Today, I'm sharing what my Canadian home looks like. If I were to describe our style, I'd say its a fresh take on traditional with a heavy dose of DIY. You'll notice that a lot of details and thought went into our home renovations: in this world of do it quick, get it done fast, temporary fixes, we like to slow it down, think carefully, and add the "+"... those smallest of details which make a space memorable, original, and special. I have never done a whole house tour on the blog so this one will be epic - warning: this post is extremely photo heavy.

If you've been here a while, you might have seen some of these photos but I've included many never before seen :) Let's start with the top floor.

At the front of the house is our master bedroom. Here is an example where one small change can transform the entire look of a room: the wall behind the headboard had a portion which jutted out into the room and limited furniture placement. We decided to frame out a new flush wall and created a panelled treatment using MDF and trim. This wall became the focal point of the room and really added interesting detail in a simple, inexpensive way.



The entire room is painted a warm white (Benjamin Moore Sea Pearl) which creates a really calm and peaceful environment. Again, we've added a few vintage details like the swing arm sconces and the classic radiator cover (one of several built by my husband!). To keep things from feeling too boring and monochrome, we added the floral curtains. Choosing such a bold pattern was a bit of a risk, but I'm happy to say that four years later, I still love them!

Our house is a typical Toronto city house which means bathrooms are teeny tiny small. Next door is our main bathroom:



We've really tried to make this small room feel big and airy by using lots of reflective materials like polished chrome, glass, and mirror. The half frosted door (a custom order from our local lumber yard)   is one of my favourite features and helps carry the natural light into our dark hallway.


Throughout our house, we've tried to reintroduce traditional details. In the bathroom, elements like the classic subway and pencil tile pattern on the walls, the Bath decal on the door, and the bridge faucet add charm and character.

Also on this floor, is my daughter's former nursery. The key feature in this room is the radiator cover/bench we built beneath the window. It's framed on either side with Ikea cabinets that we gave a more built-in look.


We've since transformed this room into a guest room. The play kitchen we built has moved to the basement and some of the child friendly decor has disappeared but the room has basically stayed the same.

So where is our daughter's room? We've moved her next door. We originally renovated this bedroom into a home office built for two...


... and more recently renovated this room again into a playful room for a little girl. You'll see where the home office ended up shortly ;)







Moving down to the main floor, you see one of our biggest transformations when you enter our home. The living room used to be chaotic and dreary, but now its bright and welcoming.


I have two favourite features in this room: our painted hutch, and our DIY fireplace. Many arguments were had over choosing just the right stone, but I think we found one that blends a traditional style with a modern scale beautifully.


Just beyond the living room is our dining room. This is actually the first room we renovated. Again, you'll notice another custom radiator cover and our DIY wainscot. Can you tell we love mouldings and trim?


The kitchen is also an area that received an extensive makeover. It's been five years since we renovated this room and luckily, we still love it today.


Our house isn't that big (only 1400 sq ft plus the basement) so its very important to us to maximize the use of the space. This media station in the kitchen is one of our hardest working areas. It houses our TV, radio, chalkboard, and is a great place to prop up a laptop when we're hunting for recipes!


Just beyond the kitchen is our newest renovated space, the covered back porch. It's still a work in progress, but here's a peek at one area that's just about finished:


Let's hope we get it finished off before summer is over :) Now onto the basement. This was a huge renovation that took over a year and transformed 700 sq ft of living space. It included renovations of small spaces, like this new mini-mudroom in our stairwell. This area was under-utilized before - we really created this space out of nothing!


At the bottom of the stairwell is our new vintage inspired basement bathroom. We brought in many classic details into this small room like beadboard and label holders. Its so different than what we had here before!


The new laundry room might be my favourite room in the house. Originally, we had a large combined  laundry/storage space but opted to create a "room within a room" - the storage room is just behind the door with the ironing table and wraps around the new galley style laundry room.

Across from the laundry room, we've created a fun little space for our daughter. Who wouldn't love a secret playhouse under the stairs? We painted the triangular shaped wall with magnetic paint and its become a space to display her latest works of art.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday