Rundown bungalow gives way to a chic

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Rundown bungalow gives way to a chic

Blythwood Road is a hilly road. And 355 Blythwood happens to be on the south side of one of its hills. As such, the lot is slanted, which posed a challenge for Mr. Toma and his team. But once he was finished with digging and the foundation, it was smooth sailing and the rest of the home was built within 10 months.

The finished house has a traditional North Toronto front that reveals a chic, contemporary inside. “I wanted to build something with very clean lines,” Mr. Toma said. “I didn’t want it to be gaudy.”The new home takes up a similar footprint to the bungalow. The four main bedrooms, each with an ensuite bathroom and walk-in closets, are on the second floor.

While the main floor has the elegant and modern dining/living room space, a family room is adjoined to the expansive kitchen, which is nearly 17 feet by 13 feet.In the basement, there is a fifth bedroom, a wine cellar, a mirrored exercise room and a massive lounge area, equally suited for a man cave or a children’s playroom.But some of the more impressive elements of 355 Blythwood Rd. are in the details. It’s hard not to notice the height of the building, for example. Mr. Toma incorporated vaulted ceilings since he couldn’t build a third floor (due to zoning restrictions). When you’re standing in the hallway of the second floor, there’s 27 feet of space before you hit the skyline.

“The effect of these high ceilings is that it makes you feel like you’re living in a larger house,” said Harvey Kalles sales representative Adam Weiner. “It really opens the space and makes it airy.”There are also the pale oak floors that run through the main and second floors. They give the house a rustic quality, tying in the cottage-feel that the fa?ade of the home brings to the property.“This flooring is very friendly for living,” Mr. Toma said. “You could be moving furniture or your kids could be playing and you won’t even notice any scratches.”

Being able to live in this luxury house is important to Mr. Toma, who envisioned it being a home for a young family that appreciates design.He made a conscious effort to provide continuity through his reincorporation of details in different areas of the house. For example, the marble in the foyer is also featured around the living-room fireplace, and a similar shade of tiles was used for the backsplash of the kitchen.

“All of the details tie in, right down to the colour palette for the house,” said Mr. Toma, adding that only three shades of paint were used in the entire structure.The level of detail that was brought to the inside of the home was also implemented when Mr. Toma built the outdoor space. In order to enjoy the long backyard, which backs onto the ravine, he built a patio space made of interlocking brick that has a gas line for a barbecue. There is also a deck that overlooks the greenery below.

And yet Mr. Toma’s favourite place to enjoy the backyard is not out on the deck but inside the master bathroom that overlooks the canopy outside.“You could be in the master bath, with its big windows, and you won’t need curtains,” he said. “There is great privacy to the back of the house.”Mr. Weiner agrees that the master suite is an exceptional place in the house. He adds that he appreciates its high ceilings (even inside the walk-in closet) and the Juliet balcony.

Another room that is special to Mr. Toma, though, is the study.“It’s so different from the other rooms with its floor-to-ceiling walnut panelling,” he said. “But it doesn’t feel so dark.”Part of the reason why it’s not dark is because it shares the same high-gloss white cabinetry as the storage units in the kitchen and family room. And even though it has a traditional, almost academic feel to it, the office has some very modern finishes, like its sleek fireplace and globular light fixture.

It looks like a photo from a catalog for California-style living. And that is no accident: This is home to Lily Kanter, co-founder of Serena & Lily, the nearly 10-year-old home-décor catalog company known for its West Coast aesthetic and Marimekko-meets-Lilly Pulitzer style. Typical Serena & Lily items include laid-back rattan chairs, turquoise leather footstools and bed sheets imprinted with an aqua mosaic pattern modeled on Spanish tiles. The brand just opened a store in the Hamptons and has celebrity clients including Princess Haya bint Al Hussein and actress Jennifer Garner, who used Serena & Lily to decorate her first nursery. The company won't comment on its sales, but it distributes more than seven million catalogs a year.

The house didn't always look so picture-perfect. Ms. Kanter, 48, and her husband, Marc Sarosi, 51, a gemstone dealer, bought the six-bedroom, 7,000-square-foot craftsman in 2005 for about $2 million. In foreclosure, it was what Mr. Sarosi calls a "total disaster," with leaky sewage pipes, wires hanging out of the ceiling, trees overgrown and rooms in bad condition. The couple didn't change much of the house's structure, knocking down only one wall and taking out one bedroom to create a master bathroom. But they redid all the surfaces and installed new gas, heating, electrical and sewage systems.

The overall effect is simple and upscale, and, of course, in line with the Serena & Lily look. There are upholstered white chairs and Serena & Lily bed sheets, paintings and mirrors. The kitchen has white cabinets with glass doors, marble countertops, beadboard walls and ceilings, slate floors and gray subway-tiled backsplashes. The master bedroom has a balcony that looks out to the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz and downtown San Francisco.

What isn't from Serena & Lily looks just as All-American. The third-floor playroom has a bar with a popcorn machine, a movie-theater-style hot dog maker, a jukebox, and ping pong, foosball and air hockey. Ms. Kanter painted all the moldings white, put in Ann Sacks tiles, refinished the wood floors and painted the walls mostly gray.

Ms. Kanter made sure every aspect of the house hewed to her aesthetics, which meant that the majority of Mr. Sarosi's collection of about 60 crystals and rocks—mineral specimens collected from Africa, where he lived mining gemstones for a number of years—didn't make it past the front door. Only a few—those with certain colors that work with the rest of the décor—were allowed in the living room, he says. The rest are now displayed along the walkways and between the retaining walls in the terraced gardens that Mr. Sarosi created.

In 2002, Ms. Kanter started a luxury baby and kids furnishing store in Mill Valley near their 2,200-square-foot home at the time. "I missed the pace of my former career. I have an entrepreneurial energy," she says. Frustrated by the lack of high-end crib sheets, she teamed up with textile designer Serena Dugan in 2003 to start a company creating and selling kids' bedding of their own design, putting out a catalog for their 15 collections. Ms. Kanter cites Finnish design company Marimekko and American fashion designer Tory Burch as sources of inspiration, and says she and Ms. Dugan travel extensively to get ideas for fabric designs and products.

In 2005, on the verge of having their third son, Ms. Kanter and Mr. Sarosi were ready to move to a bigger house. They loved the size and the bones of the house on the hill they bought as well as its history: On Miller Avenue, it is one of the original Mill Valley homes, built by one of the town's pioneers.

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