The Little Merlot | A colorful living environment

With its restaurants, cafes and row of boutiques, the Petit Laurier district in Montreal is buzzing with life. It’s no surprise that an architect opted for shades of red for a project rooted in its landscape. Le Petit Merlot, a duplex renovated from top to bottom, invites you to savor the small pleasures of everyday life.

For his 50th birthday, Tomas Paus received a gift from his wife, Zdenka, a large piece of pottery from New Mexico with flat areas of color evoking the desert soil, which he placed on his kitchen island. The gaze is inevitably fixed on the object as soon as one enters the living room, then ricochets on the red mullions of the windows overlooking the courtyard, and, finally, on a lamp with a terracotta finish from the Quebec manufacturer Lambert & Fils, suspended from the – above a table. The design here testifies to the taste of the couple, originally from the Czech Republic, for beautiful things. It is also proud to house some works by his daughter, Veronika Pausova, and his son-in-law, Carl Marin, in his new Montreal environment.

When the time came to leave their penthouse in Toronto to reconnect with Montreal, where they had lived at the dawn of the 2000s, Zdenka and Tomas targeted the Petit Laurier neighborhood for their research: “We wanted to be in an environment French-speaking to learn French and enjoy an atmosphere similar to that found in Europe,” says the happy owner. This is how, thanks to a real estate agency, they came across the renderings of a human nature project designed for a resident of the neighborhood, who had changed her life plan along the way, and carried out this one to its conclusion with the architectural office. These lovers of Bauhaus and modernism appreciated the pure lines and generous openings to the outside that emerged from it.

Double-sided

On the street side, nothing really distinguishes the house from its neighbors. In accordance with the wishes of the City, red clay bricks were placed on the concrete facade to restore the building’s appearance at the beginning of the last century. “It was once a working-class neighborhood where construction materials were very rudimentary,” points out Stéphane Rasselet, founder of _nature humaine. This is how the idea of ​​a monochrome project, orchestrated around red, took hold.

The element of surprise is played out more at the rear of the house, on the courtyard side, where the facade has been clad in steel painted in a wine red. As is often the case, the constraints imposed by municipal regulations have turned into valuable assets. “The rear facade, sparkling and transparent, contrasts with the front facade, modest and opaque. I really like this duality,” emphasizes Stéphane Rasselet, who had already exploited this tip for the transformation of a house with Art Deco contours in Côte-des-Neiges. And, obviously, red, available in warm terracotta or burgundy shades, has taken over the interior, even enhancing a bookcase integrated into a window sill.

Nature reserve

The upper floor, completely redone like the garden level, now accommodates a mezzanine which opens onto a terrace with a magnificent view of the surrounding area. This is where the couple thought they would set up their bedroom, but their two dogs convinced them that they should enjoy the lower part of the house instead. The upstairs was therefore transferred to another owner, and the couple took a liking to rest in a room in the basement, opening onto an English courtyard. This addition, considered essential given the value of the properties in this corner of the Plateau, was one of the main challenges of the project, because, due to the lack of an alley at the rear of the house, the excavation of the earth and the rock had to be made using more modest machinery than usual for this type of work.

The need to green this new level in order to contribute to the reduction of heat islands on the Plateau led _nature humaine to collaborate with Atelier Gris to manufacture corten steel bins. The herbaceous and climbing plants which have taken place in this patinated metal with an earthy appearance delight Paul and Zdenka. “We really like looking out the window, and we often leave it open at night,” says Paul. “We hear the sounds of nature, and we feel connected to it,” adds our host who, the day before our visit, had made an astonishing discovery in the bathroom adjoining his room; a frog had joined the shower!

Visit the _nature humaine website

Visit the Atelier Gris website