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Chantelle McNeish Design

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St. Marys, ON
Chantelle McNeish Design

Chantelle McNeish Design delivers fresh, creative, functional & practical designs for your home.

Chantelle McNeish has a advanced interior design diploma from the School of Design at Fanshawe College, 2008 and has been practicing interior design, specializing in kitchen and bath design for 10 years.

10/07/2026

Project Dunedin Hall | The Dining Room

A little reminder that sometimes the most important thing you can add to a room isn’t furniture.

The dining room at Dunedin Hall already had beautiful bones, including the large original arched opening connecting it to the lounge, French doors leading to the alcove and side porch and a beautiful bay window. But we wanted to give the walls a little more presence to create a room that felt finished and architectural even before the furniture arrived.

We applied moulding to the walls, creating a series of traditional framed panels that bring depth, rhythm and just the right amount of formality to the space.
It’s a relatively simple architectural detail, but one that completely changes the way a room feels.
They give large expanses of wall dimension and provide structure for artwork.

Perhaps most importantly, in a heritage home, they can make a room feel as though it has always had another layer of craftsmanship even when that detail is completely new.

We painted the walls, trim and mouldings in a soft, warm neutral, allowing the play of light and shadow across the panels to become part of the design.
It’s intentionally neutral to allow for the adjoining lounge to the star. When viewed from the dining room, the deep blue wallpaper and millwork of the lounge become a piece of artwork through the arched opening.

Can we also have a moment for the vintage floral curtains that came with the house? Because I actually kind of love them!

Were they staying? No.

Did I briefly consider building an entire design scheme around them? Maybe.

In the end, we opted for solid velvet drapery, a choice that gives the room softness and richness without competing with the wall mouldings or the drama happening next door.

10/05/2026

Why do I love old houses?

Give me the slightly crooked floors.
The strange little rooms.
The oversized casing and baseboards.
The staircase that’s been touched by generations of hands and feet.
The heritage protected architectural elements.

I love old homes because of the history, the craftsmanship and the architectural design details that are at the forefront of each design.

I’m passionate about making old houses work for today’s modern living without losing what makes them special.

When I first toured Dunedin Hall, I wasn’t looking around thinking about everything I wanted to change.
I was cataloguing everything I hoped we could keep.
The staircase. The double front doors. The stained glass. The millwork. The marble fireplace. The French doors.

That will always be my favourite part of designing a heritage home:
Figuring out how to move a house forward without erasing where it came from.

10/02/2026

Everyone loves a good before and after and this kitchen doesn’t disappoint! ✨

At first glance, the before may seem simply dated.
But look a little closer and the real design problems begin to reveal themselves.

The sink was squeezed toward the inside corner to sit beneath a window.

The cooktop landed at the very end of the cabinetry with no countertop to the left for safely setting down a hot pan. It was also next to the patio door . . . I can just see the door swinging into a pot handle on the cooktop and spilling everything, everywhere!

Open upper shelving offered plenty of places to collect things, but very little practical concealed storage.

The island was narrow, with no room for seating, and a dropped section of countertop made it feel even smaller.

The cabinetry stopped well below the ceiling, leaving valuable vertical storage unused.

Individually, they were small frustrations.
Together, they created a kitchen that wasn’t working nearly as hard as it could.

And aesthetically, it felt disconnected from the rest of Dunedin Hall. Orange-toned wood cabinetry, white sheet vinyl flooring and blue tile each spoke a different language and none quite belonged to the heritage home surrounding them.

So we didn’t just update the finishes. We upgraded the layout!

Continued in the comments . . .

09/30/2026

The kitchen details we’ll never stop talking about . . .

A beautiful kitchen is made up of little design choices that build into a cohesive and detailed space.

The high-arc bridge faucet that feels perfectly at home in a heritage house.

The countertops that run right into the window sills adding countertop depth and beautifully blending the windows into the kitchen.

The built-in step stool hiding inside the cabinetry, ready for those very tall uppers.

Three different styles of cabinet hardware add character to the cabinets.

Statement wall sconces that flank the range hood, making it the focal point in the kitchen.

A quartz backsplash with a soft curve above the range, making it a standout feature in the design.

An island designed to feel like a piece of furniture, complete with decorative panels, legs and those little brass feet.

Individually, these are all small design details and decisions.

Together, they’re what make a kitchen feel custom and unique to this home.

That’s one of my favourite things about designing a kitchen like this.
You might walk in and simply think, this feels beautiful.
But look a little closer and you’ll discover there are hundreds of tiny reasons why.

Which Dunedin Hall kitchen detail would you steal for your own home?

09/28/2026

Project Dunedin Hall | The Kitchen

Of all the spaces in this home, the kitchen underwent one of the most dramatic transformations.

Our vision was to create a kitchen that felt bright, airy and welcoming with all the function expected of a modern family home . . . but with a sense of permanence and tradition that felt entirely at home within Dunedin Hall.

Continued in the comments 👇

Design Chantelle McNeish Design
Cabinetry Woodecor Ltd.
Flooring The carpet place
Construction Denham Construction
Photography Tosha D
Featured in Our Homes Magazine

09/23/2026

Project Dunedin Hall | The Family Entrance

Every addition to an old home has a moment where the past meets the present. At Dunedin Hall, this is it.

Connecting the original house to the new addition, the family entrance was designed to become the homeowners’ everyday way into the house - but we wanted it to feel like much more than a practical side entry.
We wanted the transition between old and new to become part of the experience.

