Manning Avenue BasementA black door on a painted-brick front, and rooms that settle once you are inside.

Location: Toronto, ON
Project: Basement renovation
Where: Living, dining, kitchen, bedrooms, bath, deck
Palette: Grey, warm wood, and black

Interior of the house at 309 Manning Avenue in Toronto, with grey chairs, a painted brick wall, and dark wood floors.

The ask

The clients wanted this house at 309 Manning Avenue in Toronto to feel settled from the front stair through to the lower rooms. Sitting, dining, and cooking had to belong to one renovation. The bedrooms needed a door to close, and the back of the house needed somewhere to sit outside.

The plan

Painted brick and a black door take the street, with a wood ceiling over the porch and a second door at the lower entrance. Inside, dark wood floors run under pale walls. A grey sectional and a black arc lamp hold the living room, and two grey chairs sit against a painted brick wall. The dining room takes a wood table, black chairs, and brass sconces, open to a white kitchen with a cream subway-tile backsplash. One bedroom uses a black upholstered headboard. Another stays white, with teal cushions. The bathroom is a grey vanity, a marble top, and white subway tile at the shower. Out back, a wood deck and a fenced yard close the house.

The walk-through

You come up to a black door under a wood porch. Inside, the grey chairs against the brick wall are the first pause, and the sectional is the longer one. The dining table sits between the kitchen and a bedroom door. The bathroom is a short white sequence off that floor. The deck is the last room, wood underfoot and a fence at the edge. Black metal, on the door, the chairs, and the lamp, is what ties the front to the rooms.

Rooms