棲居美學6 房屋參觀 | 別緻而優雅的多倫多住宅

Hi, Homeworthy. I'm Mikayla. Welcome to my house in Toronto. Come on in. I can't wait to show you around. You're watching Homeworthy, where we believe every home has a story. My name is Mikayla Burns. I'm an interior designer. And welcome to my home in Toronto. The history of this home actually begins with another home. My husband and I purchased the property that this house is on in 2013. The home that was here was a beautiful colonial Georgian with red brick. People always said it kind of reminded them of the Home Alone house. And we totally fell in love with the charm. We had our two kids in that house. But over time, it became obvious to us that it needed some pretty serious upgrades. At times, it felt like there were more mice than adults in the house. And I started to do my research. So, you know, being an interior designer, I had a lot of big ideas. But I knew that the right place to start was with the ugly stuff. The stuff you don't really see behind the walls. You know, structurally, insulation, what needed to change. And after talking with a variety of people in the industry, I made the very difficult decision that I knew the house needed to start over. The house needed to come down. The house was about 100 years old. There's really beautiful old homes in this neighborhood that have been well-maintained over the years. And this just wasn't one of them. So we sat tight for a few more years, saving our pennies, and then started the really fun and creative process of designing our new dream home. So when thinking about designing a new home in this neighborhood, because a lot of the homes in the neighborhood are typically, you know, between 80 to 100 years old, I wanted to build a new house that had that staying power for the next 100 years. So we described the style of this house as a modern Gothic or a modern Tudor. So from the outside, you still see some of those traditional peaks and stonework, but there are modern arches and the windows. The glazing is more modern. So I wanted to carry that kind of juxtaposition into the home as well. So I have described the style of the house as soft modern. I enjoy modern style, but I was looking for a style, a version of modern that felt a little bit more approachable and warm and practical for daily living, you know, with messy kids and a dog. So the living room sits at the front of the house facing the street. It is a more traditional room like, you know, we often see, but I wanted it to be usable. That was the goal. So I accomplished that through a few different ways. I also just want to take a moment to introduce Miles. Miles, look over. Miles is our four-year-old small standard poodle. OK, so in the living room, again, I was trying to combine two sometimes conflicting ideas, right? A comfortable room, but a formal room. A room for entertaining, but a room also for relaxing. You'll notice this is the only room in the house that has wall paneling. So it is a little bit more of a traditional style of wall paneling, but with a few modern touches. So for example, if you look down at the baseboard, the main floor of the house has a recessed integrated baseboard. Then we repeat that kind of seamless look at the top. So rather than doing traditional crown molding, we have a one-inch reveal that gives this shadow effect, a shadow line around the perimeter of the room. It's almost as if the formal paneling is like sandwiched between modern architectural elements. I painted the walls in here a very light grey. They're Benjamin Moore Pale Oak. For the windows, because this is facing the street, obviously privacy is important, but I love the natural light. So we chose to do a very sheer linen hung in a simple ripple fold. And these are always closed. There's really no need to open them because when sitting in here, I can still see outside. I can get all the natural light, but privacy isn't an issue. For the furniture in this room, we have definitely more modern pieces. So this sofa is from Design Within Reach, designed by Kate Ellison, who's a California furniture designer. It's really comfortable. Being a more formal sofa, what I love about it, it's comfortable, but it's not the type of sofa that you sink into and then you have to fluff it back up. It's not a big feather Chesterfield, but it still is really comfortable. Contrasted with these spherical wool cushions, which of course my kids throw around all over the place. The showstopper piece in this room is definitely the coffee table. I was drooling over this coffee table for years. It was designed by the Metric family of LT, which is a large furniture store in Toronto. This was shipped and delivered in one piece. Everyone asks how many guys it took to bring into the room. I think it took six. And once it was put down, it's not moving. So we had to make sure the dimensions were right. The coffee table was an investment. It also is like an investment in pattern and color and busyness. So that's why the rest of the elements in the room are fairly simple. The side chairs done in like a kind of a rusty persimmon color are actually very comfortable. This is where I sit and have my morning coffee most days. When you buy a new house or when you build a new house, typically we all have the same problem, and that is we have no money left. So you'll notice there's a couple of walls in our house that I have what I call placeholder art. So this is a perfect feature wall above my sofa. And I am saving up for the perfect piece of art. So in the meantime, I ordered the pampas grass wreaths from CB2. The chandelier in this room was from the previous home. So we made sure to save this before the demolition. It's done in a white gesso. So yes, it's the shape of a traditional chandelier, but it has really minimalist features. And I wanted it to just disappear into the ceiling. The rug in this room is stylish, it's comfortable, and it's also very practical. So I went for a lower cost rug made of nylon and PET yarns. It does have a softness to it, which is nice underfoot. But because I still had young children, and the dog loves this room, it's kind of a five-year rug. And then potentially I'll replace it with something different. But I like that it's just neutral. It has the abstract kind of modern shapes in it. And it provides a nice neutral foundation for this room with a little bit of pattern, but it doesn't compete with the coffee table. I like to keep the coffee table decor in here pretty simple because to show off the marble. But I do have one really special piece. I found this vintage Van Gogh art book from a local Toronto store called Home by Seven. So the back story was my husband and I spent a week in London in the fall visiting all of the art galleries. And we were both just so moved by the Van Gogh exhibit. And it was a great opportunity to bring a little bit of that back home. But of course all the books that they sell at the gift shop aren't really coffee table worthy. So after some research, I came across this one that was being sold by Home by Seven. And it is actually vintage. It's from the 70s. It's in impeccable shape. It's a mixture of both black and white as well as some colour images of his artwork. The last feature of this room is the fireplace. I love the fact that we were able to build an open gas fireplace. It has the feel of a wood burning fireplace without the dirt and the mess obviously and the smoke. The fireplace mantle was made by a local company called Trumeau Stone. They work a lot with designers and homeowners. This is a cast limestone in a design that I was able to create myself and they built it to size. It gives again warmth. It nods to more of a traditional style but in a modern interpretation. When thinking about my favourite thing in this home as the designer and the homeowner, it's probably the combination of factors. It's all of the different ideas that I was able to express in this house that I'd been rattling around my head for the last 10, 15 years. But if I had to pick one thing, it would be the dining room floor that you can kind of see behind me. So the dining room floor is a wood parquet done with three different colours of wood. One of the colours is exactly the same as the rest of the hardwood running throughout the house. And then one is almost a black stain and one is much lighter. And set in like a rhombus pattern, it gives you this really cool 3D effect. I have had my eye on something like this for years and I didn't want to put a rug under my dining room table, you know, the mess and all that. But this gives an amazing focal point and really sets the frame and the style for the room. And it's also visible from when you first walk into the house. All right. So we're entering the dining room. We take two steps down at this point in the house. And that's because overall this lot slopes quite a bit towards the backyard. And our goal was to really integrate the back of the house into the backyard. So on the main floor, you take two steps down and then in the basement, you take four steps down. OK. So the dining room. Also one of my favourite rooms. And the room with the floor, which was my favourite item in the house if I had to pick one. Again, the parquet floor done in white oak. This room was built around the table. So I had designed and had this table built in our old house about eight years ago. And it sat in a really traditional dining room with typical panelling. I actually did an Elie Cashman floral wallpaper on the ceiling. Drapery, dark mahogany furniture. You'll notice that the base of the table is actually done in walnut. So a more traditional colour. But there's no reason why this table couldn't work in this setting. So the dimensions of this were perfect for eight people. I kept that in mind when designing the room. A couple of other interesting things about this room that changed the way we designed it is that we knew that it would have some asymmetry to it. So because of the distance we are from our neighbour and window requirements, we were only going to put one window in this room. And it also didn't make sense to put two because we're just looking at our neighbour's house. So it would be kind of a waste of your window allowance. So we put one window covered in a Roman blind done in the same sheer linen that we have in the living room. And it always stays down. Just gives us a bit of diffused light, but there's no point in looking at the side of the neighbour's house. So we had asymmetry