Originally, a double window occupied the exterior brick wall where the new addition would connect to the existing house. The windows were removed and our mason (artist might be the more appropriate title) carefully transformed the opening into a soldier course brick archway. You would never know this used to be two windows!

Rather than covering the original brick, we left it exposed.
It’s one of my favourite decisions in the addition.
The brick becomes a steady reminder that you’re standing at the exact point where the original home ends and its new chapter begins.

Step through the entrance and to the right, the mudroom leads you back into the original house. Here, we were able to preserve the existing French doors which connect to the grand foyer and dining room. A doorway to the kitchen and a door to the powder room are also off this space.

Look up when you enter and the mood changes completely.
The new family entrance is open to the floor above, creating a dramatic two-storey view crowned with a crystal chandelier.
I love the contrast of old brick against sparkling crystal.

And directly ahead, the house opens into the new family room, where a wall of windows draws your eye toward the backyard and fills the addition with natural light.

This space really captures what we wanted the entire addition to accomplish.
We weren’t trying to disguise the fact that something new had been added to Dunedin Hall.
We simply wanted the new architecture to feel as though it understood the house it was joining.

Old meets new. And neither has to compete for attention.

09/21/2026

Project Dunedin Hall | The Powder Room

Here’s proof that the smallest room in the house can have the biggest personality!

Tucked beneath the original staircase, this little powder room came with a sloped ceiling, some out of square walls and just enough square footage to convince us that playing it safe would be a terrible idea.

So, naturally, we did the opposite.

We wrapped the room in wallpaper, a cheeky black-and-white pattern filled with the faces of Victorian ladies, with the occasional bright red lips peeking through.
It’s dramatic, unexpected, has a little attitude and we LOVE it! 🖤
We created a monochromatic palette to compliment our bold wallpaper choice.
The door, casing, baseboards and sloped ceiling were painted black, grounded by a black hex tile floor. A black sink and toilet with warm gold fixtures and accessories making this space feel like a room sized jewellery box.

An existing square window was replaced with a round one and this seemingly small architectural change completely transformed the feel of the room.

The window also gave us an interesting design puzzle.
Because the sink sits beneath the window, there was no natural place for a mirror above it. Rather than squeezing in something undersized or awkwardly positioned beside the window, we treated the opposite wall as its own little moment.

A round mirror echoes the shape of the window across the room, flanked by wall sconces to create a beautifully balanced composition.

This little powder room is everything I love about designing old homes - working with unusual architecture instead of against it, finding creative solutions to imperfect spaces and leaving plenty of room for personality.

09/18/2026

Old house charm or new house function?

I refuse to believe you have to choose!

I love old homes for all the reasons they can sometimes be a little… inconvenient.

The quirky layouts.
The imperfect walls.
The rooms that were designed for a completely different way of living.

Because along with those quirks come things that are very difficult to recreate.
The craftsmanship. The proportions. The history. The details. The feeling that a house has lived a whole life before you ever arrived.

But loving an old home doesn’t mean you have to live like it’s 1890.

Dunedin Hall is a perfect example.
We preserved the architectural details that gave the house its character while making deliberate changes to make it function for modern day life.
A new kitchen designed with all the modern conveniences, while feeling traditional.
Tiny existing bathrooms reworked to function better.
An addition that gave the family the space they needed while feeling as though it had always belonged.
New cabinetry, lighting, plumbing and finishes layered alongside original millwork, stained glass, French doors and a marble fireplace.

The goal was never to make the house feel new.
It was to make it work beautifully for another generation.
And I think that’s where the magic of renovating an old home really is:

Keep the soul. Improve the function. Add your story.

So I’m curious…
If you had to choose, would you rather renovate a beautiful old home or build a brand-new home designed to feel like it’s been there for 100 years?

Either way, I’m in!

09/16/2026

Project Dunedin Hall | The Lounge

If the grand foyer was designed to quietly welcome you in, the lounge was designed to make you stop in your tracks!

This room was already filled with the kind of architectural details we dream about finding in an old home: original French doors, substantial crown moulding, oversized baseboards and casings, a sweeping arched opening into the dining room and, at the heart of it all, a heritage-protected white marble fireplace mantle.

There was no question that these details would stay and be the starring features within the space.
Yet, rather than surrounding the original architecture with something subtle, we went in the opposite direction. We embraced the drama.

A rich, deep blue Art Deco-inspired wallpaper wraps the walls in pattern, while the ceiling, crown moulding, baseboards and casings were colour drenched in a coordinating blue.
The effect is immersive, moody and unapologetically bold - but there was intention behind all that colour.
Against the depth of the blue, the original white marble fireplace suddenly commands your attention.
Exactly where we wanted your eye to land.

Underfoot, new hardwood flooring was introduced to help correct the slope of the existing floor while bringing warmth and continuity to the space. It also carries through into the adjoining dining room, visually connecting the two spaces despite their very different personalities.

And then there’s that incredible arched opening.
Rather than treating it simply as a passage between rooms, we wanted to celebrate it as another piece of the home’s original architecture. Crystal wall sconces were added on either side, bringing a little sparkle to the transition and hinting at what’s waiting in the dining room beyond.

This room is such a perfect example of why I don’t believe preserving a heritage home means playing it safe.
Sometimes the best way to honour beautiful old architecture is to give it an equally confident backdrop. 💙

02/19/2026

Giving credit where credit is due: thank you ☀️ for this arch moment.

Also a shout out to the amazing for catching this moment but also fighting the sun on this photoshoot 🙌

Address

St. Marys, ON
N4X

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://www.chantellemcneishdesign.com/

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