In true form given their creative backgrounds, artists John Ballantyne and Liz Davidson have made their 1862 farmhouse a working canvas. The two moved to this rural setting in Quebec and bought their home intending to use the adjoining barns as studio space. "We didn't care what the house was," Davidson recalls.
Today, 38 years after the couple left Montreal, every corner is layered with a story to share. They opened rooms, insulated walls, transformed closets and converted the barns into two symmetrical basem*nt art studios — all while keeping the original structure intact.
Who lives here: John Ballantyne, Liz Davidson and their dog, Zoe
Location: Sutton, Quebec, Canada
Size: 3,700 square feet; 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 art studios
That's interesting: The home came with a 3-seat family outhouse attached to the back. "It amused me; there were two high seats and one low," says Ballantyne.
Esther Hershcovich
The Main Level
The front entrance is accessible only in the summer. It opens to a large family room filled with bookshelves built by a local artisan; the books are divided into the categories of philosophy, psychology and art.
This sleigh bed once belonged to the couple's niece; they added a custom cushion.
Esther Hershcovich
Ballantyne and Davidson set up a cozy seating area close to the fireplace, where there originally was a side door leading into the house. The original 19th-century structure was not properly insulated when they first bought it, and a stove in the kitchen was all they had for heat.
They removed a wall that separated the floor into two rooms in the early 1980s and added a central beam for support.
White slipcovered sofa: Montauk
Before Photo
BEFORE: When this original photo of the living room was taken, the pair had run out of money, and the plaster was falling off. They stuck newspaper to the walls and shellacked it as a quick fix — which ended up lasting five years. A grand piano now sits in place of the table shown here.
Esther Hershcovich
AFTER: The newspaper wallpaper is gone. The couple kept the original windows and floors, which they sanded and finished with urethane. A badly rusted tin ceiling was removed.
A friend who had asked them to watch his grand piano for a few years let them keep it after he developed an interest in playing the organ.
Esther Hershcovich
This doorway, once the home's back door, now leads from the living room into the kitchen and dining area.
Esther Hershcovich
"When we renovated, nobody believed we wanted to keep a brick wall," Davidson said. They had to stop contractors from tearing it out. A summer kitchen, commonly found outside older homes, was originally where the dining area now sits.
Four of the chairs in the dining room were old front porch chairs, rockers removed, that had been purchased for $2 Canadian (about U.S.$1.95) apiece. Davidson did the framed artwork.
Esther Hershcovich
The kitchen across from the dining area replaced what was once a bedroom. The couple chose the most budget-friendly vinyl flooring they could find at the time. They also bought basic cabinetry from the nearest Reno Depot and assembled it themselves.
Hand-drawn words of a Celtic healing prayer surround the window.
Esther Hershcovich
A narrow stairway off the living room leads to the upper-floor bedroom, renovated in 2002.
Esther Hershcovich
The Upstairs Bedrooms
The couple removed a wall to open up this bedroom. Two more Montauk sofas face a mounted TV.
Esther Hershcovich
Another tiny hallway leads to the master bedroom. Ballantyne had the side walls pushed 2 feet back to make the room more spacious and filled the inner cove with extra insulation. The headboard is a repurposed door.
Before Photo
BEFORE: The original windows had shutters that Davidson adored. The couple had chosen a Laura Ashley wallpaper that was popular at the time.
Esther Hershcovich
AFTER: The pair replaced the windows and got rid of the beloved shutters, because they didn't fit the new size. The Thonet Brothers rocking chair by the window belonged to Ballantyne's mom and is next to an original art piece by Davidson.
Esther Hershcovich
Ballantyne had a hip replacement last summer, and the stairs would have been hard to climb. They converted a former walk-in closet adjacent to their bedroom into a bathroom.
Ballantyne took the opportunity to get rid of most of his clothes. "We're artists; we don't need too many dress clothes," he says. "It was really freeing to realize that I wear the same two pairs of jeans."
