If you don’t think a stately study by day can morph into a sexy lounge with a bar and bank of wine fridges by night, then you’re not thinking like designer Brian Gluckstein. His 11th Princess Margaret Home Lottery Showhome sets the stage for both impromptu get-togethers and formal bashes. “We’re back to living,” says Brian. “In 2021 and 2022, it was about working and studying from home; there were areas with desks that you could close off. This year’s showhome is the opposite of that: it’s about entertaining and everyone coming back together.”

Located in Oakville, Ont., the 7,765-square-foot, five-bedroom showhome has a Tudor Revival spirit, courtesy of the steeply pitched, multi-gable roof. “Because of the pie-shaped lot, we thought a Tudor Revival style would be ideal because they aren’t typically symmetrical,” says Brian. “We haven’t designed a Tudor showhome before, and it’s always fun to change things up.” Step inside another Brian Gluckstein home below!

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Designer Jaime Polan Zimmerman of JPZ Interiors fell in love with this semi-detached Victorian house the moment she saw it. “It looked nothing like it does now, but its core foundation was absolutely remarkable,” she says. “There were high ceilings, stained glass windows and so much potential.” See how Jaime modernized each room of the house, including a beautiful marble kitchen, spacious walk-in closet and a fabulous home office for her design studio. Watch the full tour here!

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A creative and artistic force, Colette van den Thillart first made her mark on the Canadian design scene — and my consciousness — back in 2010, when we published the beautiful restoration of her family cottage on Mountain Lake in Minden, Ont. It’s still one of my favorite covers of all time. Over the next 13 years, we featured Colette’s exuberant, sophisticated, eclectic homes as often as we could. You’ll remember her from the memorable images in this fabulous home from our May 2022 cover, where she shared the spotlight in the front room she designed for her friend Victoria Webster in Toronto.

It’s been exciting to follow Colette’s career, watching her style evolve and soar on three continents for clients with homes of all kinds, as well as her own. Most of all, it’s been wonderful for me to get to know Colette and to be able to honor her in our December issue as our 2023 Designer of the Year, where we featured her clients Jane Halverson and Bruno Vendittelli’s Rosedale house. “They’d been living in the house for quite a while when they called us in to do an extension. We ended up doing a makeover on the living and dining rooms, principal bedroom and bathroom, as well,” says Colette. Take a peek inside this bold and colorful house below and watch the full tour here. Plus, don’t miss my interview with Colette where she shares design tips and more on her lush and layered look.

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“We leaned into this British country manor home vibe,” says designer Emily Griffin of Griffin Houghton. In this Victorian house makeover, the design duo mastered the mix of new and old by restoring antiques, designing bespoke furniture and adding a two-storey addition. Favorite moments include the oak-panelled bar area, a great room with exposed beams and the airy principal bedroom with a peaked roof and marble fireplace. “We’ve always done traditional homes — it feels second nature to us!” says Emily. Get the full tour here!

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Designer Suzanne Dimma takes us inside her client’s elegant home where classic decorating reigns supreme. EyeSwoon founder Athena Calderone’s Brooklyn brownstone was a big inspiration for this renovated circa-1930s house, as seen in the cult-favorite eyeswoon kitchen and foyer. See how Suzanne replicated the classic kitchen with off-black cabinets, herringbone floors, a marble floating shelf and of course — plenty of brass. Step inside the elegant foyer featuring checkerboard floors, a black-stained staircase and applied molding. “We had to make sure the house maintained the Old World feeling but modernized it with the updated kitchen,” says Suzanne. Watch the full tour here!

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This homeowner’s design brief was simple: create a functional, open-concept kitchen, a cozy living room and lounge style dining room for casual entertaining. See how designer Joel Bray achieved the look with a classic-meets-contemporary design approach. You’ll love the black Shaker cabinets in the handsome kitchen, a green channelled banquette in the dining area and a pretty little powder room with William Morris-inspired wallpaper. Watch for the full tour!

