Fairholme Manor

This is truly a unique find, tucked away in Victoria’s most exclusive residential neighborhood: a lofty, manor house dating from 1885, superbly restored. While honoring the home’s 19th-century heritage Sylvia has created five exquisite, immense and totally private suites decorating them in a fresh contemporary style and adding a tasteful mix of contemporary and antique furniture. Enter the main house into a large common room, with 14-foot bay windows, a fireplace, comfortable sitting chairs, and dining tables where you enjoy poetic breakfasts. The Olympic Grand Suite upstairs is typical of the accommodations here. Enter a huge room through an arched doorway. The beams in the high ceiling are painted white, a barely-robin’s-egg-blue between them to match the walls. Look across the room and marvel at the water and mountain views through towering 11-foot windows. Here, there’s space aplenty for a king bed, fireplace, sitting chairs, and dining table. The Fairholme Grand Suite—all 850 square feet of it—has 14-foot ceilings, a double Jacuzzi tub with an ocean view, a double shower, and a mix of traditional and contemporary decor: Persian carpets on hardwood floors, oversized chairs covered in creamy-beige slip covers, a 100-year-old chandelier, and a teak dining-room table and chairs.