Favourite room: A dining room inspired by coastal charm | Canada Voices

Victoria Armour’s dining room is crowned with a mural depicting a leisurely day on the coast. Crisp white sailboats glide across calm blue water, with green trees lining the shore.

The scenery could just as easily belong to Cape Breton as Cape Coral. It is, in fact, Chester, Nova Scotia, where Armour – co-founder and business director of Halifax-based design studio Stil James – owns a cedar-shingled cottage.

For much of the year, Chester is a chilly place, with damp fog and icy winds. But June, July and August are a reprieve worth capturing in paint. Visitors arrive from around the world to gaze out at the sun-soaked islands of Mahone Bay or look back at the sandy beaches from their schooners and sloops.

Some families in the area have been coming for generations. Armour is a relative newcomer. She bought her place in 2023, after her business partner, Natalie Owens, spoke highly of the town (Owens has a cottage nearby). But before Armour could think about taking in the views from her seaside terrace, there was much work to be done. Her house is 120 years old and, in keeping with the era in which it was built, the walls were lined with solid wood panelling stained a deep coffee colour.

“I was torn,” Armour says. “The wood was in good shape, and I wanted to honour the history. But when I think of summer, I think bright and beautiful. I didn’t want to feel like I was in the dark.”

Armour kept the original architecture intact. No walls came down. No wood was removed. Instead, she painted much of the panelling white and layered in accents that are a little bit Caribbean, a bit Canadian East Coast. “Chester is known as the Cape Cod of Canada,” she says. “But I also wanted to amplify that warm summer vibe with corals, yellows and aquas.”

The dining room encapsulates the blend. Armour left the original fireplace untouched. “It’s exposed brick,” she says. “That’s very common in Atlantic Canada.” Beside the mantel sits an original built-in sideboard. No longer espresso brown, it’s now a cheerful turquoise. “I wanted to use colours that make me happy,” she says.

Then there is the mural circling the top of the room. “The walls are plaster and too porous for wallpaper,” Armour says. “After I painted them white, I felt like something was missing.” She collaborated with Halifax decorative artist Anya Kazimierski, who hand-painted the piece as well as a pattern of pink flowers in the living area. Originally from New York and formerly based in California, Kazimierski worked on film sets before moving to Nova Scotia. “We’re really lucky to have her here now,” Armour says. “She captured the spirit of Chester. Sailing is big. My son is almost seven and he’s already started lessons.”

Despite the brightness, Armour tends to eat al fresco when it’s warm, but that doesn’t mean the room sits idle. “The table is painted wood and the chairs are wood,” she says. “I have three young kids. In the summer, the room becomes less about dining and more about crafts, puzzles, colouring, Play-Doh – all the things that need to be easy to wipe down. I can be in the kitchen cooking and not walk into a big mess.”

In the off-season, things shift. “Chester is much quieter in the fall and winter. Restaurants close,” she says. “It’s nice to be back inside.”

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