Passionate about renovation and decorating, Lucie-Rose Lévesque took charge of restoring the beauty of an ancestral house from 1880 in the picturesque village of Saint-Raymond-de-Portneuf. Visit in variations of rose.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
Trained in journalism, Lucie-Rose Lévesque is a content creator and has been writing her own blog for ten years. A mother of four children, she lived until recently in Saint-Raymond-de-Portneuf — she has just moved to Donnacona, where she has found her “dream house”.
Some time ago, she came across a small house for sale, built in 1880, a few minutes from her former residence. “I really have a passion for old houses; I myself grew up in an ancestral home in the Gaspé, she says. The house needed love, but I always loved the renovation and the decoration, my boyfriend is super manual… So we went into it with our eyes closed and we made an offer! »
The couple therefore acquired the building in April 2021 and embarked on the adventure. Along the way, he had several surprises… good and bad!
Beneath several layers of tapestry, cardboard, wood, paint and linoleum, the original walls and floors have been revealed upstairs. A monk’s work and “a lot of arm juice” which made it possible to restore the house to its “youthful air” and its cachet.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The boudoir room, with some period newspapers to read in your free time!
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY LUCIE-ROSE LÉVESQUE
Between two walls, old newspapers dating back to the 1930s were found.
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY LUCIE-ROSE LÉVESQUE
Upstairs, before the original floors and walls were uncovered.
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Between two walls, in a small room on the second floor, the couple discovered period newspapers, some dating from 1930. “We couldn’t throw that away, it was part of the history of the house”, observes Lucie- Pink. The solution ? Line one of the walls of this room called the “boudoir” with pages of newspapers covered with Plexiglas, which thus become an element of the decor.
We were thinking of renovating it in a month or two, but it took us much longer in the end. We did almost everything by ourselves, helping us with tutorials.
Lucie-Rose Levesque
“Obviously, we also called in the pros, let’s say that I wouldn’t have shot joints myself! “, she says, laughing.
Pinterest, rattan and second hand
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Lucie-Rose Lévesque took care of finding furniture and accessories to decorate the house with taste.
From the outset, Lucie-Rose had the plan to rent the house as a short-term rental. “I grew up in the tourist industry, my mother had a bed and breakfast in our house in Gaspésie and I saw the potential in Saint-Raymond, which is a very touristy place with the Sainte-Anne River, snowmobiling and the small station of skiing,” she explains.
Once the house was renovated — or at least Phase 1 was completed, as the owners would eventually like to unveil the original wood-paneled ceiling on the ground floor — it had to be tastefully decorated.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
One of Lucie-Rose Lévesque’s favorite elements in the house is the bamboo headboard in the pink bedroom.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
In the bathroom on the ground floor, Lucie-Rose Lévesque dared pink, for a very convincing result.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The original floor and walls were unveiled on the second floor, then sandblasted and varnished.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The small dining room adjacent to the kitchen, with its rattan accessories
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The kitchen, on the ground floor
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The old dining room on the ground floor has been converted into a small living room.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Upstairs is the second bathroom, this one with a bathtub.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Artificial plants add greenery to the upstairs bathroom.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The second bedroom, on the second floor
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The one who says “spend her life on Pinterest” wanted to create a feminine environment, around pink. “Rose is my second name, I have a passion for pink! With my daughter, we found the name of the house, with another flower name: La Rose Magnolia. »
The Rose Magnolia is aptly named: Lucie-Rose has “dared” a pink bathroom on the ground floor, not to mention the “pink bedroom” upstairs. Having a crush on all things rattan, she set out to find second-hand furniture and accessories on online resale platforms or in small markets. “I really went with a boho aesthetic, with natural materials like rattan, jute placemats, a small bamboo table,” she explains.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Ceramics? No: aluminum panels! The tablets come from a local craftsman and were made from wood from an ancestral home.
But modernity also invites itself between the four walls of the house, in particular with the use of aluminum panels from the Trois-Rivières company MuraLuxe. These advantageously replace the ceramic for the backsplash in the kitchen and in the two bathrooms. “You can have whatever you want printed on it, and it’s super easy to put up. No grout to do, you stick it in silicone and it’s done! On the maintenance side, it’s like cleaning a window, and it’s guaranteed for 10 years, ”she enthuses.
One project after another
Result: a cute and very “instagramable” house. An asset, it goes without saying, when you want to stand out on the market. Lucie-Rose has also created an Instagram account for the house, @larosemagnolia, where people could see the project evolve from start to finish, follow the renovations and see “all the love we put into it” .
A way of doing things that has paid off: demand has been very strong since she started renting La Rose Magnolia last September. So much so that the owner has decided to suspend her Airbnb page and only takes reservations through the Instagram account.
One thing is certain, Lucie-Rose Lévesque seems to have discovered a passion. She acquired in her native village, Val-Brillant, in Gaspésie, a house dating this time from 1888. To be continued… on Instagram!