INTERIOR DESIGN: TIDY SOLUTION

Shaunn Lipsey was shoehorning a Costco chicken into her fridge when she turned to her husband and said, ‘This isn’t working anymore.’”  

The marriage was fine but the fridge’s proportions weren’t. The couple had just returned from a big shop and nothing fit. Their three kids (another one came later) were under four at the time. Their boatload of snacks and drinks hogged more room than what was available in the fridge, and the cupboards weren’t cutting it either.  

“They say the shoemaker is the one without shoes,” says Lipsey, the designer of Shaunn Lipsey and Company and a real estate agent, who deeply understands the importance of form and function when it comes to creating stylish homes for her clients.   

For her own house, it was a slow uptake. “It took so much time for me to land on the perfect floor plan because I was overthinking it,” she says. “This is why people hire designers. It’s less emotional when it’s not yours.” 

The couple live in Forest Hill in a classic, 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom Tudor home. Before renovating, their kitchen was galley style. And the traditional main floor was carved up into three formal closed-off spaces: a living, dining and family room.  

As it happens with renovations, the couple’s intention to accommodate a bigger fridge in the kitchen snowballed into rethinking the entire house. Which is how they ended up with new black-framed windows and herringbone floors, along with reimagined bedrooms and bathrooms. 

To improve the flow of the home, Lipsey’s redesign entailed removing every wall on the main floor, save for a partition between the dining room up front and the kitchen.  

“Changing the layout of our home completely changed the function of it,” says Lipsey of the eight-month-long renovation. Because it was the COVID era, it took longer than intended. The trades couldn’t overlap and there were millwork delays, but the family happily kept watch on the transformation from two doors away, at Lipsey’s mom’s house. 

Today the couple’s children—two boys and two girls aged seven, six, five and three — love their super-tidy home. The palette is white, black and oak, making for a sophisticated yet inviting blend thanks to casual flourishes, like cheeky artwork and a sectional off the back living room. 

“That is where we live — we watch hockey there and hang out,” says Lipsey. “I found an incredible photographer named Barbara Stoneham to create artwork behind the couch.” As a portrait photographer, Stoneham was surprised when Lipsey asked for pics of her kids snapped from behind. “I didn’t want the art to date,” says Lipsey. “This way it’s timeless.”  

The dining room, which flows off the foyer, is grand and gorgeous and this time punctuated by oversize art by Tahsine Al Hassane. The room is well used, so the placement isn’t for naught. “I host shabbat dinner every Friday night for my entire family,” says Lipsey, who notes it’s not just mom nearby, but her sister, too.  “I needed the biggest table possible. I wanted it to have a somewhat formal look,” she says.  

Just past the dining room is the showstopping kitchen, a study in smart planning. While striking with its black hardware and subtly framed cabinetry, it hides smart surprises.  

“The backsplash and island are porcelain. I went this route because I wanted it to be indestructible for the kids,” says Lipsey. “Nothing stains or scratches it. My kids do crafts on it all day long. A wet cloth and soap and it looks brand new. No ring marks or coffee stains.” 

Lipsey’s clever mom move was to incorporate a concealed homework station into the kitchen. The door hides a kids’ crafts centre.  

“When people come to my house, they love it,” says Lipsey. “There are bins and everything is labelled for markers, pencils, crayons, scissors and glue and erasers and stickers. It looks perfectly organized, as if you’re in Michaels.”   

The arts/homework station morphed from a baby area stocked with bottles and related accessories, says Lipsey. “They key is to plan and choose things for longevity,” she says. She’s also referring to the kids’ bedrooms. In her five-year-old son’s room, for instance, the Ella + Elliot dresser converted from a change table. And to keep things neat, she mounted basketballs on the wall for both play and decor.  

Back in the kitchen, another shipshape spot is the walk-in pantry. “My snack cupboard was a huge hit when we posted it on Instagram,” says Lipsey of the space accessed through black-framed glass doors.  

Instead of rooting around through cupboards like famished mammals, the kids can easily find what they’re looking for, since everything is labelled by category — “kids’ snacks,” “drinks” and so on. The other side holds dried goods.  

The system extends to the mudroom at the side of the house, where reachable labelled bins mean the kids aren’t chucking their coats onto the floor. 

“Knowing where things get put away lowers my stress level,” says Lipsey. “People ask, ‘How do you keep your home so clean with all these kids?’ If you plan and organize, it becomes a system.”  

As for that fridge that kicked off the fun: the Sub-Zero replacements from Best Brand Appliances can fit a flock of chickens. “Those are 36-inch columns,” says Lipsey, “the biggest in the business.” 

2024-06-13T16:37:42Z