on that wall. That led us to making the decision to use this wall for a large console where I keep all of our spare dishes. And then in order to make that also feel intentional, I put a large piece of artwork on that wall. I wanted to continue the concept of panelling from the living room into the dining room. Again, because the dining room is a bit more of a formal space. And I find that panelling in a dining room helps it feel a little bit smaller. You know, these tall ceilings and you're sitting in your seat, often it can feel like the room's a bit cavernous. But I was transitioning into a more modern style as I moved further into the house. So instead of wall panelling like the living room, we did an oak reeded effect. So we have essentially a strip of this panelling that runs up the centre of the wall, continues along the ceiling, and then transitions into the archway to the living room. Let me tell you about these chairs. So this is always every designer's conundrum. We find fabrics or items that we love, but we can't quite do what we want with them. So I found this leather as a remnant at our upholsterers. I fell in love with it. The texture is very soft and supple. And I thought the colour was very unique. But there wasn't enough to do the full chair. So, you know, after a little bit of thought, we decided to do the two end chairs with the leather in the centre, which is really where the grubby fingers are going to be and where the food is going to be dropped. And then we did the outside of the chair and the back in this very fun embossed velvet fabric from Romo. For the artwork in this room, I took the high-low approach. So both of these pieces are provided by Wendover, which produces really beautiful decorative art. And it allowed me to get the size I needed at the price point I could afford. I also purposefully hung this off-centre to allow for access through the pantry door, but it balances the other asymmetrical wall that's in the room. The chandelier in this room is my favourite light fixture if I had to pick one. And as we go through the house, I can point out, you know, we really do have a high-low mix of light fixtures. I had an overall lighting budget, and then I decided how I was going to allocate it and really where the feature pieces were going to be. And this was one of them. So this fixture is created by Mui. It's called the Flock of Light. And especially in the dark, it feels like just a swarm of fireflies. It creates a very beautiful romantic glow. So if you want to hear a scary story, while this table was packed and in storage for two years, it cracked. And it actually cracked completely in half in two pieces. When we opened the box on move-in day, our mover said, how many tables are in here? I said, there's only one. He's like, well, there's two pieces. So luckily a marble installer was on site that was doing our kitchen counters. He came over. I said, hold on, guys. I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to freak out. It's not over until Frank says it's over. And Frank, our marble guy, came over. He took a look at it. He said, let me bring it back to the shop. It's now reinforced from behind, so this won't happen again. And it has a seam running all the way through it that they did a very clever job of filling. But when you're working with a natural stone that has, it's a Calacatta marble. It also has a leathered finish, which means it already has a bit of natural undulation in it. The seam just kind of blends in and it becomes part of the story. All right, why don't you follow me through the secret door into the pantry. Welcome to the pantry. I had a lot of fun with color in this room. You'll notice the cabinets in here are dark green, Terrytown Green from Benjamin Moore. And then on the opposite wall, we've done shallow shelving for all of our vases and alcohol in Puritan Gray. My favorite part of the pantry is actually this room, this little vestibule. We used a Kelly Wurstler wallpaper as well as the coordinating fabric for the Roman Blind. This area is obviously between the kitchen and the dining room. So I added an extra dishwasher that is an absolute godsend when you're clearing up after dinner parties. I love unlacquered brass, but I know that practically speaking in a busy kitchen it might not be the best option. But in this room, I was able to use it. So I've done the wall brackets in an unlacquered brass as well as all of the drawer hardware. And my goal is that this room will age well and the hardware will take on a beautiful patina. Welcome to my kitchen. So for so many, the kitchen is the first place we start with design. When clients send me a Pinterest board or an inspiration board, it's 80% kitchens. And I get it. It sets the vibe of the house and it's the hardest working room in the house for sure. But I also encourage people to think outside the box a little bit and kind of dissect what it is that they really need. How do they eat? Do they use a kosher kitchen? Do they like to deep fry? How many people are they serving every day? Is everybody eating all three meals in the house? Et cetera. So with all that information is how I came up with this design for my family. We typically eat breakfast pretty quickly on the go. So we have the bar stools. And other meals, we do try to eat together all as a family. So we do have a nook that I'll show you later with a table for four. This kitchen is actually a combination, believe it or not, of four different cabinet styles and four different cabinet colors. But I think it creates a pretty homogeneous look. So including the pantry, we have the green. And then we have a beautiful white oak for the majority of the perimeter cabinets and the island. And then our fridge wall is done in a light creamy gray. And lastly, which I'm going to show you in a minute, we have a coffee bar done in a black stained oak. The perimeter cabinets have no uppers, you'll notice. And I got a little bit of pushback about that from the architect when we were first designing it. Storage is not a problem here. What I love about not having uppers, it gives you a ton of natural light. You really appreciate the ceiling height. And it is definitely an updated look. And another advantage that I realized with young children is when you have all of your dishes in drawers, the kids can empty the dishwasher. For the hardware, I also have a real mix. So you saw in the pantry we had unlacquered brass. And in here we have satin brass. I have a mix of two different companies actually. The solid poles are Schaub. And the open poles are from a company called Mayo. I put an open pole on heavy pot drawers where I knew you needed a little bit more of a yank. The sink was also a wish list item of mine. I had been drooling over these sink systems. So this is a product made actually in Canada by Julian. It's a 48-inch wide sink. And it comes with a variety of different components that you can use. So you can add in a strainer, a drying rack, your cutting board. And I find when I'm preparing for a big meal, I just have this great system that moves from left to right and ends in the compost bin. So we use this sink for all of our food prep. And then we have a second sink over by the dishwasher that is really the wash-up sink. So this is where all the dirty dishes go at the end of the meal. And our dishwasher is right here beside it. For the hardware, the sink hardware, I've used Brizzo in a luxe gold finish. And this sink actually I did with the touch technology. So when you have your dirty hands, the dirty dishes, it's really easy to turn it on and off. The backsplash in the kitchen are Zelige tiles. These are 5x5s. They're actually all considered the same color, but you'll notice because of the handmade quality, they come in all variations of cream. We installed them in a straight pattern. And again, I like that it gives an open and airy feel, but there's texture. I think that is really one of the things that adds warmth to this house. So you could take two white kitchens and the difference is often in these subtle details like the texture. For a runner in this kitchen, I was puzzled as to where to start because we've got a long run and there isn't really only one place that we stand where you can focus the rug. So after a lot of searching, I found this vintage runner from India and it is exactly the length of this hallway. So 11 feet 2 inches. It fits end to end and it's 100% wool. It's vintage. It's already been washed a million times. You can't really ruin it and you can easily spot clean it if you drop a little something on it. The light fixtures in the kitchen are actually made by a Canadian brand called Luminaire Authentique out of Quebec. Really simple styles, but fully customizable color. So the color we've chosen in here is a smoky mauve. We've repeated it on the coffee bar behind you. And then, as you'll see, over top of the kitchen table, we also have another fixture from Luminaire Authentique done in a light sage green. So this wall houses a 30-inch freezer, a 36-inch fridge, and then just pantry cabinets. I made sure that these are, you know, really accessible and fit everything, even down to I measured our cereal boxes to make sure the drawer heights would fit. Those are key details that would have really frustrated me if I had forgotten it. And then we end up at the coffee bar. So the coffee bar acts as a room divider between the kitchen and the family room. It also doubles as a great serving space when we're entertaining. But day to day, it's the coffee bar. It's also the landing pad for most of the things, you know, that come home from school. It has a couple of features that you might not be able to see. So this is a microwave drawer, which, again, with young kids is really practical because they can heat up their own food without having to lift something hot and heavy above them. And below the coffee maker, we have a beverage fridge. So this fridge drawer made by Fisher Paykel can be adjusted in temperature actually to go all the way to freezing. So theoretically, I could put ice cream in here, but we really enjoy having all of our beverages in here. And even just a little convenience hack is I have my coffee cream here because this is where my coffee is. So it's, you know, I have milk in the fridge, but it's nice to know that I have the cream right here. On top of the coffee bar, we have really simple shelving just done in black iron and glass. I switch up what's on the shelves depending on what time of year it is, what we're doing. The backsplash tile here is a black subway tile done in the Zelige style with the hand glazed. And the light fixtures, the sconces, are also made by Luminaire Authentique from Quebec in a color that is matching to the island fixtures. So on the other side of the coffee bar is the family room. The back of the coffee bar is paneled in millwork in the white oak that you see in the kitchen as well as in the family room. It provides a room divider between the two spaces. It also gave me a great surface for art. If you take a look at the millwork in the family room, I tried to again ask myself really what is the purpose of this space? What kind of storage will I need? Because I didn't think I was going to need floor to ceiling shelves symmetrical on either side of the fireplace. Because this is the main room where we're watching TV, I wanted to make sure the TV was hung at an appropriate height, nice and low. But I still love the allure of a fireplace. So the fireplace is off center on purpose. You'll notice that it's a corner unit so you can see it from both angles. The fireplace column is a really stunning piece of Greek marble and it repeats, it continues down below the fireplace essentially as a bench ledge along the bottom. So the fireplace is actually dual-sided. You can see through the glass from both the corner and the front. Above the fireplace is this absolutely stunning slab of marble, of Greek marble that has a mint green veining through it. There was just enough of this marble left in the warehouse to do the mantel column, the fireplace column, but also to extend it across the bottom as a bit of a ledge. And then for storage in this room, I kept it really minimal. I just have a couple of push-latch cabinets and they keep the board games and a few little extra tchotchkes. But overall, there really isn't a heavy need for storage in this room. So behind the TV in this room, we have clad the wall in a vinyl grass cloth. So it has the texture of grass cloth but it was very affordable so it's a good option if you don't want to extend millwork all the way up the wall. I love this lamp that we found. It is made of solid steel. It weighs an absolute ton and it creates this very architectural array of light in the evenings. I am so excited to have added my first new piece of original art to the house since we moved in. This is by Canadian artist Heather Miller who lives in Prince Edward Island, which is actually where I'm from. It's an aerial view of a river in Prince Edward Island, really similar to the river where our cottage is and where I grew up swimming. If you have the opportunity to build a new home in an established neighborhood, I think that comes with a certain amount of responsibility. As a homeowner, yes, you want that to be a space for your own home and be a reflection of how you live. But ideally, you're able to build a house that will become an old house. You want to build a new house that's worthy of becoming an old house. And that is done through picking the right materials and materials that have the longevity and the durability. But I also like seeing homes that fit into the neighborhood but are still an expression of the client's personality, especially in an older established neighborhood. There is kind of a certain nomenclature that is acceptable. I don't think it would have been acceptable locally if we had done, say, a Cape Cod clapboard-style home. It just wouldn't have fit into a neighborhood that's surrounded by brick and stone. But there's a lot of ways to use brick and stone in a way that doesn't feel typical or a copycat of your neighbor. So I started by finding inspiration photos of homes that I really like, and then I took those ideas and those facades and I scaled them to the size of the lot that we had and then started to see how those different shapes, you know, worked within the scale of a 50-foot-wide residential lot. I think it's important to have a couple of must-haves on your list, like basically your wish list, but only a couple that you, you know, the ones that you're going to die on, you know, like pick a hill to die on, and also be willing to compromise others. In our scenario, we took some, a couple of really classic elements, one being a very tall front peak, two chimneys, and an arched front door, and we took that to an architect who then played around with it and added some modern elements in between those more traditional, you know, designs. Welcome to my primary suite. When you walk in, you see this Janna Watson painting who is also a Toronto artist. In the bedroom only, I have done crystal doorknobs. Again, it's a bit of that nostalgia feel. I love that my grandmother's house had crystal doorknobs, so it's just a little something special for me. The goal for the primary bedroom was a hotel-esque feel, and in my husband's words, he wanted it to feel dark and moody, which was honestly a bit of a departure from the way I usually do bedrooms, so I welcomed the challenge. In order to accomplish that, I clad all of the walls in a grass cloth, and the headboard wall has this really fascinating wide brush stroke pattern on it. The bed is in a dark, like a violet mushroom, I guess we could call