In my 19 years at Globe Real Estate, I have honed a particular talent: I can spot a DFNO from 50 paces … maybe 60. When a person Designs For the Next Owner – let’s call them Dafnos because they’re a bit daffy – they play it ultrasafe. Dafnos choose greys, beiges and white, whether in paint or tile; crown moulding is favoured because it’s quick and traditional; countertops or fixtures don’t catch the eye … in fact, nothing does, and that’s the point, since this visual blancmange is meant to be a blank canvas the next owner can imagine/paint their life onto.
The stairwell from second to third floor in Beaujolais colour.Lauren Kolyn/Lauren Kolyn
The decorative ensuite bath.Lauren Kolyn/Lauren Kolyn
Alisha Sturino is no Dafno. She takes her designs very, very personally. Even the name of her new design/build company, Studio Otty, gets its name from her late grandfather, Otello, since he was such profound influence in her life.
And speaking of life, it verily explodes in every room, every nook, of “Beaujolais House,” which she recently completed with her business partner, veteran builder Steve Hajsan. Of course it helps that Ms. Sturino lives here, but a quick look at the Studio Otty website suggests her designs are no shrinking violets no matter who is footing the bill.
Even from the street – a hodgepodge of homes from the 1870s to the 1970s in Toronto’s Little Italy – this is a domicile that doesn’t shrink. But it doesn’t engage in needless braggadocio, either. No, it strikes a balance with white brick and careful massing – complete with a peaked roof in a nod to the Victorians nearby – and a warm wooden door and rustic bench combo that act as counterpoint to the somewhat stark black window frames.
“I’ve always loved white brick,” says the 36-year-old, who cut her design teeth at the legendary Yabu Pushelberg, as she opens the front door. But before we even climb the stairs (she and her husband live on floors two and three and rent the first floor and basement to a tenant), I stop to admire how the drywall floats around each step.
“Somebody spent a lot of time on this,” I say. “It’s beautiful.”
“Steve will be really thrilled to hear you say that,” she says with a laugh. “He’s a master craftsman.”
Interestingly, Ms. Sturino chose to locate the bedrooms, bathrooms, her office and laundry room on the second floor, reserving the third for the living and dining areas. “It’s like our little hotel suite,” she says of the entrance to the principal bedroom, a dark brown portal created with wooden wall panels.
Open the door and the outside world is shut away. All that exists is his-and-hers closets that lead to the ensuite bathroom, which features a concrete sink Ms. Sturino designed, and a wet room with a sculptural tub and shower surrounded by “sexy-moody” chocolate-brown marble (a choice no Dafno would ever make!). The bedroom, too, is painted in a moody-blue and features a low bed with a leather-weave headboard that Ms. Sturino also designed. On the walls in here (and elsewhere) are delicate and beautiful prints made by her mother, an artist.
Up the stairs to the third floor – here walls are painted the colour of Gamay grapes – and all the moodiness dispels into bright, cheery sunshine under a long, tent-like, peaked ceiling. On one side, sliding doors to a balcony off the dining area that overlooks the street; on the other, sliding doors to a generous roof deck off the living room where sunset cocktails are imbibed.
And, in the middle of the space, just a touch of the dark-and-stormy via Ms. Sturino’s choice of kitchen countertops: “This is a granite, it’s called ‘titanium’ and it’s from Brazil … and I was mesmerized.”
The living room coffee table.Lauren Kolyn/Lauren Kolyn
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Also interesting is that, despite being open-concept, there are still surprises. The first is a little pantry room that houses small appliances such as the wine fridge and microwave – ”I didn’t want any of that to be exposed” – and, near the dining table, a chunky, gnarly, pockmarked old carpenter’s bench (complete with vice) that now enjoys a second life as a bar. “I found it at a vintage store online,” she says of the bench, “and so I called Steve right away and said ‘Can you measure that nook?’… and it literally just slotted in, so that was meant to be.”
Over in the living area, for every one item that is superslick, such as the all-white, cylindrical gas fireplace, or the custom-made couch, there are five things that are tactile, or found, or repurposed, such as the coffee table, which came from an estate sale and resembles a piece of terrazzo floor put under the microscope.
“It had a very thick polyurethane coating, and it had yellowed from UV, and it came on a black marble chunk [base] which I knew I was going to ditch,” Ms. Sturino says with a laugh. After finding a marble restoration person willing to strip it down to reveal its rough nature, the table, today, is a textural wonderland perched on a handsome blondewood base that looks equally at home supporting a design book, cappuccino, or collection of rounded river rocks.
“I’m kind of a wabi-sabi type of person,” she says simply.
A look around any room bears this out. For every bit of calculated symmetry there is a one-off oddity, such as the living room wall that juts out to create a gentle curve, done so the flat-panel television isn’t the first thing one spies when stepping onto the landing. For every smooth surface, there is an equal amount of rough. For every custom-designed piece of furniture there is a vintage piece with imperfections. And for every stark pot light – which Ms. Sturino hardly ever switches on – there are lamps to create warm pools of light.
Balance, yin and yang, dualism … call it what you will. Beaujolais House is a finely crafted, easy drinking design that rises above the all-too-common real estate plonk.