Project · 2023 · Toronto

Bernard Avenue

× Kim Lambert

A kitchen in reconstituted white oak under a curved hood we made in patinated bronze, its tall wall holding the fridge and pantry, a desk niche, and a lit bar. The breakfast banquette and the oak-panelled powder room are ours as well.

Type: Custom millwork · kitchen, bar, breakfast room, powder room
Materials: Reconstituted white oak, patinated bronze, grey smoked mirror
Designer: Kim Lambert Design
Year: 2023
Location: Toronto, ON

The gables stand 1 inch proud of the doors. Every door that swings open has to clear them.

A house on Bernard Avenue in Toronto, in conjunction with Kim Lambert Design. We built the kitchen in reconstituted white oak: the island, the range run, and a tall wall that holds the fridge and pantry, a desk niche, open shelves, and a bar backed in grey smoked mirror. We made the curved hood over the range in patinated bronze, and faced the drawers under the tall cabinet in the same bronze to match. In the breakfast room the curved banquette is ours, upholstery included, and the powder room is panelled in oak from floor to ceiling.

The hard part was the gables. Because they stand proud of the doors, a door swung open would run into the gable beside it. So we made many of the kitchen’s fronts drawers and pullouts, which slide straight out, and where a door had to stay a door, its hinges stop it before it reaches the gable. What another designer sees first is the fit: everything sits wall to wall, in proportion to the room, with no odd details.

Tall wall

The long wall of the kitchen is one run of reconstituted white oak. Tall doors front the fridge and pantry, uppers carry the run to the ceiling, and two niches open into it: a desk with drawers below, and open shelves above a cabinet. The gables between the doors stand 1 inch proud of them, so the wall reads as one oak grid rather than a row of separate cabinets.

The bar niche at Bernard Avenue, oak shelves lit from beneath, holding bottles, bronze vessels, and a round stone sculpture against a back of grey smoked mirror. — Detail · Bernard Avenue · Lit bar, smoked mirror

Bar

The bar is set into the same tall wall, open to the room. Its oak shelves are lit from beneath, and the back is grey smoked mirror, so the niche reads deeper than it is. It is framed in the same oak as the doors on either side, and the run carries on below it in oak drawers, so the bar sits inside the wall rather than standing against it.

Powder room

The powder room is panelled in oak from floor to ceiling. The mirror is set into the panelling rather than hung on it, and the vanity floats beneath it, carrying a thick stone sink. Walls, mirror surround, and vanity are all the same oak, so the small room reads as one piece of millwork.