A Brampton Home Enters a New Era with Bold Strokes
After two decades of living in builder’s beige, the homeowners turned to Bananarch Design Studio for an artful rewrite
The house on the ravine was imprinted with memories. The homeowners had celebrated their wedding reception there, marked their children’s milestones, and watched the seasons unfold through the windows over twenty years. As they prepared for the next phase of their lives as empty nesters, they were determined to carry the Brampton home, this supporting character in their lives, with them into the next chapter, but it needed a rewrite: the dated, 1990s oak and tile finishes had had their day. Tapping Toronto-based Bananarch Design Studio, the result is a vibrant, personalized redesign to signify the start of a new era.
Mahsa Ghodoosi and Navid Arbabi, the husband-and-wife team behind Bananarch Design Studio.
“The owners had waited a long time to create a home that reflected who they were,” says Mahsa Ghodoosi of Bananarch Design Studio, who led the renovation with the firm’s fellow principal designer, Navid Arbabi. The husband-and-wife team, who met while studying interior design at TMU (and later realized they had actually attended kindergarten together) felt a kinship to the owners, finding a shared, light-hearted, open-mindedness to design itself. (The firm’s name is taken from the humble banana, a wink to the occasionally chaotic, even ‘bananas’ processes that lead to beautifully designed, original rooms.)
Mimicking the texture of natural wicker, these woven wall coverings top the cabinet inset panels.
In the living room, bi-fold doors conceal a custom bar area.
A vivid painting by Mark Anthony Jacobson-Pey-sim-away-apey-binas lights up the hallway.
The designers set about peeling back the layers, finding ways to elevate the main floor’s principal rooms and inject architectural character to the standard build. The ceiling heights were raised to nine-and-a-half feet. Doorways were enlarged and gracefully rounded at the corners. The sea of beige was, at last, formally retired, and replaced with light, white oak flooring and crisp white walls newly detailed with crown and picture frame mouldings. In the foyer, the open staircase became a striking focal point, with tuning fork-shaped balusters in a burnished brass finish curving up to the second-floor landing and down to the lower level.
The interiors themselves reflect the studio’s human-centered approach to design, with finishes selected to withstand daily life without sacrificing style. In the kitchen, for example, they tested the properties of various counter stones to see which would hold up to deeply saturated sauces and spices. The chosen counter and backsplash are in a hard-wearing porcelain, while the island cladding and rangehood are a rich, marine-green marble selected to achieve the rounded capsule shape and sweeping organic pattern. For the kitchen flooring, a mix of three marble slabs were cut down into tiles then sealed with an epoxy to eliminate grout lines and simplify maintenance. “Practicality wins, always,” says Arbabi. “Your home is not something you should have to be careful with. You should have a feeling of relaxation and ease, and the ability to really live. This is what gives a home a soul.”
Fabricated by Elegant Kitchen Gallery, this custom interior is both timeless and modern.
The Ciot marble island and range hood infuse a deep tactility to the space.
Pendant lights (Hollis + Morris), island stools (Bensen).
Against the clean backdrop, colours jump like staccato notes. All of the furnishings and accessories were guided by the various colours in the owners’ collection of artworks: a pair of paintings by Atlanta-based artist Monica Kim Garza act as bookends in the open living room and dining room, their various colours — peony, cumin, terracotta — mirrored in the upholstered seating from Vancouver’s Bensen furniture, and in the custom area rugs made by Heidarian Rugs in Tehran. The coloured glass lighting by Studio Kalff extends the colour story still further. Each piece by artist Roos Kalff is assembled from a mix of handblown glassware and then combined with various plates and bowls, to create an original composition.
The net effect of all of these layers, both practical and fanciful, is a house that has come of age with energetic colour, unabashed pattern, and high impact choices that will stand the test of time. There’s more life to be lived here yet.
