A Toronto Home Renovation with the Perfect Kitchen for Entertaining

Looking after toddler twins, house hunters Pat and Tania had forgotten what sophisticated adult spaces looked like – Jonathan helped them remember with his chic interior-design plan.

Eight charming Louis-XV-style chairs encircle a large, rough-wood dining table, providing the perfect place for grownups to enjoy lively conversations over coq au vin, after the twins have gone to bed.

The recessed lighting throughout the fully renovated, open-concept space provides ample ambient light, allowing this show-stopping starburst chandelier to be the shining conversation piece it was meant to be.

When Tania first walked into her new formal living room, she literally jumped up and down, clapping her hands with glee. We get it – if this was ours, we’d be just as enthusiastic.

Decorative grey wood moulding surrounds the new gas fireplace for added texture, creating the perfect nook to display art and seasonal floral arrangements.

After long debates over whether or not there was enough space in the budget to warrant at $7,000 fireplace, Pat and Tania decided the room wouldn’t be the same without its warm glow – and they were right.

With two rambunctious toddlers, having an open-concept living space with clear sightlines from room to room was a must for this family. After removing a couple of walls, the main floor now flows easily from one area to the next.

The kitchen was completely remodelled, turning a once-dark and uninviting space into a bright-white cooking and entertaining centre with island-bar seating, glamorous gold chandeliers, and brand-new windows and glass doors.

To save on costs, this couple opted for high-quality prefab cabinets rather than getting a whole set of custom ones. With on-trend gold pulls added later, no one would know the difference.

Removing walls meant installing an additional support beam across the main living area. Jonathan wrapped the steel beam in rough, white-stained wood and added two more faux ones to balance out the look of the ceiling.

Jonathan upped the front hall functionality by adding a coat closet with easy, sliding handle doors and a chic woven tile pattern to demarcate where dirty shoes can and can’t go.

Having a kitchen with good flow and workable counterspace was a must for this couple and their toddler twins. A large centre island provides the perfect spot for future homework sessions, messy breakfasts and family hangouts.

To get a truly textured kitchen backsplash, opt for a mix of glass and stone tiles in an off-centred chevron arrangement. When the undercabinet light hits it, highlights and shadows make their own unique pattern.

Why settle for one oven when you can have three? By removing the oven from the stove top, Jonathan freed up cabinet space and was able to make an oven stack on the left, which will come in handy when preparing big family dinners.

In this Property Brothers house renovation, the dark and musty basement family room also gets a full makeover with fresh paint, new windows, pot lighting and extra-comfy plush furnishings.

Pat and Tania were worried about stair safety with their two young kids, so Jonathan made a chic custom baby gate at the top of the stairs to curtain unsupervised entry.

A new gas fireplace (with a safety screen, of course) with a light-coloured stone surround and rough wood mantle sits front and centre in this completely redecorated basement family room.

While the play teepee and toys definitely show this room to be a “kids’ zone”, behind those on-trend chevron barn doors sits a ginormous flat-screen TV, which is for Pat and Tania’s at-home movie date nights.

To make sure each piece of furniture is pulling its weights, a royal-blue velvet ottoman topped with a sleek flower-filled silver tray doubles up as a coffee table.

While seven weeks may seem like an eternity for a family waiting for their forever home, this reno finished right on time and on budget at $140,000 (the original property cost $1,170,000).