it, and the side table's again in a black oak with a travertine top. The rug is also a vintage rug. Again, very indestructible, comfortable under your feet and not worried about any staining. At the foot of the bed, I have a comfortable bench in a vibrant Romo velvet fabric. So this piece of art in the bedroom is actually a photo that my son took. This is in Prince Edward Island, where I grew up and where we spend our summers, and what we were trying to accomplish with this shot was that feeling of your first dive into the salt water when you arrive, you know, that first day in July, and I love that feeling of like seeing my hands ahead of me in the dark water, and so I just asked my son if he could try to capture it. He stood on the dock and, you know, with an iPhone, this is what you get. The console table in this bedroom is actually a piece of dining room furniture. We had a really wide expanse here to fill, and reminiscent or, you know, inspired by the hotel vibe, I didn't want it to feel really bedroomy. We have a walk-in closet, so we didn't need a dresser and we didn't need a place in our bedroom to store our socks and underwear. I love this console just because of the combination of elements. It has a, you know, a metal gold top and a white oak bottom, but it's all connected. It's all one piece. I don't know about you, but my favorite part about staying in a hotel is being able to make a cup of coffee and then get back into bed. So that was my goal with the little coffee nook. We took this area that was underneath the stairs, originally going to be a linen closet, and instead cut a cute little arch way into it. We have an under-counter fridge, a coffee machine, and a kettle. It's a very romantic idea that I have champagne in there, but 99% of the time, I make my sleepy time chamomile tea here. Welcome to the primary en suite. I chose to do separate vanities for my husband and I. I like our mess to be separate, and I custom designed these vanities in white oak in a reeded style with a curved corner. You'll notice mine is justified right against the wall. His sticks out, but they totally balance each other. We have a toilet room with another full-height closet done in the white oak and a shower room with a double shower head. The two shower heads, it was up for debate, but it has been like such a lifesaver. Of course, my kids love showering in here, and I chose a porcelain slab for the shower, top to bottom, and a coordinating large format porcelain tile for the floor. The tall closet in the toilet room houses all of our vanity storage, all of your extra medicine, your Costco purchases, et cetera, and then I have push latch medicine cabinets on each side. Of course, my husband's only has deodorant and a toothpaste in it, but that is mine. In front of the window, we have a very large calista soaker tub. This tub is actually solid stone. We had the floor reinforced with steel, and we had to hire piano movers to get it up the stairs. The tub filler is actually a second-hand unlacquered brass set that I picked up, and I think it also adds a bit of warmth and history to the room. The light fixture over the tub always gets a lot of comments. What really makes this light fixture work is because the light is facing up and diffused. You are never seeing a direct bulb, so if you are lying in the tub and you have this on dim, you just get that nice glow overhead without the glare of a light bulb in your eyes. I chose to do an above-mount sink for the vanities as a way to feature the design of the vanity. I also really love the delicate curves of this sink and wall-mounted graph fixtures with a marble. Definitely, these were the high-low of the plumbing fixtures. These were the high in the ensuite. I think what gives a home a soul is not always, you know, the perfect furniture, the new furniture, the trendy paint color. I think it's walking into a house and seeing that the rooms are enjoyed, you know, that they're lived in. I love designing spaces that families can enjoy and spaces that really support, you know, the way the family is growing. So if you have a kid who's a budding chess player, rather than just having a chess kit that gets set away every day, why don't we find a really interesting marble one that becomes a centerpiece and have space in the room for refreshments and other people to sit in the room and participate. Another secret door. Come see what's inside. Welcome to our music room. We designed this room under the garage so that we have concrete walls all around us. It's a very soundproof room with a really thick plush carpet and some acoustic wallpaper on the ceiling. This is where my kids come to practice piano, guitar, drums, and it's also a really great hangout room. The paintings on the back wall is actually the first art that my husband and I purchased when we first moved in together in Vancouver. They were done by a local artist and they're a pixelated version of the Ramones. I found this interesting wall sconce while designing the house. I thought it would be perfect. The down light is very subtle and something about it kind of feels like drums and gives a lounge ambience. The instruments in this room are not only part of the decoration. They're a bit of our history