A pair of "floating" timber-clad bedrooms and a wooden staircase now feature in this Victorian-era residence in Toronto, renovated by local firm StudioAC.
Beaconsfield Residence is a property built in the late 1880s in Toronto's Queen West and Little Portugal area.

StudioAC's renovation involved preserving the heritage-listed facade and completely overhauling the interior. The studio describes it as a fusion of old and new, "a nod back to the past within an undeniably contemporary experience".
"A completely new idea of the interior worked to utilise the spatial logic, and existing window openings implied by the original architecture acted as the starting point," said the studio.

The architects planned the new 3,383-square-foot (314-square-metre) floor plan around a central double-height space, where light floods in from above. The new staircase, with its solid wooden balustrade, blends in with white oak floors and birch plywood wall panelling.

"The double-height space utilised the existing Victorian elevations to invite natural light into the centre of the plan, flanked by a feature stair and a remaining brick tracery from one of the de-commissioned fireplaces," said StudioAC.

On the first floor, the studio designed the two new bedrooms as a pair of wooden volumes. A catwalk-style walkway provides access, with a glass railing for a sense of lightness.
"The sleeping spaces are conceived as floating wood-clad boxes that frame ...