Vintage meets modern meets one man’s vision as Rosemead House reopens in a burst of colour and pattern.
BY JOANNE SASVARI
The first thing Lenny Moy bought was a vintage mirror that he’d found at a London flea market. “I love mirrors,” he says. “I really love mirrors.”
As it turns out, he also loves old clocks, fancy teapots, velvet draperies, Empire chairs, intricately inlaid desks and romantic paintings in ornate gilt frames. This has all been as much a surprise to him as anyone else. After all, the founder and president of Aragon Properties is better known for the sleek, functional, contemporary style of projects like The Plaza at Esquimalt Town Square. As Moy says, “I’ve been in this business for 35 years and I design space.”
But then in 2014 he bought Rosemead House, the circa-1910 Samuel Maclure-designed mansion in Esquimalt that for many years operated as The Old English Inn. Moy figured the 4.3-acre property on Lampson Avenue would be ideal for upscale condos and townhouses, as well as a boutique hotel in the original Craftsman-meets-Tudor-style house.
“I looked at it like a regular project,” he says. “And then we started to do a simple renovation.”
Ten years and more than $13 million later, it has turned out to be anything but.
English Design
Because Rosemead House was so old and so long neglected, it had many, many quirky issues. Moy’s team kept reaching out to him with problems only he could answer. “I had to be involved more and more to find solutions,” he says. “I’m very detail oriented. If I’m going to do something, I want to do it well.”
But he never expected to be the guy in charge of decorating the place. “My background is the furthest it could be from interior design. I’m an engineer and an MBA. I’m a business guy,” he says. “I saw it as a challenge. I wasn’t going to be the head designer, but our designer didn’t want to do it, so I became the head designer.”
At the same time, he found himself in London, England, where one of his two daughters was going to school. He began visiting flea markets, auctions and estate sales. He bought that first mirror, then a piece of furniture and then another one. “I quickly realized that I had to stop or go big.” He laughs a little. “I decided to go big.”
“I quickly realized that I had to stop or go big.”
Moy got a warehouse in London and began to fill it. He bought the bespoke Wedgwood dishes from the Savoy Hotel and vintage furniture from the Dorchester, paintings from old country houses and a whole suite of things from the set of The Crown television series: chairs from the Queen’s bedroom, torchieres from a royal hallway, even the 13-foot-high iron gates from the fictionalized Buckingham Palace. He estimates now that he’s been to at least 50 estate sales and filled four, maybe five containers with his finds.
After all, as Moy points out, “English design is maximalist; it’s not minimalist.”
Colour and Texture
On October 23, Janevca Kitchen, the restaurant at Rosemead House, officially opened for business, with the 28-room boutique hotel to follow later this year. Throughout the evening, Moy ambled happily through the dining room, greeting old friends and new, quietly enjoying the lively buzz and the sheer delight on his guests’ faces.
He has created a room unlike any other in Victoria. Aside from the original architecture, it is lush with texture and colour, with dark teal walls and furniture upholstered in deep magenta and burnt orange. Vintage details like the old wooden Bollinger ice bucket and William Morris patterns are everywhere. Mostly, though, there’s the tree, a glorious faux maple that creates a canopy of fiery autumnal leaves over the dining room.
“I saw it as an opportunity to incorporate Old World design, English design, in the restaurant,” Moy says, noting that he was inspired by many of the places where he had dined across the pond.
“In Europe, they’re more advanced with restaurant design.”
Working with a consultant, he has created a look that combines the original post-and-beam structure with traditional décor elements and modern functionality. “We want to be seen as something that is traditional, but modern. It’s about the layers,” he says.
Most of all, even while enacting his own vision, Moy was keenly aware of his role as “a custodian” of such a historic property, and the responsibility he had to the community where it is located.
“I knew I had to do a good job for the community,” he says. “I wanted to avoid traditional West Coast design and incorporate heritage design. It’s an evolution of design. You take elements of places that you like.”
Blending old and new design elements is a key part of creating a space that feels both personal and timeless. In our feature on Interior Mixology, we explore how incorporating family heirlooms and vintage pieces can elevate modern interiors, much like Lenny Moy’s approach to Rosemead House.
