Narrow Victorian Residence in Toronto Revitalized with a Practical Modern Makeover

ByMyProperty Life

Giving old homes a new lease of life means transforming both the interior of the house and the exterior a swell. At times, architects and homeowners want to leave the street façade untouched while it is the rear section that is drastically changed. Nestled in a busy neighborhood of Toronto, Canada, the Northcote Renovation by VFA Architecture is one in which the overall footprint of a narrow Victorian residence is unaltered even as the interior gets a whole new look. Instead of the traditional rear section, there is now a wood and glass wall that connects the kitchen, dining area and a reading room with the rear garden. This section also ushers in ample natural light.

Glass windows and doors connect the interior with the new rear yard








Practicality was the key constraint that defined every aspect of the renovation as all unnecessary partitions were removed to create a new open plan living. Wooden walls, cabinets and storage units in the living area, kitchen and dining make the biggest impact in here as every nook and corner is completely utilized. Wood and white is the color scheme of choice on the lower level living area, kitchen and dining space and this continues in the more traditional bedrooms as well.

Classic and narrow Victorian House in Toronto gets a lovely modern makeover
Combination of closed and open wooden shelves in the modern kitchen
Large floor-to-ceiling glass wall connects the new interior with the backyard while bringing in ample natural light
Moving away internal partitions and clearing space for a more modern interior
Revamped floor plan of the Toronto house with wooden shelves and platform
Small tea station in the kitchen with bookshelf underneath
Read another article:Design Trends for Creating a Vacation Vibe at Home

We love the use of dark wooden cabinets and open shelves in the kitchen and bookshelves in the loving area and niches used for decoration also add to the overall woodsy charm. Custom lighting solutions and adaptive design solutions complete the sensible transformation.

Spacious modern kitchen of the home with ample natural lighting coupled with recessed lights
Wood and white kitchen of the Toronto home with a modern traditional style
Wooden walls and cabinets reshape the interior of the house in Toronto
Bookshelf and lovely reading space with a view of the backyard

You’re reading Narrow Victorian Residence in Toronto Revitalized with a Practical Modern Makeover, originally posted on Decoist. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Decoist on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Similar Posts

  • Elephant’s Hill House

    The privileged view of nature was the core starting point for this project on the mountainous region of Nova Lima, State of Minas Gerais/Brazil. An adventurer couple chose us to create this special project in such an exclusive area. At first, the site’s high declivity seemed to be a big challenge, but it was also what inspired us to come up with the implantation’s solution. Exploring its natural landscape and the Elephant’s Hill view, it was possible to set the social floor at the height limit, above the trees. The street facade turned out to be the side elevation and the main facade now faces towards the side boundary. Due to the high declivity of the area, we were able to create a 3 level house. On the ground floor: garage, laundry, and storage. On the first floor, the office was fully integrated with the living room and a guests’ ensuite. Finally, on the second floor, there’s the hosts’ ensuite, with the most privileged view of the landscape. A slight angulation to the east gave us the opportunity to have both the ensuite and the barbecue area to take advantage of the morning sun and the region’s predominant ventilation. At the same time, it helped to protect the ground floor from the sunset light using a concrete wall that blocks the sunlight inside the house. With the major orientation E-W, the house opens to the northern landscape. Extensive eaves on the north view’s perimeter protect the openings of the summer sun, at the same time as the glasses receive the necessary natural heat to naturally warm the inside during the winter.
    We requested that two trees were precisely placed by the topographer in the middle of the elevated deck that connects the house to the suspended heated pool. These also work as a natural filter to the sun’s radiation, minimizing the sun’s entry in the living room and the kitchen. The 25m pool, a client wish, is a fundamental part of the volumetric composition of the house. Sustained by two concrete columns, they elevate the pool 6m above the natural floor level, providing to whom’s inside the pool a view of the treetops and the imponent Elephant’s Hill. With the capacity to generate about 1400kW of energy per month through photovoltaic panels, the house is self-sufficiency on energy, warming the pool water and neutralizing the energy consumption from equipment and artificial lightning.
    Columns and ribbed slab represent the constructive system. The use of apparent concrete in the house’s wall, swimming pool, and slabs bring the timelessness wanted to the project.