as well. The black and white bass guitar was from when my husband was a teenager and on the far side the acoustic was actually my father's who was a performing musician in my youth. Last but not least, this was the first guitar that was ever purchased for my son. So right outside of the music room we have two really interesting photographs hanging. These are photographs of our own CDs. So like many, we had boxes of CDs that were left in storage for years and when the time came to decide to get rid of them, I know I could find all of this music online, but you want to remember what you had. So my husband and I took each of our stacks. This is his stack. This is my stack. And we took it to a friend of mine who's a photographer. She did a beauty shot of each stack. We had them framed and it was only after that we realized we only have one repeat album across the two of us. Our tastes are very different and it is, if you recall, The Love Below by Outkast. On the second floor, we have the master suite, the boys' rooms and then we also have a den. So instead of having a fourth bedroom, we chose to use this space in a way that would, again, suit our lifestyle. So the idea is that this is the room where the kids can do homework or if you just want a quiet moment. I painted this room top to bottom in Benjamin Moore Dark Walnut. We have a library-inspired light on the walnut desk, a cute little settee, and this is the room where I was able to hang a real mixture of all the bits and pieces of artwork that I've collected over the years, including a lot of originals by my own mom. So welcome to the entryway of my home, which is really the home's first impression. I think this room sets the stage for the style and the combination of styles throughout the house. You immediately are within a room of arches, the arch into the hallway, the arched door behind you, and the arch motif on the front hall closet. If you take a look at the floor in this room, it's a porcelain tile done in a mixture of circles and triangle shapes, but put together, it gives you that look of a classic black-and-white checkerboard room. That was my goal, was to really, you know, connect this home to the style of before, you know, as they call it, new-stalgia, but in a more playful way, and it's also pretty indestructible. Instead of doing a traditional coat closet that's built right into the house, we have this piece of furniture built like an oversized armoire. It was made by our mill workers, and in the front, we've added a grass cloth paper to give it the caning effect. So this is where we keep our guests' coats and shoes, and then beside it, I played with a variety of different fabrics and trims that I like to put together this playful bench. So there's lucite legs with a fringe trim, a border trim, and then a really colorful velvet pattern on top. The rug in this room is also vintage. It's very worn intentionally, and I love this approach rather than a durable rubber entry mat, because this rug has seen more than I've ever seen, and it can handle, you know, it can handle whatever we have to come. It's thin. Like I said, it's 100% wool. If you get a muddy footprint on here, you wait till it dries and just dust it off. The light fixture here in the foyer was a real challenge for me. I needed something huge. We have 90 inches of width and about 60 inches of depth, but what's really interesting about the location of this fixture is you see it from here when you walk into the house. You see it from upstairs from the second-floor hallway, and you see it from outside. So as you're driving up the street, because of the glass cube, which we'll show you, above the entryway, you see the full fixture. So I needed something with width, but not so busy like a traditional chandelier. This fixture was actually really affordable. A Canadian brand called Cusco. It's LED suspension, five different arms, and we could decide which way they go. I think it's a perfect solution for this space. What does the word home mean to me? I don't know how philosophical or Oprah we want to go with this, but as a child, I moved a lot. So by the time I got to university at 18, I had moved 18 times and gone to 12 schools. So my goal in life was to have a really solid long-term home because it was something that I was always envious that other kids had. In fact, living in residence in university for 3 years was the longest time I ever had the same postal code or zip code, as you say. So although, yes, we did go through a little bit of change by tearing down the house that was here, it still feels like our home because the view through the kitchen window is of the exact same tree as it was before we built the new house. You know, the view out my son's bedroom window is over the same part of the street as it was. So for me, creating a feeling of home was creating a very permanent place that we could then grow within. And I recognize that that's not always the same for everybody, but that's what was really important for me. Bye, Homeworthy. It was so much fun showing you around my home in Toronto, but I've got to go. Time to take this guy for a walk. Thanks for watching. Be sure to go to homeworthy.com for exclusive content, shopping guides, and so much more.