An Enviable Summerhill Bathroom with Minimal Detailing

“The bathroom was a throwback to the 1980s,” says Kelly Buffey, co-principal of Atelier Kastelic Buffey, “complete with black bath tub” – a horror to an integrated architectural and interior design firm known for mixing functionality with minimal detailing and warm palettes. The challenging project proved enticing, though, to a firm that mostly works on new builds. The long and narrow Summerhill home needed an overhaul and so, to maximize space, circulation, light and private views to nearby parks, AKB left only its foundation, footprint and side walls intact.

Even in the bathroom, a shaft of light illuminates the previously dark heart of the home, with an acid-etched glass wall that filters sunshine, scattering it across the large-format porcelain tiles that clad the room from floor to ceiling. The owners enjoy baths but not clutter, so the architects placed the soaker behind the vanity – a space carved out of the adjacent home gym – and at the foot of the tub is a full-height window that faces a recessed balcony. On the other side of the vanity, a frost-free twin window also overlooks the – thankfully – tree-canopied neighbourhood.