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My Houzz: A Bright and Sunny Edwardian Home in Toronto
Thanks to a seven-year renovation and a unique mix of art and furniture, a neglected house is transformed into a light, welcoming home
Eight months pregnant with their first child, Gloria Apostolou and her husband, Kirk Marshall, were running out of time to find a new home for their growing family. They had recently lost in two bidding wars and were starting to feel dejected, when their agent brought them to a charming house filled with many brick houses from the 1900s. After a 30-minute viewing, they were sold. Marshall and Apostolou, the owner of Post Architecture, quickly fell in love with the Edwardian semidetached home. The building hadn’t seen many renovations over the years and retained much of its original charm. Focusing on key areas that needed work, Apostolou embarked on a slow, selective renovation that lasted more than seven years, helping to breathe new life into a beautiful old home.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here Gloria Apostolou, Kirk Marshall and their daughters, Penelope (7) and Daphne (4)
Location Toronto, Canada
Year built 1900
Size 5 bedrooms, 3½ bathrooms
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here Gloria Apostolou, Kirk Marshall and their daughters, Penelope (7) and Daphne (4)
Location Toronto, Canada
Year built 1900
Size 5 bedrooms, 3½ bathrooms
Many of the home’s period details are still intact, including four working fireplaces – one of which can be seen here in the family’s living room. The furniture and art – an eclectic mix – have been collected over time from a variety of places, leading to a cohesive style befitting both the family and the house itself. The bench underneath the window was given to Apostolou by her former boss, Ned Baldwin, the project architect of the CN Tower. He had designed it for his office, but later moved back to New York, and it stayed behind with her. Due to its unusual shape and hinged top, Marshall jokingly refers to it as ‘the coffin’.
Apostolou reupholstered her husband’s midcentury sofa in a grey/green fabric. Toronto artist Scott Griffin created the artwork by soldering bits onto a reclaimed piece of metal. The couple don’t usually go together to look at art; they agree on a budget and buy what they like, hoping the other will too. It’s a process that has worked well, and the house is full of interesting and unexpected pieces that work nicely together.
The easy flow is due to the lack of hallways – all the rooms open into one another. From the main entry, the living room is to the left, the stairs are straight ahead, and the dining room is to the right. Through the dining room is the kitchen, cloakroom and sliding doors that lead to the garden.
The family’s next-door neighbour is talented woodworker Rob Green of Paus and Grün. He built the dining table following Apostolou’s design. A radially-sawn white oak top is supported by angled steel legs in multiple shades of blue. The table is surrounded by a mix of chairs, including a few the owners are currently trying out from Anthropologie.
Table: designed by Post Architecture, built by Paus and Grün; rug: Relative Space
Table: designed by Post Architecture, built by Paus and Grün; rug: Relative Space
Upon purchasing the house, Apostolou first modernised the outdated electrical, mechanical and structural components. In 2008 she turned her attention to the kitchen, the only room on the main floor to receive a major redesign.
Poorly renovated in the 1980s, the kitchen was the darkest room in the house, with only a small window at the back. To make it as bright and welcoming as possible, Apostolou opted for white cabinets and countertops, and installed windows wherever possible. It’s now the family’s favourite room in the house. Floor-to-ceiling sliding windows open onto a tree-filled back garden, and a long, linear window replaced the traditional tiling. The new oak flooring was sized and stained to match the existing floors, ensuring a continuous visual flow from room to room.
Discover more ways to maximise light in a kitchen
Discover more ways to maximise light in a kitchen
The master bedroom sits at the front of the house, nestled among the treetops and facing east to draw in the early-morning sun. Apostolou reorganised the space in 2012 to take advantage of an unused room next door with a master bathroom, and updating the fireplace wall with a minimalist concrete hearth and built-in storage.
The new master bath is a work of efficiency, cleverly containing the bathroom necessities. There’s an oversized walk-in shower alongside a wall of full-height storage space, hidden behind a row of sliding doors.
A glass shelf above the radiator holds some small vases. The painting and flowers were created by the couple’s two daughters.
Both daughters have bright and cheerful bedrooms: one overlooks the garden, and the other takes advantage of a large bay window at the side of the house. Vintage furniture, Winnie the Pooh lights and an alphabet rug mix it up to create a cosy atmosphere.
A utility room and full bath are located on the third level, with a continuous floor made from white and black penny round tiles.
Check out more stylish utility room ideas
Check out more stylish utility room ideas
Apostolou interned in offices in Greece, Italy and Finland before returning to Toronto, where she worked with Baldwin & Franklin Architects for 10 years. She began her own office, Post Architecture, in 2006, working out of an office on the third floor of the home. At the end of last year, she renovated the front half of the basement to house a larger office space, with room for herself and a newly hired designer; it’s now a accessible space for easy client access. An antique table base sits on top of a purple rug matching the one in the dining room. With two young children, Apostolou has found that working from home is an ideal arrangement: she can be close to her work as well as to the kids. She often works in the evenings, but with a large amount of flexible time throughout the day, she manages to maintain a great work-life balance.
Chairs: Esbjörn, Ikea
Chairs: Esbjörn, Ikea
A cedar deck with built-in bench seating and a roof overhang was added in 2009. The deck and rear garden are located just off the kitchen, and tend to be where the family spend much of their time in the summer. Here Daphne enjoys a swing suspended from the roof.
Apostolou and Marshall relax on the built-in bench with Daphne, while Penelope swings. The west-facing garden gets the best of the setting summer sun and is the perfect place for watching squirrels, listening to birds chirp and looking over at the neighbour’s garden to see how his baby chicks are doing.
Built at the turn of the 20th century, the Edwardian house is similar in style to many other properties in the area. While most have an entrance at the front, here there is a generous front porch that leads to a side-facing entrance. Because it’s perpendicular to the street, the front door is often left open in the summer, allowing the porch to become a sheltered extension of the interior space.
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. If you would like your home to be featured, please get in touch by emailing ukeditor@houzz.com.
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. If you would like your home to be featured, please get in touch by emailing ukeditor@houzz.com.