Gallery House: A Modern Home Renovation for Art Collectors
Jul 27
4 min read
Tucked into the leafy streets of Forest Hill, one of Toronto's most storied residential enclaves, a 1960s house once wore its history like a heavy coat. Dark wood panelling lined nearly every wall, and a maze of small, closed-off rooms kept both daylight and family life at arm's length. For its new owners — avid art collectors raising three children — that sombre inheritance was ready for a complete reawakening.
Working with Michael Taylor Architecture + Design (MTA+D), the family set out to transform the 11,170-square-foot property into something entirely different: a bright, open home built specifically to hold a growing art collection and to hold a growing family together. Completed in 2013 with contractor Riedmann Management, the result proves a house can double as a gallery without ever losing the warmth of home.
The original house borrowed its language from the Arts and Crafts tradition — deep wood tones and compartmentalized rooms that prioritized privacy over connection. To meet the needs of a modern, art-filled family life, the interior was stripped back almost entirely. Walls came down, rooms were reshuffled, and what had once been a labyrinth became a single, continuous flow of space.
At the heart of that transformation is a new staircase, its oak treads seemingly suspended on a frame of white-painted steel. Rather than closing off the transition between floors, the floating stair reads as sculpture in its own right, linking the ground and second levels with a lightness the original house never had. It also does quite double duty as a backdrop, giving the family's art room to breathe as it travels from wall to wall throughout the open plan.
Beyond it, the kitchen and family room unfold in a material palette chosen for warmth as much as for beauty. Wide plank oak flooring runs underfoot, walnut millwork lines the cabinetry, and leathered Calacatta marble brings a soft, matte texture to the counters, offset by clean touches of stainless steel. Together, the materials keep the space feeling lived-in and current, grounding the home in daily family routine rather than showroom polish.
Gallery House. Photography by Virginia MacDonald
Gallery House. Photography by Virginia MacDonald
Upstairs, the primary suite underwent its own quiet transformation. The ceiling was raised significantly to reclaim unused space hiding in the attic above, giving the room a sense of volume the original layout never allowed. At one end, a formerly solid wall was replaced entirely with glass, opening the bedroom onto the garden below and letting natural light pour in throughout the day.
The adjoining bathroom takes the opposite approach, trading brightness for intimacy and drama. Responding directly to the clients' request for an all-black bathroom, the design layers acid-etched black mirror, black granite, richly textured black tile, and ebony-toned wood into a single, cohesive composition. Rather than reading as one flat surface, the interplay of finishes gives the space real depth, a moody, cocoon-like counterpoint to the light-filled rooms below.
Gallery House. Photography by Virginia MacDonald
Gallery House. Photography by Virginia MacDonald
Outside, restraint ruled the day. The bulk of the original house was left intact, its footprint and street presence largely unchanged. The one deliberate exception sits within the home's dominant triangular gables, once filled with a Tudor-style mix of stucco and timber that had little in common with the modern interior taking shape behind it.
That infill was reclad in black-stained wood panels, divided at irregular intervals by slim strips of clear anodized aluminum. The result is a facade that nods to the house's original silhouette while speaking an entirely contemporary material language, a fitting handshake between the home's past and its reinvented present.
Gallery House. Photography by Virginia MacDonald
Gallery House. Photography by Virginia MacDonald
Gallery House ultimately succeeds because it refuses to choose between its two mandates. It is a considered exhibition space for a collection that continues to grow, and it is, just as fully, a family home built for three children and everyday life. In stripping away decades of dark, closed-off rooms, the design uncovered a house that could finally do both at once — a quiet reminder that the best domestic architecture rarely announces itself; it simply makes room for the people and the art that live within it.
While the Russell Hill Road Residence was completed during his 25-year tenure at Taylor Smyth Architects (which he co-founded in 2000), Michael Taylor now carries that legacy forward through his eponymous Toronto-based studio, Michael Taylor Architecture + Design (MTA+D).
What sets Taylor’s practice apart is a philosophy clearly visible in the Russell Hill project: the seamless, uninterrupted integration of architecture and interior design under a single creative vision. Operating out of an open-studio environment, Taylor takes a deeply hands-on approach to custom residential architecture. He remains intimately involved from the very first conversation to long after construction is complete, treating every project as a close collaboration designed to translate a client’s unique perspective into built form.
With a Master of Architecture from Harvard University and over three decades of experience, Taylor has completed dozens of highly customized homes, ranging from modern ravine estates to rural waterfront cottages. His work has garnered over 25 awards for design excellence—including three from the Ontario Association of Architects—but his ultimate measure of success remains constant: crafting warm, welcoming, and livable environments that perfectly reflect the people who live in them.
