A Hart House Christmas

As the lights on the Calgary skyline begin to twinkle, so do the graceful and spacious rooms of the historic Hart House. Elegant and traditionally glamourous, they have been dusted with a skiff of holiday greenery and accented with burlap, glitter candles and red ribbon, and then given a touch of historic lustre with simple and elegant mercury glass ornaments.

Decorating the three-storey, six-bedroom property was a huge assignment for Jeff Goth and his team at Dekora Staging Inc., the firm that styled the home for staging, as well as for the holiday season.

“This house is quite a successful marriage of a whole bunch of things, and that happened before we ever arrived,” says Goth. His team’s job was to marry the home’s history and traditional look with the needs of a modern family.

Built by brick baron Edward Henry Crandell in 1905, the home’s centre hall plan reflects the style of grand homes of its day, complete with a hidden service staircase and wide, covered porches. The house was transformed from estate to institution after the First World War when it served as a Red Cross orphanage, and was then transformed back into a residence after being purchased by Judge Henry S. Patterson in the 1930s.

However, the house is probably best known for its recent history as the home and headquarters for wrestling czar Stu Hart of Stampede Wrestling fame. He bought the house and the 30 acres it sat upon in 1951 and built a sport dynasty there, along with his wife, Helen, all the while raising their 12 children, several of whom went on to become pro-wrestling superstars in their own right.

Plans for the home’s renovation and restoration have been ongoing since local restaurateur Dario Berloni purchased it from the Hart family in 2004. Originally, Berloni had intended to build town houses on the remaining two acres of property, but that plan was initially shelved when city council rejected it after the rezoning proved too controversial. A permit for six semi-detached and one single-detached dwelling has since been approved, with the work having to commence by next fall.

Berloni has undertaken a complete renewal of the 105-year-old property. “Basically, it’s a new house in an old brick frame,” says designer Nonie Sundstrom, who worked on the renovation with her husband, Eric, of Solid Woodwork. The project was lengthy — it took six months for Solid Woodwork to just level the floors, which had to be jacked up very slowly so the wood wouldn’t crack.

Due to the home’s historic designation, many elements, such as the kitchen millwork, are only set in place in front of the home’s original oak paneling because historic elements could not be removed from the house. The use of the rooms was changed and the walls were refurbished, but not moved, to create an integrated living, dining and kitchen space on the south side. A media room and office fill the north.

The legendary “Dungeon” — the basement gym where Hart trained world-famous wrestlers — has been maintained and updated as a modern home gym.

The home’s history is layered, and so were the decorating styles accumulated through its many incarnations. Solid Woodwork’s restoration had to accommodate those various styles in order to preserve the home’s many stories.

Sundstrom says the house became very ornate during the years it was owned by the Hart family, largely because of Stu Hart’s fondness for the Victorian style. Several oversized chandeliers were installed throughout the home. He had also added layers of gold crown moulding, and although this was removed from the walls, Solid Woodwork reused portions of it as mirror frames in two of the home’s five ensuite bathrooms.

In decorating the newly renovated space, Goth and his team chose simple, classic furnishings and fabrics. Linen-covered tuxedo sofas grace the living room, and two armchairs were set before the office fireplace. Basic roller blinds were used to ensure the drapery and embellishment didn’t distract from the architectural beauty of the home.

Goth’s team followed a similar strategy when layering in the holiday decor. A fringe of cedar bows, accented with juniper and pepper berries, line the razor-thin mantle above the living room’s glazed brick fireplace. Holiday florals in wine boxes add festive energy to the modern glass dining table that is surrounded by stylish director chairs.

“We tried to bring in simple elements. The burlap. The glitter glass. The mercury glass. The dome,” says Goth. “All of those things are simple, easy things to do, without overpowering the space.”

This approach is especially evident in the grand oak kitchen, which features oil-rubbed bronze hardware, classic craftsman design and every modern convenience. In keeping with the period look of the home, Solid Woodwork concealed the Sub-Zero refrigerator in a side cupboard, and there are no upper cabinets, as you would expect to find in a modern kitchen. Instead, Karl Blossfeldt prints line the original plate rail that circles the room. For the holiday season, an arrangement of holiday florals dominates the back corner, and is accented by a trio of apothecary jars filled with fake snow, hand-painted ornaments and pine cones.

Where possible, Sundstrom says, Hart’s chandeliers were restored and given new life, including the glass, Regency-style fixture in the powder room at the back of the house. Unlike many of the rooms, which feel quite masculine in style, the powder room — with its painted mahogany china cabinet that has been re-purposed as a washstand — has a light, feminine feel. For the holidays, Goth and his team chose simple florals and a feathered wreath for the mirror above the sink to continue that feeling.

That same light touch is evident upstairs in the four bedrooms that make up the home’s second floor. Two of the bedrooms are joined by a Jack and Jill bathroom, and can serve as a complete guest suite.

In the guest suite, Goth’s team created a welcoming environment by keeping the decor and furnishings simple and elegant. For the holidays, warmer elements, such as fur throws and pillows, were layered in over the room’s existing soft-blue linens. Two stylized silver reindeer and a single sprig of pine have been added to keep with the less-is-more holiday approach.

Without question, though, the master suite is the most-luxurious room in the house, with its commanding view of the downtown skyline. Dramatic linen drapes run the length of the north wall behind an oversized, button-tufted headboard that echoes the pattern in the leaded-glass transom windows that look onto the private balcony.

“It’s a little bit unexpected,” Goth says of the heavily layered room. To create a holiday feel, Dekora worked with Unique Floral Boutique to create arrangements of amaryllis, pepper berry balls and boxwood set in mercury glass.

The home’s top floor was designed as a simple loft space that welcomes light from every angle beneath its vaulted ceiling. It is organized into four child-friendly zones, as well as crafting and homework spaces. Two bedrooms flank the common area.

Goth says the loft would be the best place to display a large, traditional Christmas tree, but his team didn’t feel it was necessary. “Showing lots of restraint, with very carefully chosen accents, can go a long, long way,” he says.

Decorating for the holidays
Jeff Goth of the staging firm Dekora Staging Inc. says the tendency for holiday decorating is to pile on more and more, which isn’t always the most successful approach. He gives three suggestions to ensure holiday decor enhances your home’s style, without engulfing it.

Your style
Goth recommends thinking about what you already have in the room in terms of finishes and fabrics as a starting point. In a traditional home, he says, there tends to be a lot of shape and texture, which lends itself to the use of cedar boughs, glitter candles and mercury glass. In a more-modern interior, however, metallic finishes and square or rectangular shapes tend to work well. Adding a few elements that play on colour schemes already in your home is also key to making your home look ready for the holidays, without going overboard.

Space to display
When staging a home, Goth says he always thinks in terms of sightlines to decide where to put decorating emphasis. In the Hart House, the back corner of the kitchen is a key space for changing out decor items seasonally. In the living room, significant effort was directed at finding the right piece of art to accent the fireplace. Goth’s team worked around the piece, choosing a low garland that didn’t compete with, or cover up, the artwork.

Simple adornment
Goth says styling your home for the holiday is very straightforward when you have a select number of high-quality decorations. “It takes very little time to transform a space with some red ribbon, some burlap and just a tiny little bit of glitter to make it feel festive, without overpowering the room,” he says.