Atelier Barda updates a 1937 Montreal home with art deco touches
Atelier Barda has renovated Residence Beloeil, a 1937 townhouse in Montreal’s Outremont neighborhood. The design preserves original details while introducing custom furnishings, local contemporary pieces and a new curved terrace. The project uses the home’s proportions and ceiling heights as guiding constraints.
Atelier Barda, founded by Cécile Combelle and Antonio Di Bacco, took on a 300 sq m, three-storey 1937 townhouse in Outremont. Led by Di Bacco, the project retained features such as stairwell glass block tiles while reworking rooms around existing proportions and ceiling heights.
The ground floor gained a stone kitchen counter, and a former boudoir became a glazed garden-facing sunroom with a corner banquette. Walnut panelling and a coffered ceiling join custom oak chevron flooring, tiered mouldings and a stone fireplace; a semicircular terrace with a white staircase extends the geometric theme.
The renovation may influence how homeowners and designers approach older urban houses, showing that preservation and contemporary additions can coexist. Local furniture makers and galleries featured in the project could gain visibility, while residents of Outremont may see renewed interest in the area’s interwar architecture. Because the project is a private residence, its broader social effect is likely modest, but it could encourage more careful reuse of aging townhouses rather than wholesale replacement.