Bryn Turnbull’s memory of her family’s 1920s-era cottage on Georgian Bay, Ont., clad in rugged stone and charming blue panelling, actually predates their ownership of it. “It was stiflingly hot, and the interior was green and covered head-to-toe in frog tchotchkes,” she says. “I mean every available surface, every door stopper, and every piece of art.”
Bryn’s maternal grandparents owned the cottage next door, where she spent her summer vacations as a young girl in the 1990s. When the neighbouring cottage went up for sale in 1998, Bryn’s parents bought it. “Gran and Grandpa’s cottage was a hub for our extended family for many years,” she says. “So when the chance to own the place next door came about, I think, to my parents, it felt right to stay close.”
The Turnbulls got to work de-frogging the five-bedroom, two-bathroom cottage, with Bryn, her brother, Alec, and her sister, Hayley, pitching in. “My siblings and I were taught to use paintbrushes at a very young age,” says Bryn. The family swapped the green shag carpeting with antique elm hardwood and redid the kitchen with a more efficient layout, adding new slate tile flooring, plus updated cabinetry and appliances. Since the cottage came fully furnished, the family repaired and refinished a few pieces, stripping off the old paint and reviving the original wood of several bookcases, desks, and side tables.
Maintaining the cottage’s 1920s charm was top of mind for the Turnbulls as they updated the historic residence. “My parents didn’t want to overly modernize it. It just wouldn’t have matched the bones of the cottage,” says Bryn. They kept original features where possible in order to preserve the place’s unique character, such as the vintage hardware on all of the cottage doors.
Because of the cottage’s age, Bryn and her family didn’t just inherit the space, but also its storied past. Originally, the cottage was part of a larger property with three main cabins (one of which was Bryn’s grandparents’ cottage) and three additional outbuildings. An executive for a popular North American department store was the owner of the estate, lore says. “Apparently, he’d bring his whole family and stay here for the summers,” says Bryn. Also on the guest list were the family’s doctor and priest.
One of the outbuildings, dubbed the “monk cell,” was said to be the executive’s personal retreat. “The cabin only had one door that was two or three feet above ground level, and you could only get inside with a rope ladder,” says Bryn. “When his wife threw cocktail parties, he’d climb up, pull the ladder up with him, and stay there until the party was over. It was his little refuge.”
In 2017, the family tackled a refresh on the monk cell, adding a new bathroom and updated windows. The Turnbulls debated for nearly a decade on whitewashing the wood-panelled interior. Ultimately, they decided against it, opting instead to maintain the original wood and re-staining where necessary. They mimicked the original green-and-white-checked floors with new checkerboard tiles, equipped with radiant in-floor heating. “The cabin still has a vintage feel to it,” says Bryn. “It’s like you’re stepping back in time when you walk in.”
Calling back to earlier eras is something Bryn, an internationally acclaimed author of four bestselling historical fiction novels, is quite familiar with. “I do my best writing at the cottage,” she says. Her office is set up at the end of the screened-in porch, an idyllic spot with picturesque views of Georgian Bay, the occasional stream of late-afternoon sunlight, and rustic granite floors (inspired by the cottage’s stone facade and indoor fireplace).
Bryn spends most of her summers at the cottage, partly to lounge and relax, and partly to write and ideate, a practice she began in 2015. “I write everything by hand first. I’m a fountain pen and paper kinda girl,” she says, noting she later transposes her manuscripts on to her computer. When she gets stuck, her mother, Dana, often swoops in to help. “If I’m having a real writing block, my mom and I will talk it out in the hot tub,” says Bryn, adding that the peace and serenity of the natural environment helps too. “It works every time.” At the end of the day, her family encourages her to unplug. “Around 5:30 p.m., somebody will come by and gently place a glass of wine on the end of the desk, and that’s the cue that cocktail hour has begun.”
Lately, the guest count at the Turnbull cottage has been growing. It’s not uncommon for 10 to 20 people—including spouses, children, friends, and extended family—to frequent the place. But they now have more room to spread out, as the family purchased Bryn’s grandparents’ cottage in 2019 after they decided it was time to let someone else enjoy and maintain the property. Bryn’s family have been tackling upgrades here and there, redoing the kitchen with new cabinetry and countertops, plus adding a new roof and deck. Their commitment to respectful modernization remains, and they’ve even found some treasures along the way.
“In my grandparents’ cottage, we found old boxes of pictures, books, and letters from their heyday,” says Bryn. “There are photos of old parties that they threw in the 1960s and ’70s, with people dressed up and acting as silly as we do today at the cottage,” she says. “Some things never change.”
The discoveries have become a source of inspiration for Bryn, who is currently writing a manuscript for a new book, her first set at a cottage. Though the storyline will take place in the 1950s, Bryn says her own cottaging experience, and that of her family, will be at the heart of it. “Listening to stories of the things my parents and their parents did when they were young and reckless in the long days of summer are now stories that have become part of the warp and weft of my own memory,” she says. “That’s the beauty of an old cottage, it becomes the keeper not just of individual memory, but of all the generations that passed through it before.”
Toronto-based writer Andrea Yu has been writing for Cottage Life since 2023. She loves a good, transformative design reno.
This story originally appeared in our May ’25 issue.
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