This house is made for Christmas.
With its classic Italian lines, sweeping double staircase, soaring ceilings, high-pointed arches and massive new church-style door, it’s a splendidly romantic scene and an ideal setting for festive wreaths and deck-the-halls garlands.
“It’s a perfect house for Christmas — or really any special occasion,” said Carol Navickas, adding the previous owners were inspired to create the extraordinary double curving staircase after seeing one like it in an old Cary Grant movie shot in a villa and featuring a fairy tale wedding.
“Maybe we will have a wedding here one day,” mused Carol with a chuckle.
She and her husband, Ed, bought the home in 2016 and after extensive long-distance renovations from Calgary, moved in on the first day of summer a year later. The global pandemic as well as family challenges, took their focus away from the house, but this Christmas Carol is diving into the holiday spirit with wild abandon.
She also decided her decorating had to be in keeping with the scale of the home: “It’s one of those places where you have to go big, or go home.”
The 3,800-square-foot house is a showcase of Tuscan architecture with balanced proportions, symmetrical lines, mirror-opposite rooms, fine antique lighting and double doors that open onto a Mediterranean-inspired garden.
Its exterior plaster finish adds even more to the Christmas spirit thanks to its unusual and eye-catching, faded and distressed-looking verdigris tone that gives the building an an old-world patina and character.
The Calgary couple had been planning for some years to move to Victoria after retiring in 2013.
“We did reconnaissance trips for two years,” she explained, adding her geologist husband was visiting this city on his own once when he spied this unique house for sale.
Its Italian villa vibe instantly captured his imagination as he and his wife, a retired business school professor, had enjoyed many trips to that country. He knew his wife would be entranced and told her it was “magical.”
He snapped some pictures and sent them to Carol, but things were complicated as they were leaving the next day for a month in Europe. They swiftly made an offer and then stepped on the plane.
The deal was sealed while they were away, and that held its own challenges: “We were both running around [the hotel] with our iPads trying to catch a Wi-Fi signal,” and then, although late at night, they sought out some bubbly for a toast.
Weeks later they came to Victoria for “the big reveal” and the moment Carol stepped inside she was smitten.
They sold their Calgary home as well as a second home in Montana, and “everything coalesced in Victoria” as they love the year-round golf, the climate, culture, the community and the ability to walk everywhere. “I have to make an effort to drive the car,” she said.
They made new friends right away and connected with so many old friends from Calgary that they joke, “Did we leave anybody behind when we moved here?”
They haven’t missed the space they left behind in Alberta in their much bigger former home with its huge walk-in wine cellar, billiard room and more.
One of the things Carol appreciates most is the extravagant amount of light inside her new Oak Bay home, which was designed and built by Don McCarty of Good Manors Development .
Even on a dull, overcast day the interiors are bright and airy feeling, thanks to the 80 windows and huge skylight over the entry’s double staircases. “And no matter which window you look through you see the garden and greenery, which is wonderful.”
The house feels much bigger than it is, thanks to the two-storey ceilings in some rooms, the open upstairs balcony and classical, symmetrical architecture that offers long views through multiple doorways.
Before moving in, they undertook extensive renovations while still living in Calgary, popping out to the city as often as they could and keeping in touch online and on FaceTime with Penni Courtnall of Penelope Good Interior Design & Construction.
The interior designer helped them choose high-end engineered white oak to replace the previous “slightly orange tone” wood floors and they repeated it all through the house for a coherent look. They used the same technique with their paint palette, opting for water-based, low-odour Farrow & Ball paint in various shades of creamy white including White Tie and New White, on all the walls.
“I always recommend having the same colour throughout a house,” Courtnall explained, adding she had long been aware of this particular house and was excited when invited to help redesign and brighten the interiors.
“We left the bones pretty much intact but did new cabinetry throughout by Harbour City Kitchens, as well as all new wood trim, baseboards and crown moulding.”
The kitchen and bathrooms were stripped down and reimagined with new cabinets and quartz counters from Colonial Countertops. All the plumbing, appliances and fixtures were replaced, as were all of the mullioned windows. Each one of the five fireplaces was updated and new bannisters and handrails were created to match the new floors from Island Flooring.
While the flooring and wall colours are all muted and consistent for room to room, Carol wanted to have fun with accent handles and door knobs, so they are now like jewelry focal points in each room, running the gamut from polished silver to oil-rubbed bronze. They were also chosen to enhance and reflect the finishes of lamps and wall sconces.
The result is an elegant Armani-like interior that marries understated luxury, comfort and modernism with a sense of serene, balanced symmetry.
Adjustments were made to the Juliette balconies off the master bedroom and guest suite, and custom black awnings were added over the French doors, by Associated Sheet Metal.
The owners pointed out there had been a slight indentation above the French doors when they bought the house, as if awnings had always been meant to be there. So that while creating an interesting accent to the front, the awnings have been useful in helping protect the doors from driving rain from the southeast.
The former garden was lovely to begin with, stressed Carol, but she and Ed wanted a more formal, Italian look to match the house so they and hired the team of landscape designer Twyla Rusnak and her husband, sculptor Illarion Gallant. They reimagined the space and heightened the overall drama with some of his his large metal panels, including one that doubles as a driveway gate.
The landscape is appealing and intriguing now with layers of interest and discovery round every corner. This includes an expanded outdoor entertainment area in the back garden with newly paved driveway that repeats the patio surface — creating a flexible place for dancing or partying when the cars are in the garage. This all works brilliantly with masses of new plantings, well-curated artworks and lights tucked in here and there.
Courtnall said Ed and Carol were a breeze to work with.
“I have done quite a few jobs in other cities with absent clients but the Navickas were about the best I’ve ever worked with. Carol is very tailored and European… they both want things done well.
“I would bring three or four samples and they would always find something they liked. The project was action-packed and there was a lot of detail, a lot of back and forth, but they were a joy to work with, really good at making up their minds.”
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