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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Stage 1 - Release us!- How to renovate a 1950's home.




Release us from this 1970s renovation...please!   That is what my newest clients have asked  me to do.  This is a backsplit home in northwest Toronto built nearly 50 yrs ago, in an enclave of mature trees. The clients bought the house 18yrs ago and haven't done anything to it since they bought it other than get some walls done in faux finishes.
So...here is what we're doing...we're designing & making the living room & dining room combo, more grown up. We'll be adding a gas fireplace, some custom built-ins for storage & display. In the hallway/foyer, we'll  be adding a closet for the hockey stuff. Right now, its all dumped in the living room.  Then we'll totally gut the kitchen & install new cabinets & give a fresh upscale country  feel with personality. Then we'll move on to the washrooms, the family room, the recreation/games room, the studio etc.
Check back regularly on my blog to see the progress as I will be posting pics as we go through all the stages of this home renovation.








2 comments:

Anonymous said...

yikes,i'm sure it will be beautiful once done!!!picture no.4 with the suuport right in the middle of the room poses a problem for so many people who want to re-do theire family room(like me!!)any suggestion's ??? thanks.

Unknown said...

Actually...that post isn't all bad. Its actually a floor lamp. The camera angle makes it look like a post.
To answer your question about how to deal with a post in a room, it all depends where it is positioned and what shape it is.
In the past, I have applied full mirrors on posts that were close to the edge of a room, near windows. This makes the post "disappear" as it reflects the outdoors. Of course, this only works if the post is not in any traffic pattern in the room. This solution is usually best for condos where posts are often near the windows.
In one home, a single post was put up in the foyer under the grand circular staircase. Bad design! So, because the post was located off to the right side, I had the carpenter add a second post (yes a fake one)on the lefthand side to create a balance. This ended up looking like the two posts were meant to be there and looked great.
In other instances, if the position of the post is such that you can build around it, then do this by adding built-ins or bookcases. Again, the post will disappear.
Hope this has helped a little.
Chrisse