Coastal Style

Deadly Moves Turn a Toronto Basement Into a Stylish Lease

A basement flat makes you consider a cramped and dark area with light and ceilings. And that’s what designers Timothy Mitanidis and Claudia Bader of Creative Union faced when they began renovating their dilapidated townhouse from Toronto’s Queen and Bathurst neighborhood.

They finished the lower-level apartment first so they may live there while operating on another flooring upstairs. The result of the overhaul: a contemporary, color-happy area that barely feels like a cellar. Working on a tight budget, Bader and Mitanidis minimized walls, maximized light and crafted a cheerfully contemporary home that reinterprets rustic fragments of the older apartment to retain a sense of its history.

in a Glance
Who lives here: That is a basement rental unit; Timothy Mitanidis and Claudia Bader reside in the main house over.
Location: Queen Street Fashion District of Toronto
Size: 650 square feet; 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
Price: $120 Canadian (roughly U.S.$118) per square foot

Andrew Snow Photography

The main living area in the basement is light filled with an open floor plan. To make the basement habitable, Bader and Mitanidis increased the ceiling height by means of a blend of two structural techniques: benching and underpinning.

Benching involves pouring a new, deeper base within the existing one, while underpinning means it gets poured under. Underpinning is quite a bit more expensive but doesn’t take up any floor area, so they used it in tight locations, like the powder room, and benched anyplace else.

Seat: Poang, Ikea; spacious shelving: Lack, Ikea; walnut shelving, java table: Creative Union

Andrew Snow Photography

The benching has many functions. In a corner it’s a place for open shelving; beneath the window it’s a seating corner; in a different place, hidden storage and in the bedroom it’s a platform for the bed with sufficient space beneath to keep some of those bulkier objects.

Andrew Snow Photography

The linear kitchen opens allowing the table to do double duty. A custom concrete counter tops Ikea cabinets. To make the most of the kitchen layout and ceiling height, the designers customized the upper cabinets to hang with doors that open.

An easy run of LED tape lighting over the uppers provides ambient light and helps make the ceiling look higher.

Kitchen cabinetry: Akrum, Ikea; dining seats: OH, designed by Karim Rashid, Umbra; dining table: Creative Union

Andrew Snow Photography

Many areas of the old home are reimagined from the apartment, leaving traces of history. One of the very photographed examples is an old door with peeling paint. Sliced into three sections, the doorway was salvaged from the basement demolition and installed as a cover panel to conceal the refrigerator and microwave.

Andrew Snow Photography

A detail of the kitchen shows how Ikea is part of a custom appearance. This plywood toe kick, minimalist door pulls, concrete countertop and contrasting side-hung uppers make a kitchen that looks high end.

Andrew Snow Photography

Reclaimed ceiling joists eliminated from the upper floors of the home became the dining room table. Because the wood was rather old and demanding on the exterior, Mitanidis sawed every slice in half, exposing the joist’s untouched inside. Because this component of the wood has been lighter than the exterior, the result is a distinguishing two-tone appearance. The homeowners left the dining table unstained and sealed it with beeswax from Mitanidis’ dad, a beekeeper.

Andrew Snow Photography

A double-layered plywood board finished with natural linseed oil tops the concrete seat, adding warmth to the otherwise primitive area. Ikea shelving from the recess holds the homeowners’ growing Lego collection.

Andrew Snow Photography

The couple’s favorite room is the comfy back bedroom. Anchored into a plywood platform they made, the mattress feels large, offering the ideal spot from which to observe the afternoon slip away through a window in the side of the space. The painting, like all the artwork in the home, is by Ecuadorian artist Daniel Idrovo.

Andrew Snow Photography

More reclaimed doors from the demolition find new life as sliding barn doors to the powder room and walk in closet. The concrete shower includes an integrated sink in addition to a lace pattern hand throw to the floor.

Drawer unit: Helmer, Ikea

Andrew Snow Photography

Bader and Mitanidis, shown here, relish the ability to experiment on the home, and as a result, it’s an ever-changing laboratory of ideas. Initially left as raw steel, the newly painted handrail tips to people passing by that something delightfully distinct is hiding just beyond the brick walls.

Although the pair have since moved up into the main-floor apartment, they’ve ensured that their vision will last by renting out the lower level fully supplied.

Your turn: Please show us your innovative basement conversion!

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