Light-filled, cohesive, pure, and unfussy: that, in essence, is how our clients on this project wanted their home to feel. They sought versatile, clean-lined, clutter-managing space for themselves and their two young children, with better views of, and access to, their back garden.

Most of the big moves PLANT made were at the rear of the house, where we replaced a small tacked-on mudroom with a highly functional yet polished space that combines ample open and concealed storage (for toys, boots, and outdoor gear, etc.) with bench seating, in-floor heating, and a slate floor. In the dining room, the retained window opening in what was previously the rear exterior wall provides an expansive view through the mudroom to the garden. The mudroom opens onto an outdoor dining area, which steps down to a new Eramosa limestone patio.

New addition and renovated dining room
View from mudroom to dining

At the breakfast room the existing garden-facing window was replaced with a larger window that extends the glazing around the corner. Bamboo veneer wraps around the former exterior wall that now partitions the breakfast room and mudroom. On the breakfast room side, the veneer is laminated over metal, enabling the family to use magnets to pin up an ever-changing display of the kids’ artwork.

Bamboo magnet board
Corner window

The bench seating is bamboo plywood, new window and door frames are Douglas fir, and a deep slate blue is the accent colour that ties the entire composition together.

Storage at dining

PLANT designed the breakfast room table, which echoes the lines of the owners’ mid-century modern furniture collection and has a wipe-clean Corian top that is ideal for family arts and crafts sessions.

Thoughtful precision contributes to the versatility and amenity of this seemingly simple project. To cite two examples, the freestanding mudroom bench is sized to slot in between the breakfast room’s benches when additional seating is needed around the table, and the slight angling of the breakfast room’s slate-blue seating nook creates a comfortable backrest and an agreeable sense of enclosure.

Mudroom

On the second floor, the mudroom addition created the opportunity to add a walkout balcony play area to one of the children’s bedrooms.

Bedroom and deck access

We also renovated the front entry, adding a new slate floor and in-floor heating and replacing an undersized closet with a more open storage unit on one side of the front door and knobs for hanging coats on the other. The former closet had concealed a small leaded-glass exterior window. This window is now visible inside as well as out, through a painted, mirror-backed open compartment. A key dish hollowed into the bottom of this compartment exposes multiple layers of cross-laminated bamboo plywood below the painted surface.

