This home is a builder classic in Leaside, a 2-storey brick semi on an old street lined with trees. The owners and their young family had run up against the eternal issue of running out of space. Neither was there adequate room to dally in the kitchen nor to gather around the dinner table, and a paucity of storage space plagued the house. Could we fix this, without blowing up the building? The owners loved the house exterior and their bright red front door.

We left the building front intact, with the hunch that the excitement of our renovation would become apparent upon entry. Our remedy for the house? A favourite planning strategy for long, narrow houses: to energize the full length of the house, we place the kitchen in the middle. Activity in the kitchen drives the functionality of the opposite ends.

The solid birch wood flooring and the wash of pale walls, ceilings and cabinets pull the visitor through the house. The front office flows into the kitchen, which is wrapped in a lengthy stone peninsula. As long as the kitchen is, the dining area located kitty-corner from it stretches out with a built-in bench seat and the owners’ spectacular hand-made dinner table. Big windows at garden end of the plan brighten the living room and fireplace.