Gothic Modern

A designer makes an 1840s farmhouse livable— and lovable—for her young family.

- Meryl Schoenbaum

Who doesn’t love a really old house with a story behind it? But when that house is a 176-year-old Gothic Revival that includes a creepy wall mural with hidden faces and rooms that are dark and drafty, you know that you are in for the ride of your life when you sign on as the new owner. But the way homeowner-designer Carolyn Elizabeth Wilbrink describes the process of renovating her home, it is not a horror story but a love story that even includes a serendipitous encounter.

“I had seen this house two years earlier in an overpriced listing and saved a few of the photos, never thinking anything of it,” Carolyn recalls. “Two years later, right after we had our fourth child, we decided to look for a larger home. Within days, our realtor called and said she had found the perfect home for our family. When we drove up, I nearly fell over! It was the house I had fallen in love with two years earlier. We walked in and I had that same feeling I always felt in my grandparents’ farmhouse—and that was it. We bought it with full intentions of turning it into our dream home.”

DISTINCTIVE DESIGN

The architectural style of the house, located in Burford, Ontario,Canada, is Gothic Revival farmhouse. Its exterior features a steeply pitched roof, a classic gable over the front center façade, an arched middle window, decorative corbels, red brick adorned with bluff brick detail and a front door with top and side transoms.