The Engraved House, Part 2: Interior

Last Monday, I took you on a tour of the exterior of The Engraved House here in Ottawa. Today, we’re going inside for Part 2 of the tour. The interior is filled with finds from Christopher and Oresta’s travels around the world. And wait till you see who’s hanging out in the living room!

But first, let’s take a quick look at the main floor, which is where Oresta—who’s an aesthetician—runs her business (ORESTA organic skin care confectionery, 464 O'Connor Street, www.oresta.ca). The space was originally Christopher’s art studio, which is now just a couple of blocks from their house at 203 Catherine Street. Check out the beautiful antique cabinets.

And now, let’s go upstairs to where the family lives. By luck or coincidence (or both), the Dutch Embassy Residence in Rockliffe was being demolished at the same time that Christopher and Oresta were planning their renovation. They bought the oak hardwood flooring, baseboards, and interior doors from the residence. The first flooring refinisher that they talked to told them the oak hardwood wasn’t worth salvaging. Luckily they talked to another flooring refinisher, who told them that the oak was in fact extremely high grade – notice that there are very few knots in the wood.

Seeing as they were tearing their place right down to the studs and rebuilding the walls, the fact that the doors were all different sizes wasn’t an issue at all – they just built all the doorways different sizes to accommodate the different doors. {The square cut outs in the walls let light pass between the stairwell and the bedrooms).

 

They even managed to find a spot in the master bedroom to create a narrow closet for this skinny door.

The closet doors in the master bedroom are garage doors from an old house in Westboro, an older neigbourhood in Ottawa. The ceiling is painted a beautiful bluey-grey. All the white walls throughout the home are Architectural White from C2.

This chair is was found during Oresta’s travels in Malawi.

The kitchen cabinets were also salvaged from the Dutch Embassy Residence. The sink and large stainless steel shelf are from a restaurant, while the countertops are concrete. The skylight is above where a bathroom used to be.

Speaking of bathrooms, the one bathroom in the home is where a bedroom used to be! The custom built vanity also has a concrete countertop. The colourful blocks are the shower curtain reflected in the mirror.

The shelves on the bathroom wall hold some amazing pieces…

In the village of Yangisingilu in Irian Jaya, West Papua, Christopher and Oresta traded beads for these bamboo earrings. Don’t they make fantastic and original pieces of art?

And this is a whale vertebra that Christopher found on Baffin Island. Whale hunters would take what they wanted from the whales and leave the bones behind. This vertebra could have been sitting on the beach for a couple of hundred years before Christopher found it.

Christopher created all the paintings in their home. He’s influenced by primitive artwork, and uses oil, concrete, and asphalt to create his art. {Dark brown wall colour is French Roast from C2.}

 

All the sculptures and artefacts are from Christopher and Oresta's travels – most were purchased directly from the artisans.

This authentic headhunting shield is about 7 feet long and came from the Asmat region of West Papua. They brought it back to Canada in a surfboard bag!

The intricately hand-carved tips of the bamboo arrows vary according to their prey: birds, pigs, fish, or humans.

Christopher and Oresta’s daughter wanted a pink bedroom.

But guess what? Her room is painted white! The light coming through the curtains gives the room a pink hue. Also, the window faces north, and north light is pink at certain times of the day. I love the bright pink closet door :-)

And the piece de la resistance… Christopher bought this 18 kilogram crocodile skull from a local in Irian Jaya for the equivalent of $5.00. He brought it home in his backpack, and now it’s displayed on the wall next to the sofa.

Wow! That is one big crocodile skull! Christopher said he doesn’t have a name – I think whatever they end up calling him, it better start with MISTER!

And finally, a view of the whole living room from the kitchen…

…and from the top of the stairs.

After reading part 1 about the exterior, someone in Ottawa tweeted that she used to buy her sweets at The Engraved House on her way to school when it was still the Kit Kat corner store. How cool is that!? If you have memories of The Engraved House back when it was the Kit Kat store (or even before that), please drop me a line and tell me about it – kelly@jaxdecor.ca or @KellyJamesJAXDD.

I hope you enjoyed visiting The Engraved House as much as I did. I cannot thank Christopher and Oresta enough for opening their home to me and sharing their story of how they created what is truly a beautiful and unique house-sized work of art! Their home is a wonderful reflection of who they are and what they love – which is what every home should be :-)