The way Torontonians live today, in the first few decades of the 21st century, is considerably different than it was a hundred years ago.

Does that mean if you’re living in a house built in the 1920s, with more-or-less the original layout, that your only alternatives are to gut it to the studs, or tear down and replace it? With this much-loved family home, Toronto designer Shelley Kirsch saw a third way.

The couple had lived in this rambling Arts & Crafts home for more than 30 years and raised three kids, who are starting to raise families of their own. And they thought changes were in order, but they were in a bit of a quandary.

“They loved the neighbourhood and the house and didn’t want to move, but there were some serious problems with the layout,” Kirsch recalls. All up and down the street, people were knocking down and replacing homes that weren’t so different from theirs – but they hated to raze the house, with all its memories. They wondered if there was an alternative, without having to resort to a major gut job.

Letting the Light In

“The basic idea for the renovation came to me about two seconds after I walked into the house,” she laughs. “The first thing I noticed was that the kitchen was far too cramped for the lifestyle changes the couple desired. There was a real deficit of counterspace and cabinetry. At the rear facing a lovely backyard, was an addition probably added around the 1980s. It had big windows all along the back, but it was completely cut off by walls. So even though they had this beautiful, sunny rear area, most of the house was very dark and cramped.”

The solution was surprisingly simple, really. They had to let all that sunshine into the main floor, and trade an early-20th-century convention – formal dining room, small utilitarian kitchen – into a layout that worked for how the family lives today. The dining room was perfect for repurposing into a big, uber-functional kitchen; the walls isolating the addition from the rest of the house were removed; and the former kitchen area was turned into a multifunction extension of the front hall, joining front and back and spreading all that sunshine throughout the main floor. With these three steps, the entire main floor was transformed, without adding an inch to the home’s footprint.

The centrepiece of the renovation was the new kitchen. “She’s a very energetic cook and a huge entertainer; they frequently have large gatherings of family and friends, and there can be a hundred people in the house sometimes. So giving her a better place to cook and prepare meals and serve all those people became a huge priority.”

The new layout features three discrete work surfaces for food prep, serving (including places to lay out platters of hors d’oeuvres for parties), or even just taking things out of the fridge or oven when needed – this had been something of a juggling act in the old kitchen, Kirsch recalls. On one side, the built-in cooktop and range is flanked by wide counters, while a prep island with one of two sinks occupies the centre of the room. (As we pass, she points out a subtle economy in the island counter: while most of the counters are quartz, for this hard-working surface in the interior of the kitchen, it’s high-quality laminate – durable, attractive and significantly less costly.)

A second, larger island divides the kitchen proper from the bright new dining area at the back, with additional prep space and a surface that’s wide enough not only for feeding grandkids, but for catching up on paperwork from the office when needed. Storage abounds throughout: in both islands, surrounding the fridge on the far side, and flanking the rangehood, where glass-fronted display cupboards were custom-designed for the owner’s beloved mismatched cups and saucers, once owned by her mum.

Airy Ambience

The coffered ceiling that crowned the dining room adds a bit of gravitas in the new kitchen; but Kirsch had the oak beams painted white, to keep things bright and airy. Walls, pantry storage and upper cabinetry are painted a breezy grey-blue; the lower cabinets are black, with a rubbed grey-blue milk-paint finish that gives them a relaxed, almost cottagey charm.

Where the old kitchen once stood is now a continuation of the hallway, joining the front of the house to the sunny view at the back, and giving the entire main floor a feeling of space and air it lacked before. There’s enough room in the new hallway to add a walk-in pantry area and even a pretty, little powder room, tucked behind the stairs to the basement. “It was a perfect spot: the plumbing was ready there, and there was even a window in the right spot,” she laughs.

The back wall of the powder room forms part of an efficient and attractive built-in breakfront, offering additional storage and serving space within reach of both kitchen and dining areas. Set at a 90-degree angle to the breakfront is a tall cupboard designed for glasses and serving-ware. The breakfront, with its open display shelves, black subway tile backsplash and grey and white Shaker-style cupboards, provides a visual link with the kitchen, without being too matchy-matchy.

A relaxed palette grounded in blue-grey, black and white throughout helps to make the entire composition feel pulled together – but it’s also livened by rich colour and personality, with art, books and objets d’art gleaned from a lifetime of travelling and collecting. For home life in the 21st century should be about how your home reflects you, as well as the way you live.

“There’s a sense of ‘crafted sophistication’ in the home now. And it feels so approachable,” says Kirsch. “The homeowners say that even though the house has been completely updated, it feels just like them.”

Renovating with Heart for 21st Century Life by Martha uniacke Breen | National Post