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From the outside, it looks exactly like every other house on the southwest London block: Victorian terrace style, traditional red brick, with a wrought-iron gate leading to a glossy black front door. But once inside, hang on to your hat. In the hallway, vibrant peony pink walls lead the eye to a curvaceous leopard-print sectional beyond, the view framed by a classic Victorian archway topped with a cornice pressed from a mold made from tennis balls. There’s not one but three living rooms, each a different color and mood. “I wanted our home to feel joyful and unexpected — full of surprises,” says designer Natalie Tredgett, an effortlessly elegant Montreal-born Canadian, who once hung a trapeze in the living room for her three children. She describes color the way a chef would the ingredients in a favorite recipe, likening the custom shade of her kitchen ceiling to “the purple-tinged pink of a ripe raspberry mixed with a bit of rhubarb.”

It’s hard to imagine Natalie immersed in anything but the world of design, happily plucking inspiration from fashion, music, art, architecture and movies like a style magpie. But when she met her husband, Jon Tredgett, a London funds manager who’s also Canadian, Natalie was working as a management consultant. She longed for “a change and a bit of an adventure.”

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Homeowner Erica Reddy-Choquette invites us inside her hard loft apartment in Toronto’s Corktown neighborhood. The spacious 2400-square-foot space was converted into a residential building in the ’90s. “It has all of the original features of a hard loft: 14-foot ceilings, concrete columns and concrete floors,” says Erica. See how she transformed the two-storey condo into a functional and stylish oasis that’s perfect for her family and entertaining. Watch the full tour here!

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Great friends and colleagues are worth their weight in gold. In 2016, it was Veronica Martin’s design partner, Carrie Stinson, who found this house in Toronto for Veronica and her husband, Dave. The couple trusted Carrie so much that they bought the place sight unseen while they were still living in Ottawa. “It had good bones, and I knew Veronica would like the tall ceilings,” says Carrie of the house. Located in Toronto’s Roncesvalles area, it checked many boxes: the three-storey, 2,000-square-foot Victorian was detached, had a garage, a big yard and some distance from the neighbors. For three years, the house was especially busy. Veronica, Dave, their daughters, Lily and Ava, and their rescue pup, Nash, kept life humming, plus Veronica and Carrie’s design firm, Two Fold Interiors, was being run from the attic. On work days, clients would clomp up and down several flights of stairs for consultations, the kitchen doubled as a staff canteen and design meetings were often held at the dining room table.

Eventually, the design firm outgrew the space and Veronica and Carrie relocated their business. It was time to give the entire house a makeover. They considered a costly addition, but Veronica and Dave decided to keep the original footprint. “We saved about $500,000,” says Veronica. Besides, the idea was to design a home where the couple could age in place — so smaller was actually better. The year-long project entailed a full gut by construction firm Cliff and Evans. “One big goal was to have the kitchen open to the rest of the main floor for entertaining,” says Veronica. The showpiece kitchen was plunked into the centre of the house, and the dining room was moved up front, near the foyer. The designers splashed out on an expansive lounge at the back of the house that overlooks the leafy backyard — it’s the family’s most-used room.

This Victorian now lives firmly in the present. There’s nothing fussy and overly complicated here, despite the house’s heritage. “I’m modern and more tailored,” says Veronica. “I certainly love classic architectural details, but I also love layering in modern elements.” New windows with drywall returns blend in with original baseboards, ceiling medallions and mouldings, and the original staircase has also been left intact.

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Good design is balanced, thoughtful and detail oriented. That’s the guiding mantra for Delia Mamann, a Toronto designer who recently helped her clients, a young family of four, turn their builder-basic house into a luxe retreat. When Delia showed up to their North Toronto property, it was a “beautiful, typical Toronto house but everything was dated,” she says. There was wall panelling in all the wrong places, sterile bathrooms and a kitchen that was stuck in the ’90s. Without making any structural changes, Delia reimagined each space with modern finishes, smart storage and plenty of cool, edgy moments — including hits of off black in almost every room.

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