Toronto Mid-Century Split Level Home

Sylvia and Drew's house is one of a more unique homes in their neighborhood. It has a wide footprint and half of the facade are horizontal panels of glass. The interior who was designed by an architectCLIENT REVIEW:

Working with Agnieszka Chromicz-Chan was a surprisingly delightful experience. I had never used an

interior designer and was nervous about how it would go. Would the designer understand what we

wanted to accomplish? Would she be able to help us create a space that was uniquely to our taste

without imposing her vision? How would she handle us if we were making choices that she knew

wouldn’t really work with the space? Could she work with our budget and keep the project in line with

what we were willing to spend? I am pleased to say that Agnieszka navigated each of these potential

minefields with aplomb.

Our project was relatively small: we had decided to replace our glossy black floors with something

lighter that would open the space and show less dust. The biggest challenge was choosing the colour of

the wood for the floors. We have a golden granite countertop in the kitchen with which we were

unwilling to part. Our cabinetry (kitchen, dining room and family room) is all a dark espresso colour with

a hint of red in it. This made for an enormous challenge in finding the right floor – something that would

not be too yellow, too green, too grey, or too brown. This was, by far, the greatest challenge of the

project. But Agnieszka was patient as we went through literally tens of wood floor samples – all laid out

on our floor and moving periodically to a different section of the space so that we could see it in every

light. She came to our house every time I brought back new samples to give her insight. She scoured

wood flooring outlets and stores. She was an incredible asset and co-conspirator. The best part is that

we found the exact right flooring.

Agnieszka was helpful in many other ways as well. The biggest challenge I have is with colour. I am not

very confident in choosing colours, and because our main floor is open concept, every wall but one is

visible from the entrance. This poses an enormous challenge: how can we delineate the spaces between

rooms while not over-powering with colour? I did not want the entire floor to be white, so the key was

to choose a couple of accent walls to ground the space and then work around those colours to build

from there. Agnieszka was, once again, full of ideas and incredibly patient as we worked through this

challenging piece. The result is a main floor that feels fresh and bright and uniquely ours.

I am incredibly grateful to Agnieszka for the guidance, support, keen eye, and positive spirit she brought

to this project. Our space is beautiful thanks to her.