This Midcentury Row House in Toronto Feels Like a Warm Embrace

Isabel Slone

September 18, 2024 at 8:00 a.m.·7 min read

Sam Sacks, principal of Toronto-based Sam Sacks Design, approaches every design intending to channel the coolest possible version of the person who lives there. So when a former journalist contacted her about redesigning his house after his late wife lost her long battle with cancer, Sam leapt at the opportunity to bring his literary vision to life. The designer envisioned a precious jewel box that not only preserved memories, but allowed for the creation of new ones. “Life had steamrolled over him and his son,” he says. “They hadn’t had a chance to catch their breath, so I wanted to give them an awesome place to come home to.”

The entire home is a blend of affordable pieces with luxe touches. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the kitchen, which is outfitted with a Samsung fridge, a Frigidaire stove, and a unique copper-handled microwave from Haden Canada.

Sam created a coffee nook in the kitchen where the client can spend slow mornings reading the newspaper while enjoying a French press. It also masks an old radiator that heats the space.

Shop out the look of the house here ⤵

Located in Toronto’s unpretentious and colorful East York neighborhood, the midcentury home was lacking in unique character and details. “There were no great baseboards or crown moldings,” Sam recalls. “Imagine a dingy, low-ceilinged drywall box.” But through the strategic use of rich tones and heaps of texture, she was able to transform the drab decor into a destination where every detail had been considered. “I treated the whole house like a powder room,” she says. “We wanted everything to be a moment.”

Sam turned to the language of midcentury bungalows in Northern California to bring character into the space. The previously all-white kitchen was transformed into a peaceful retreat with rich green tiles, full grain wood cabinets and the unanticipated jolt of clashing mixed metals. The glass sliding window doors in the kitchen create a shadowbox effect, gazing out onto the idyllic backyard. The entire project was achieved on a cheap and cheerful budget. For the backsplash, Sam interspersed green tiles with white ones to create a retro checkerboard effect.

The copper hood above the stove was custom designed by Sam. “We didn’t have a ton of money to spend on appliances but I wanted to bring in something that felt a little bit lighter. We had all these dark colors, so the more things I could bounce light off in this space the better.”

The kitchen is intended to be functional overall. The pegboard behind the sink allows for convenient storage of kitchen utensils.

Sam achieved her mission of adding warmth to the space through custom white oak cabinets and engineered hardwood floors. The unexpected mixed metals help give the space an eclectic, welcoming vibe. “People get really anxious about mixing different metals, but it’s a gut instinct when it’s going to work and when it’s not,” she adds. The copper hood fan above the stove was custom-made by a millworker and helps bounce light across the room, playing off the nearby brass sconce and faucet, a copper-handled microwave, and stainless-steel appliances.

Sam managed to create a serious yet playful space where the client can move into the next phase of his life.

To bring more depth to the rest of the house, Sam used navy grass cloth wallpaper sourced from Amazon for a textured effect to the living and dining room walls. “It shimmers when the light hits it, adding layers of visual interest we weren’t getting otherwise.” The built-in IKEA bookshelves in the dining room, which existed pre-reno, were also given the grass cloth treatment, lending them a more custom appearance. The marble dining table and striking modern pendant lamp were both CB2 finds, but the midcentury plywood chairs belonged to the client. “Because we were giving him so much new and he’d been through something really big, I didn’t want to take his personal touches completely out,” she says. Sam also appreciated the warmth and patina the chairs added to the room, noting that “they felt like they had echoes of history.”

The Moroccan rug helps cultivate an unpretentious vibe in the living room, making it a great space to hang out, read a book, or spin a record. “He’s a real analog guy,” Sam says of the client.

“I was going for a masculine, streamlined look with the stairs. It’s established and a bit serious,” Sam says.

The tiny living room was a challenge to decorate, but Sam managed to create a cozy landing pad using a burnished brown modular velvet couch from CB2. The bulbous coffee table, made custom from black stained ash, helps counterbalance the angular nature of the house. “Because it’s this tiny little box, the more curves there are to push against it the better,” Sam says. The Moroccan rug fits right in with the unpretentious nature of the room. “It’s got a beautiful wear and patina to it, and it also helps bring in that texture we’ve been after.”

“There’s way more character when you can see the grain,” Sam says of the white oak bed frame. “It adds to the texture and there’s a warmth to it that you don’t see in Scandinavian blonde wood.”

Sam describes the overarching design of the house as “established and a bit serious.” Upstairs in the primary bedroom, tonal variations in the cream grass cloth catch the light, adding texture and depth that elevates the space. Most of the room is taken up by the modular bed by Shinola Runwell for Crate & Barrel, replete with built-in white oak nightstands with integrated charging stations and lights. The Hay paper lantern plays on the midcentury theme of the house.

Almost the entire bathroom, from the ceiling to the walls to the shower floor, was finished using microcement. “It was a great solution, totally waterproof and it elevated everything. It looks like we’ve done something really specific and curated for his house, as opposed to just putting a tile on the floor,” the designer says.

The single shared bathroom in the house received a total gut reno, replacing the putty-colored floor and shower tiles with ecru microcement. The terra-cotta-colored tiles nod to the downstairs kitchen and create cohesion throughout the home. The teardrop-shaped mirror offers a fun a way to jazz things up and channels an element of unexpectedness with its organic form, which matches the curves downstairs. The marble-topped vanity is from West Elm and the brass faucet was purchased separately from Wayfair. The light fixture, she says, was a “total bargain” from Etsy. “The thing with midcentury is I never want it to be on the nose. I liked that the light felt traditional but with a slight twist.”

Though quite serious at first glance, the house evokes a sense of playfulness and softness. Sam created a thoughtful home that feels like a warm embrace where her clients can move onto the next phase of life with a sense of exuberance and joy—a new beginning.