The moment Maureen Coates stepped through the door, she knew it was a house she would love to live in, despite the need for a top-to-bottom modernization By Hattie Klotz

Photographs: Marc Fowler/Metropolis Studio

While Maureen Coates has brought the house into the 21st century, it retains much of its Arts and Crafts feel, including new windows with a traditional design of three panes above and a single one below. The house is now bright, clean, and singing with style. High on her list of things to do was a coffered ceiling in the living and dining rooms to replace the original stucco with swirling designs through it. “I kept thinking that I wasn’t going to be happy if I left the ceilings as they were,” she says, “and I really wanted a wow factor in these rooms.” So she had six-by-eight-inch coffers with simple mouldings installed. Then she looked at the original wood trim in its mid-brown tone and realized it wasn’t working for her either. “So I stripped, sanded, and primed all the mouldings myself,” she says, “and it took five weeks!” Then she painted it all White Dove by Benjamin Moore.

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