THIS COUPLE DOWNSIZED INTO AN ELEGANT TWO-STOREY CONDO AND THEIR DAUGHTER HANDLED INTERIOR DESIGN

In a cooling condo market, Toronto homeowners Jolie Lin and Ian Crosbie saw an opportunity to downsize. By 2024, they were spending most of their time in an Erin vacation home they’d purchased in 2012. “We loved the quiet of the countryside,” Lin explains. The property also had more room for their two dogs—an English springer spaniel named Auggie and a border collie–Australian shepherd mix named Cooper. Meanwhile, the four-bedroom Summerhill home they’d lived in since 2014 sat empty. They were ready to downsize but didn’t want to live in a cookie cutter condo, so after selling their home and purchasing a two-bed, two-bath unit in 2024, they knew exactly whom to turn to: their daughter, Megan. As an interior designer, Megan favours a contemporary aesthetic and clean lines, which appealed to her parents. “We trust Megan in a way that far exceeds the way we feel about any other designer we’ve ever worked with,” Lin says. “She understands our lifestyle, how much we entertain and what we could eliminate because we also have a place in the country.” Related: This couple transformed a basement suite into a colourful paradise Ian, a retired lawyer, and Lin, a lawyer and co-founder of the legal tech start-up Secure Engage, planned to spend two or three nights a week at their new condo and the rest in Erin. Megan worked with her parents to design a space where they could entertain small groups and relax while showcasing their extensive art collection. The renovation took about seven months—a tight schedule timed to the closing of their Summerhill house—which Megan pulled off with the help of her team. Thankfully, the Crosbies are all still on good terms after surviving the renovation together. “We didn’t have to go to family therapy,” Megan says. “That’s a win!” First on their renovation list was upgrading the unit’s powder room into a full bathroom by adding a shower. To accomplish that, Megan rejigged the bathroom’s footprint and moved its entrance to an adjacent wall. “Adding a shower where one didn’t exist in a condo is definitely a challenge,” she says. Megan convinced her parents to choose a moodier vibe for the full bathroom, “colour-drenching” it with blue-grey walls and tiling. Copper-finished fixtures play off the artwork in the space. A dining room with a built-in corner bench helped tick two boxes for the Crosbies: it concealed pipes that were now exposed from the bathroom reno and maximized space to fit eight people around the table—a request from Lin. The bench was custom-built to match the walnut stain on chairs that the Crosbies already owned. Above the bench are artworks from the family’s collection, by Howard Hodgkin and Xiaoze Xie, plus sconces from Kuzco Lighting. The large-format camouflage marble slab in the kitchen served as a jumping-off point for the rest of the design. Megan was sourcing marble for a different client when she saw it and knew her parents would love it. Marble also adorns the expanded kitchen island, which incorporates a bookshelf at one end. Since the Crosbies chose a lighter tone for their hardwood flooring (in order to make dog hair from Auggie and Cooper less prominent), they opted for darker oak veneer cabinets. The Moooi pendants above the island are from the Crosbies’ Summerhill house. Related: Inside the Bauhaus-inspired home of an "anti-beige activist" Next to the dining area, in an otherwise underused nook, Megan proposed a custom-built console that would combine storage for Ian’s record collection with a makeshift bar. The shelves were precisely spaced for records, and the fluted section on the left stores alcohol and glassware. “The LPs that are there, I’ve had for 40 years or more,” Ian says. “We didn’t really have a set-up for them in our previous houses.” The living room features pieces from their other homes—a couch and a chair from their Summerhill property matched with an LD Shoppe lamp taken from their Erin home. “When we bought it, it was a little too modern for that house, so we thought this would be a good space for it,” Lin explains. The couple acquired the two-toned rug during their travels in Morocco, and the art above the couch is a print from photographer Edward Burtynsky. The primary bedroom and bathroom are on the second floor. “We wanted a space that was extremely comfortable and zen,” Lin says. The hotel-like headboard incorporates wall-mounted reading lights from B.lux, which the couple like as a space-saving feature, along with floating walnut nightstands. To artfully add closet space to the primary bedroom, Megan designed a custom closet on a wall opposite from the bed, leading to the bathroom. “We decided to do a rounder shelf so that it was a bit softer going into that space,” she says. The shelves are walnut, and the closet is finished in a bold red-orange hue. “I know that my parents aren't too shy around colour,” Megan says. “They were confident enough to pick options that were more daring, which I think totally paid off.” For their primary ensuite, Megan did another reconfiguration to replace a single sink with a double vanity. It has integrated basins made of travertine and is paired with a sconce from A-emotional Light. She also designed a “wet room”–style tub, with an open shower and a bench, contained by a glass wall and door. Megan’s parents say that the renovation turned out better than they had envisioned. “It felt immediately like home,” Lin says. She’s been enjoying seeing their art collection displayed in a new way, and Lin was especially pleased with the custom dining nook that Megan created. “It’s an unexpected treat to host dinner for eight in a condo without feeling crowded,” she says. Meanwhile, Ian is enamoured with the new entertainment unit, where he can showcase his record collection and a turntable he got last Christmas. While Megan’s parents still spend half of their time out in Erin, they envision themselves aging in place at their condo, eventually turning it into their primary residence. “We see this space as somewhere we could live for many years, including some future time when we won’t want to garden and take down trees,” Lin says. They love that their neighbourhood has younger residents and is dog-friendly. “It’s the kind of environment that we hope will keep us young.”

2026-03-02T14:40:07Z