Full Circle

lifestyle magazine online london

"Couple pays it forward by giving others a peek at reno results"

A couple of years ago, Kary and Tina Sartori decided their 10-year-old northeast London home wasn’t meeting their needs and started looking at options.

They liked their neighbourhood and didn’t find any other homes that grabbed their interest.

Then they took in the annual London Home Builders’ Association’s Parade of Renovations and were impressed by some of the homes they toured. Two of those were Millennium Construction and Design projects. So they contacted company partner Mark Vaandering about ideas for revamping their home.

The couple hoped to modernize the kitchen, a slightly cramped U-shaped space, separated from the front living room by a nine-foot partial wall, as well as upgrade the main upstairs bathroom and the lower level recreation room.

The wall was removed to open the main floor space, with a dining area incorporated to separate the kitchen and living room. The Sartoris say this is warmer and more comfortable than the former eating area, next to rear patio doors.

New cabinetry was custom designed and constructed by Millennium Construction, with an eye to creating better-organized storage, Vaandering says.

Although the main floor boasts 12-foot ceilings, the original cabinets were only 7.5-feet high. The new cabinets were extended significantly higher to take advantage of this wasted space.

Laminate countertops were replaced with grey-veined quartz, complementing the white cabinets and wood-patterned backsplash. A 12-foot island now stretches the length of the kitchen, sporting an eating bar and granite sink with matching basin on the perimeter counter.

New vinyl plank flooring has been an attractive addition and functional for ease of use and durability, the Sartoris say.

Stairways to upper and lower levels, adjacent to the kitchen, were also modernized with new wood rails and posts and metal spindles. With the upper level hallway now more visible in the open space, the area was tied together by painting the walls a consistent grey tone with white trim, doors and ceilings.

The recreation room got a facelift by squaring off walls and moving a gas fireplace with mantle from the outside corner to the base of the stairway and adding a floor-to-ceiling stone veneer. A pewter toned paint on the walls complements the colour palette on the upper floors. Widening a hallway from the recreation room, updating the bathroom and adding plush carpeting completed the downstairs changes.

The main bathroom on the upper floor was gutted. The tub/shower was replaced with a large, glassed-in ceramic tile shower. A Caesarstone counter and heated flooring were also added.

Thrilled with the changes to their living space, the Sartoris were delighted to bring the project full circle by having their home included in last fall’s Parade of Renovations tour.