean looking.”
In her design realm — on the main and upper floors — she mixes soft Dijon shades with off- white and tangerine.
Windows on the main floor are framed with billowing taffeta drapes, which Wendy made a foot longer than necessary to pool resplendently on the floor.
A specialist in classical ballet costuming who owns Gossamer Costume Construction and Design, Wendy made many of the home’s soft furnishings. She also teaches at Pacific Dance Centre, and coordinates the DanceWorks festival.