Residential Renovation
Toronto, Canada | Completed 2020

Photographer: Riley Snelling

Originally divided into a duplex with two additional basement suites, the Walker home presented an unusual brief for a family of five. Rather than reclaiming the entire house, the second-floor apartment was retained as a source of rental income, leaving the ground and lower levels to become the family home. Across these two floors, the renovation redistributes space according to where light is most valued, where the family comes together, and where privacy is needed.

At the heart of the house, a large opening cut through the ground floor brings the two levels into view of one another. A stair and blue slide descend side by side into the play space below, carrying daylight and activity with them. The opening gives the lower level a presence within the house, with light, movement, and glimpses of family life passing between the two floors. From here, the lower level extends into a more private realm for the three girls, with their bedrooms and two bathrooms forming a zone of their own.

Upstairs, the plan shifts from the bright, social front of the house to quieter spaces toward the garden. Behind large south-facing windows, cooking, eating, studying, entertaining, and playing share the best natural light and a connection to the neighbourhood. Moving inward, the parents’ bedroom and ensuite occupy the darker centre of the plan, close to the stair and the children below. At the rear, a quiet workspace opens to the garden through a sliding glass panel, creating a more secluded place for focused work and collaboration. 

This distribution deliberately gives the house’s best light to shared life rather than its most private rooms. At the same time, retaining the second-floor apartment helps offset the cost of living in Toronto. The ground and lower levels are no longer experienced as a main floor and a basement, but as two parts of the same home, connected through light, movement, and daily life.