Rosemary Sexton likes to curl up with a book in her 40-foot-long living room, an electronics-free sanctuary.Blair Gable/The Globe and Mail
When she was Canada's leading society columnist in the 1980s, former Globe and Mail writer Rosemary Sexton wanted a retreat far from the madding crowd in Toronto. So, with her husband, the now-retired Federal Court of Appeal judge Edgar Sexton, she looked for a property where nature would drown out the chatter.
After spying an ad in the New York Times, she found what she was looking for in an 1855 home in Brockville, Ont., on the shores of the St. Lawrence.
The home was originally built for Reuben Colton, an ironworks magnate whose legacy is visible in the veranda's elaborate iron railings.
When the Sextons purchased it in 1989, the 30-room house was in good structural shape. All that was needed was a new decor scheme, which Sexton executed herself, adding wall hangings and needlepoint pillows she stitched in happy solitude.
Sexton, who authored The Glitter Girls (an era-defining account of Toronto socialites) and the recently released Home After Dark (a memoir of her life in Ottawa), is a voracious reader. She likes to curl up with a book in her 40-foot-long living room, an electronics-free sanctuary. "It's the grandest room in the house," she says.
"We use it for entertaining and reading at night on the couches."
The chairs
"These two green-velvet wing chairs were purchased in the 1980s at A Special Place on Yonge Street in Toronto. They have followed me from Rosedale to Rockcliffe Park [in Ottawa] and finally to Brockville."
The cushions
"On the chairs sit two of the many needlepoint pillows I have sewn – one of a Bermuda house (I purchased the wool and pattern on that island) and the other of an English spaniel. I like to needlepoint. It makes me feel peaceful. I love the repetitive nature of the stitches. I don't watch TV and I don't like watching things on the computer, where I have to spend most of my time when writing."
The rugs
"The carpets in my living room and front hall [not shown] were loaded into my Jeep and brought to Brockville when Elte had a moving sale at their former premises on Eastern Avenue in Toronto, nearly 25 years ago. I like the colours."
The table
"This is a mahogany-veneered round table with Egyptian ormolu mounts, purchased in the village of Merrickville, Ont. It sits at the centre of the room and holds a very heavy Inuit sculpture, a gift to my husband when he retired from the Federal Court of Appeal."
The chandeliers
"There are actually three in the room; you can only see two in the photo. I don't know their history, but they came with the house. I kept them because they are light and pretty. They add elegance to this lady-like room."
The ceiling
"The very ornate plaster ceiling was hand-carved by an artisan in the 1850s. He was sued by then-owner Reuben Colton because, he alleged, the plaster work was inferior and wouldn't last. So, while no one knows the outcome of the lawsuit because the records are incomplete, the plasterer gets the last laugh."
The lamps
"They all have pink light bulbs except for the two at the end, which we use for reading. I wanted pink light bulbs to bring out the pinkish hue [of the room]. The added benefit?Everyone looks better in pink light."
The flooring
"It is original to the house, but was grey from more than a century of wear when we first moved in. We sanded it down and, to our surprise, found that it was oak inlaid with mahogany. You couldn't see that before."
The couch
"It is an old yellow damask sofa recovered in Mount Vernon blue-and-white Toile de Jouy fabric. Mount Vernon was George Washington's summer place and George Washington is a distant ancestor of mine."