Whoa, fabulous transformation.

Fantastic!

Very nice. New big kitchen window? bravo!

Awesome

Looks really wonderful! Love your color choices throughout

awesome great job!!!!

Looks great!

Doesn't even look like the same house anymore. Amazing transformation !

Wonderful !!!

Terrific. Love the glass doors in the island

wow! nice job!

Whoa looks awesome

Clean, clearly articulated and appropriate for the house...nice job. What did you do with the wall opposite the staircase?

You did good, Dave! Keep it up! Bet your clients love you!

Lovely!

Beautiful transformation to both spaces!

Love it!

The design looks very clean and contemporary! Do you ever wonder to yourself, why people buy these older homes, when they can buy new ones with that already have the look they want?

Usually for the neighborhood, Stamps Design. Older neighborhoods offer shorter commutes, mature landscaping, established neighborhoods with amenities nearby. I see beautiful big trees outside this house.

Beautiful love the transformation :-)

Wish I could see the brand of stove - love it!

Beautiful job. Where did you purchase the runner for the stairs? Thank you.

Cheryl, it's a kitchen aid. I got the same :)

I'm usually not in favor with painting original woodwork, but that looks great!! That stair runner really stands out...in a good way! Looks very clean & fresh. Nice job!

And the kitchen...looks like before was tough to get a good camera shot, but the transformation is really nice! Old places have their own set of oddities...like kitchens with a ton of doors. Nice job & I'm loving that floor too!

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. The house is in a beautiful leafy upscale area of Toronto but being an older house it was very dark and the customer wanted to brighten it up and open it up. That is why the wood was painted. Also the wood was in terrible repair and to have it refinished and repaired would have eaten up a chunk of the budget. The cabinets were from a semi custom upper end manufacturer in a door style and wood the customer fell in love with. If we had a bigger budget I think I would have steered them into going with a beaded face frame style of cabinet but the money just wasnt there for that extravagance.
The carpet runner was from Elte Carpets in Toronto and was made from wool. I think its the only way to go on a stair since it gets so much wear.
I believe the stove was a Kiitchen Aid.
I love how the main floor turned out and have since worked on the second floor on their main bath. Pics to come.

Great work. Amazing transformation

Gorgeous! The stairs look completely different.

@klbohach, I love old homes, too, but the kitchen in the before photo was not original. A kitchen original to a home of that period would be barely functional now. I do agree, however, that the cabinetry, though lovely, could have been designed to look a just a little bit closer to the original home's design.

As for maintaining the original woodwork, it's expensive, very expensive, so I understand the owner's dilemma. My old house was completely painted, so I re-painted my downstairs and loved it, then had the upper floor woodwork stripped and restored (for a small fortune), and loved that too.

This was a good compromise.

Oh, and thank heavens the tile floor came out and a wood floor was put in. Hallelujah!!!

Very nice.

Looks great and you weren't afraid to paint the wood stairs. Bravo!

Loved the way you opened things up!

Great job!

When posters are critical, why do remodelers/homeowners feel the need to explain or apologize for changes they have made? It's your house, your design, your preference. I think this house looks wonderful, and really don't care if someone else would have preferred not to paint the woodwork.

Flopsycat, perhaps maybe in a case like this, old houses and neighborhoods are a regional treasure and become part of the character of a city. Changing them drastically can ruin the soul of a place. Think Robert Moses and what his designs did to countless neighborhoods in New York. His work forever changed the face of those urban neighborhoods.

I guess the upside of that was people like Jane Jacobs, who woke us up to the loss such destruction could cause on a long-term basis. On a smaller scale, this occurred in many cities across North America, and just think of the destruction caused to cities in Europe,during WWII.

We yearn for our history. Even if we don't own individual places, we hope to save the character of what made our past. And you have to admit, rare is the builder or homeowner who is creating the well crafted home of the past.

So, that's why people lament the painting of 200+-year old, old-growth Douglas fir, the likes of which you will NEVER see used again in newly built homes. Which is why I restored what I could in my old home and why I can understand klbohach's sorrow.

@ kmkane and David J Design - you quoted Jane Jacobs??? Yay! I really like what you've done with this house, and I'll bet it's very functional: you've managed to maintain the original scale and character, but updated the space with a usable kitchen and sensitive use of colour. Nice to have such big bright kitchen windows, isn't it.

Love what you did never did like stained trim. Like stair runner but , need the black binding across the bottom looks like been cut off not finished. If you had a bordered rug the border would be on all four sides.

Thanks cambridge101. Actually I have never done that before but I think that will look quite nice and I will do that next time. Thanks for the idea.

Love the stairway, what paint did you use for the dark.