PEOPLE in Food & Entertaining
Ehm-phatic design
Erica Ehm
When Erica Ehm and her husband, web designer Terry Moshenberg, bought their mid-town Toronto circa 1925 home six years ago, they found themselves in a doctor’s office — literally.
The four–bedroom, 21⁄2-storey, 2,500-square-foot home previously had been used for the practice of a podiatrist, ironically named Dr. Foot.
Ehm is host of Yummy Mummy, a lifestyle parenting show on Discover Health Channel and Life Network. The series is also seen in the United States, United Kingdom and France.
Ehm, though, is perhaps best remembered as the first female VJ on MuchMusic.
NAME: Erica Ehm
OCCUPATION: Television host and mother of two — Joshua, 5, and Jessie, 23 months
RESIDENCE: A former medical office
IN RESIDENCE: Six years
BIGGEST DÉCOR ACCOMPLISHMENT: Surviving a recent reno
Q: Have you renovated?
A: We started a second major renovation this May. We are doing a 1,200-square-foot addition onto the rear of our house. We are expanding partly because of my daughter. When she came into our lives, her room was very, very small — like the size of a closet. The way the house was configured, there really was no effective way of using the space properly. We loved the location so much that we decided to go through this construction hell, to make our house bigger. Also, it is so expensive to move in Toronto. It was less expensive to stay here.
Q: What does the outside of your home look like?
A: The front of the house includes a huge parking pad — almost a mini-parking lot that fits six cars. The back of our house is a chaotic mess right now. We are building a concrete pad this year for two reasons – for cost because it is less expensive than doing a fancy interlocking stone patio and it allows us more stability and a better base when we do have enough money to make it more visually attractive.
Q: How does the basement fit into your renovations?
A:The existing basement includes my husband’s home office and a playroom, both with grey broadloom and deep yellow walls. The office has a U-shaped light-stained wood desk and shelving unit. In the playroom is a pink floral hide-a-bed loveseat and grey sofa. A television sits in a dark wood armoire. The old basement opens up to the new addition, which is painted soft yellow with grey slate flooring. The space will be used as an extended play area for the children.
Q: What’s the main floor like?
A: The flooring on the main floor is honey-stained hardwood. The front foyer and living room are painted in a wheat/taupe. On the front hall walls are two prints by French/Israeli painter Theo Tobiasse — one of Queen Esther from biblical history, the other titled Les Fruits du Temple of two women dancing, painted in blacks and reds.
The living room has a red Persian carpet and long green canvas drape window treatments. Furniture bought at a junk store has recently been re-covered including a ’40s style overstuffed sofa with two matching wingback chairs that have new life covered in electric blue velvet, and an additional two large chairs, one now yellow and the other reupholstered in a yellow, blue and red brocade.
Also in the room is a gas fireplace. Over the fireplace is a reclaimed rectangular stained glass window in yellow, blue and red framed in white wood to match the home’s trim. It hangs like a picture in front of the window.
The dining room has soft olive green walls and a Persian carpet in putty green, crimson, yellow and white. There is a Colonial-style, dark wood dining table with six matching chairs upholstered in vinyl that looks like distressed leather, with decorative studs along the back. A distressed side table with round edges matches the dining table.
Q: What about the kitchen?
A: We have a U-shaped kitchen that opens up from the dining room and into the new addition sitting room at the back. The kitchen has a green backsplash, white appliances, antiqued off-white cabinetry, natural butcher block counters and breakfast bar with stools of dark brown wood with straw seats.
Q: What renovations are to come?
A: We haven’t done the bedrooms yet or the master bath.
Q: What is your most exotic decor item?
A: The chandelier in the dining room. We found it in a second-hand store. It is ornate brass and crystal.
Q: Is there a piece you would never part with?
A: What I’m learning is not to hold onto things. It is just stuff. My family is the most important thing — all the pieces are replaceable.
My most valuable possessions are not what’s in the home, but who lives there.
Special to Go@home