Entry closet
Bamboo key bowl
New opening through to the garden

  1. A Conversation of Views
  2. Admiral Road Garden
  3. Airdrie Road Garden
  4. Airdrie Road Residence
  5. Albany Avenue Residence
  6. Alcina Garden
  7. Alexandra Park
  8. Alwington Landscape / Garden Pavilion
  9. Aporia Records
  10. Ardwick Townhouses
  11. Asphalt Poetry
  12. – Poem
  13. Baby Point Gardens
  14. Beach Garden
  15. Beach Village BIA Master Plan
  16. Beaty Residence
  17. Bennington Hts Garden
  18. Bennington Hts Ravine Garden 1
  19. Berkeley Street Residence
  20. Bin-Scarth Garden
  21. Blink and you miss it.
  22. – Poem
  23. Block 22 Landscape
  24. Bloor St. Apartment
  25. Blue Note
  26. Booth Avenue Residence
  27. Boustrophedon Garden
  28. Braemore Gardens Residence
  29. Brahms Townhouses
  30. Browning Avenue Residence
  31. Brunswick Avenue Residence
  32. Camp Arowhon Offices
  33. Canadian Firefighters Memorial
  34. Catch / Renew / Release
  35. Channelled Buried Moved Lost
  36. Chocolate Loft
  37. City Instrument
  38. Clarendon Garden
  39. Conversation Piece
  40. Cortleigh Boulevard Garden
  41. Creemore Farm
  42. Danforth Mosaic BIA Master Plan
  43. Danforth Parkettes
  44. Dickson Park Garden
  45. Dilworth Residence
  46. Don Landing Revitalization
  47. Dublin Grounds of Remembrance
  48. Duncanwoods Townhouses
  49. Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden
  50. Dupont-by-the-Castle BIA
  51. East Point Bird Sanctuary
  52. Eglinton Ave. Forecourt
  53. Eglinton Park Master Plan
  54. Elizabeth Fry Society
  55. Ellsworth Residence
  56. Face to Face | Tête à Tête
  57. First Avenue Garden
  58. First Avenue Residence
  59. Flyover Canada
  60. Foote’s Pond Wood
  61. Forest Hill Village Streetscape
  62. Gaze, Glimpse, Glance
  63. Global Affairs Monument
  64. Goldring Landscape, University of Toronto
  65. Gormley Garden
  66. Governor's Bridge Lookout
  67. Greener P
  68. Greer Road Garden
  69. Greer Road Residence
  70. Guelph Bridge
  71. Head in the Clouds
  72. Helena Ave Residence 4
  73. Jean Tweed Addition + Laneway House
  74. Junction Craft Brewery
  75. Kelpies Competition
  76. Kew Gardens Streetscape
  77. King's Landing Apartment
  78. Kipling & Islington Developments
  79. Lakeport Beach Neighbourhood
  80. Le jardin du repos
  81. Lenticular Curtain
  82. Leslie Slip Lookout Park
  83. Liberty Village Parkettes
  84. Liza’s Garden
  85. Lynwood Garden
  86. Macroscape
  87. Makwa Waakaa'igan
  88. Markham Garden One
  89. Markham Street Residence Two
  90. Massey College Landscape Restoration
  91. May Street Ravine
  92. Midtown Yonge Streetscape
  93. Montreal Holocaust Memorial Competition
  94. Mount Dennis Parkettes
  95. Mulock Park
  96. Nathan Phillips Square
  97. – Streetscape
  98. – Peace Garden
  99. – Podium Roof Garden
  100. Octane Medical Campus
  101. Orchard View Garden
  102. Osgoode Atkinson Green Competition
  103. Owl Cottage
  104. Paperstone Scissors
  105. Pendrith Residence
  106. Peripheral Sitings
  107. Pottery Road Crossing
  108. rare
  109. Ravine Forecourt
  110. Ribbon of the Lower Don
  111. Riverside BIA Master Plan
  112. Roxborough Garden One
  113. Roxborough Garden Two
  114. Schulich School of Business
  115. Sheridan College
  116. – Trafalgar Campus Master Plan
  117. Spadina Quay Wetland
  118. St. Anne's Road Garden
  119. St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts
  120. Stratford Market Square Competition
  121. Stratford Patterson Theatre Competition
  122. Superkids Dental
  123. Superlegible
  124. Sweet Farm
  125. Sweet Farm Pond House
  126. Swift Medical Offices
  127. The Meadows Reconsidered
  128. The Red Sash
  129. The Sara Jackman Playground
  130. Thick & Thin
  131. Thistletown II Townhouses
  132. Tipping Point
  133. TMU Centre for Urban Innovation
  134. TMU Science Building
  135. Tranby Garden
  136. Tree House Residence
  137. UBC Okanagan – The Commons
  138. UHN Tunnels
  139. University of Toronto Mississauga Welcome Centre
  140. UW Mathematics Landscape
  141. Venice Biennale 2012
  142. Vermont Square Park
  143. Vernon Avenue Garden
  144. Walker Townhouse Courtyard
  145. Walk the Walk
  146. Walmer Road Residence
  147. Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial
  148. Wellesley Cottages Garden
  149. Wells Street Residence
  150. Wendat Square
  151. Westminster Residence
  152. Weston Village BIA Masterplan
  153. With Words as Their Actions
  154. Woodlawn Avenue Residence
  155. Woven Stories
  156. Wynford Drive Residences
  157. York Park
  158. Yorkwoods Townhouses
  159. Young Centre for the Perfoming Arts