Esther Hershcovich
Custom cupboards run along the room's eave and serve as new storage for the clothes they kept.
Esther Hershcovich
Back to the Ground Floor
Art pieces collected over the years are displayed here in a low bookshelf in the hallway. Ballantyne says of the couple's sizable book collection, "How should I put it? All the books have been read."
Esther Hershcovich
A skylight illuminates a small area off the main room that leads to their mezzanine offices — Davidson's to the right and Ballantyne's to the left. Their dog, Zoe, was rescued when a family visiting one summer abandoned her.
Esther Hershcovich
The Mezzanine Offices
The offices are on the main floor but sit above a portion of the studios. Each has a slanted roof and looks down into its respective studio. Davidson's is filled with books, projects and a wall of mementos.
Esther Hershcovich
Here's the view from Davidson's office.
Esther Hershcovich
A large part of Ballantyne's office is set up with instructional diagrams, tiny pieces and fine paintbrushes for his hobby of building intricate model ships. Several completed ships are displayed on the steel beams across the top of the studio.
Esther Hershcovich
From Ballantyne's mezzanine office we can see him at work.
Esther Hershcovich
Art also fills the landing in the stairway to the studios.
Esther Hershcovich
The Basem*nt Level
The 19-foot concrete and cedar studios across the hall from each other were designed by architect John Schreiber and built in 1995 to replace the existing barns. The windows are structured so that during the summer, the sun shines high enough to keep the room cool, and in the winter the rays are low enough to heat the space. Ballantyne had his studio built on the east side, since he prefers morning sun. Davidson has hers on the west side, her preference being the setting sun.
Here Davidson binds a book for an upcoming show.
Esther Hershcovich
Art pieces waiting to be finished, or as Davidson puts it, '"waiting to speak to me," hang across the back wall in her studio. Much of her work is influenced by her passion for women's issues; the word "she" can be found tucked around the house.
When architect Schreiber started the project, he dug down 9 feet, only to realize he needed to dig down 17 feet for the foundation. "They found a river down there and had to have it pumped," recalls Ballantyne. "When they got to the part under the kitchen, there was a giant boulder the size of a truck." They called in a dynamiter, and to this day you can see two large stones left as remnants in front of the house.
Esther Hershcovich
A leather chair and a footrest were some of the few surviving items that had been part of a large order of Italian Memphis furniture made by Ballantyne's mom. Water had seeped into the shipping crate when it arrived and instead of disposing of the shipment as she had asked him to, Ballantyne took a few untouched pieces home.
Davidson is fascinated by texture and keeps her collection of papers in built-in shelves and drawers.
Esther Hershcovich
The two studios are connected by an open wooden door. When the studios had just been built, Davidson hosted a women's workshop in this space, which is Ballantyne's studio. Ballantyne wanted to claim his side, and marked the cement studio with an outline of his handprint.
The ship above the wooden cabinet was one Ballantyne had admired as a kid on several visits to a family friend's home. Forty years later he received a phone call from a lawyer saying that it had been willed to him.
Esther Hershcovich
Ballantyne describes himself as a monk at heart. A large easel sits in the middle of his minimalist studio. There are marks on the walls and floor showing vanishing points and lines from his perspective drawings.
Esther Hershcovich
A relaxing seating area in the corner of the studio faces large windows with a view of a beautiful raised garden made using earth from the excavation.
Esther Hershcovich
Ballantyne finds inspiration for his photorealistic paintings in light and shadow. Each piece takes a minimum of two months to complete.
Esther Hershcovich
The front of the house still looks the same, including the original windows and door. On the side you can see where the couple added the chimney for the fireplace.
Esther Hershcovich
Davidson, left, says, "This is a home where people were born and people died — we're going to live our lives here." The couple's plans include a new bathroom, a kitchen floor redo and better insulation. Ballantyne, right, adds, "We feel lucky to be living our dream."
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