City Homes
An Elegant Victorian Home Gets A Dose Of Global Style
Updated on January 8, 2024
There are some real-estate unicorns still to be found in Riverdale, one of Toronto’s oldest downtown neighborhoods. A period Victorian house with its original architecture still intact would be one of them. For Erin Young and her husband, Jason Farrell, finding their unicorn proved to be elusive. They toured 20-plus listings over seven years, and made two failed offers. “We didn’t want to buy someone else’s renovation,” says Erin, an e-commerce and marketing executive. “We were determined to find an unspoiled house that we could renovate and make our own.”
So the couple could hardly hide their excitement when, in the fall of 2018, they finally found an elegant, three-storey, five-bedroom Victorian in the heart of Riverdale that had been in the same family for more than 50 years. Erin was so eager that she included a photo of their family with their offer to help her win the house. Sure, it had an outdated galley kitchen that was too small for a fridge, and the interior layout was a closed-off series of formal rooms not spacious enough for their family of five. But the house had good bones, a large backyard and still retained many of the original period features they were hoping for — think coved nine-foot ceilings, ornate plasterwork, stained glass windows and a grand foyer with its original staircase. Designer Samantha Sacks, who had worked on the renovation of the family’s previous house and was hired to reimagine this one.
Scroll down to see how she put a fresh spin on this Victorian home!
“The goal was to preserve all of those charming details, the things that make your heart skip a beat, like when you see the patina on a handrail and imagine how many kids have happily slid down it,” says Samantha. “The wood in the entry has the most beautiful depth. I wanted to hang on to the mood here; painting it would have wiped it away.”
“It was a full gut,” says the designer of the year-long reno that began with replacing the home’s worn-out main-level floors with classic white oak herringbone. It was the massive 700-square-foot, two-storey addition on the back of the house, the site of the new family room, eat-in area, second- floor bedroom and stairs to a dug-down basement, that would dramatically transform how the family would live in the home. Paired with delicate wood chairs, the banquette’s graphic upholstery offers contrast.
Homeowners Jason and Erin love their new kitchen. “We debated the practicality of marble counters in the kitchen, but I love the look and have become comfortable with the idea that, like this house, they will age gracefully and develop their own patina,” says Erin.
“I wanted the kitchen to have a super-cool brownstone vibe with dark green cabinets that read black,” says Samantha.
The wall between the original kitchen and dining room was removed to improve flow and all the windows were replaced, reusing the original casings and trim wherever possible.
“Samantha advised us that many people do extensions that aren’t substantial enough to be worth the expense, so we ended up going for a bigger addition than planned,” says Erin, sipping coffee in the sunny family room while Alex, 12, Madeleine, 10 and Henry, 7, whiz by on their way to the lower level. “But, as it turns out, the addition is where we spend most of our time. It was one of the best decisions we made.”
Perched on a rustic rug from Morocco, cane-backed chairs are a dramatic contrast to the dining room’s modern blond wood table. “I love the simplicity of this pendant in contrast to the ornate plaster medallion,” says Samantha.
Of course, the biggest challenge was creating a decorating scheme that would seamlessly meld the new addition and the old house, with all its history. “My inspiration was a modernized Brooklyn brownstone,” says Samantha. “I wanted that juxtaposition of handsome — the black steel mullioned doors are an example of that industrial vibe — against ornate Victorian elements like the plaster ceiling medallions.”
Stirred into this style mash-up is an international array of colorful patterned rugs and cool textiles. “I always feel that global elements are very compatible with Victorian houses because, at the time, people were beginning to explore far-flung parts of the world, and bringing home rugs and textiles as souvenirs of their travels,” says Samantha, an intrepid global shopper who, as part of her design business, has happily lugged home suzani textiles from Turkey, rugs from the Sahara and pottery from Morocco.
“I wanted the principal bedroom to feel like a serene, tone-on-tone retreat — nothing jarring,” says Samantha.
The principal bathroom’s patterned rugs and walnut vanity (above) echo the foyer’s age-burnished wood.
Adding a Moroccan rug and fringe chandelier in Madeleine’s bedroom creates a vibe that’s pretty without being juvenile. “Now, our home feels inviting, comfortable, and also interesting and fun,” says Erin.
Lauren Miller
House & Home September 2022
Me&Mo, Meg Crossley and Morgan Michener
Samantha Sacks