Photography by Riley Snelling Photography
The gable end of a roof is a totemic image for children and one of the first things they learn to draw. For grown-ups, the form signifies home, hearth and security. Post Architecture played up those associations in Toronto’s Bennington Heights neighbourhood, where their new build pays nostalgic homage to the demolished original, smaller, white-gabled structure. The replacement features a new two-storey white-gabled core that replicates the original house’s size and massing, flanked by flat-roofed additions on three sides clad in a contrasting dark colour. This colour coding continues inside with light-coloured materials within the gabled sector and dark tones elsewhere. The front door opens onto a surprise: in lieu of typical views of living room, dining room and family room, the visitor is greeted by a monumental, multifunctional black millwork cube containing a bench, coat closet and powder room. In the living room, ribbed and textured grey quartz clads the floating hearth. The dining room is on axis with the living room, its space delineated from the family room by another freestanding millwork unit, this one white. A white-oak staircase leads to the four bedrooms upstairs. The master suite boasts a skylit walk-in dressing room, and an elevated wet area in the bathroom set against two large delicately veined limestone slabs.
