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The studio opens out to a large verandah, which features a six-foot-long vintage French trough sink. The creative couple use it for soaking willow prior to weaving and washing out cyanotype prints. “We had an epic search for the right sleepers for the verandah,” says Miriam. “Eventually, we found some Jarrah sleepers. Our daughter is called Jarrah and it’s an Australian timber, so it felt right.”

The Alerce shingles change color when it rains, moving from red to grey. “It’s alive,” says Marambio.

Despite its small footprint, the flexible, multi-purpose space includes bike storage and a niche for storing weights.

“We definitely wanted to preserve the character of the home and make sure that it always fits the neighborhood,” says designer Jenny Bassett. To that end, the team kept the front façade intact, only repainting and adding new landscaping. The fireplace in the living room was also retained, so wood is stored in the front yard for easy access.

After: A new porch roof, made of metal, completes the updated exterior facade. The home’s doors and the garage door are painted a punchy pink, Benjamin Moore’s Rosewood.

“I’m the queen of Ikea cabinets,” laughs Jade. She commissioned custom birch-veneer plywood for the doors from L.A.’s Anderson Plywood. While she was budget-conscious in many ways, she also is willing to splurge where it counts. “Hardware is where I spend money. That’s where people touch and feel it,” she says. “It’s important to me that it feels significant.” Here, pulls and knobs come from Mockett. The countertop is a man-made resin from Arizona Tiles in La Quinta.

The living room is warmed by a Morsø 1440 cast-iron stove and features a pair of calfskin folding seats that are original to the house.

On the top floor, a Cumberland chair by Thos. Moser faces a Room & Board ottoman, a Twiggy lamp by Foscarini, and a vintage sofa upholstered in cowhide.

The clerestory windows have been preserved, and the house now has a dark facade that recedes into the foliage.

A main goal of the renovation was to open the home to its unique perch in Glen Park. On a clear day, it's possible to see from downtown to the South and East Bay.

SemiSemi as it fits into its Toronto neighborhood.

The new millwork tucks neatly into the existing niche of the living room, and the couch base was designed around the dimensions of a single bed mattress.

Furniture designer Tom Deacon teamed up with pal and architect Andrew Jones to renovate his Toronto townhouse. “Architects tend to think of the building first, the interiors second, and last, the furniture. Our approach was the opposite,” Jones says.