Here is the story of this home in downtown Hamilton.
Young couple with five kids. Seven people sharing one bathroom that was 8 feet long and 5 feet wide. A tub, a toilet, a little, tiny vanity with no storage, and a giant cast iron radiator eating up the floor. Picture all seven of them trying to brush their teeth at the same time. Someone was always standing in the tub.
The bathroom itself wasn’t going to get any bigger. But the house had space we could borrow.
On the other side of the wall we had two closets. We took down the wall, adjusted some framing, and pulled both of those closets into the bathroom footprint. That turned this little rectangle into a big square. Then we pulled out the cast iron radiator and switched the heat source to in-floor heat, which gave us back precious square feet of walking room. Three square feet doesn’t sound like much until you’re the seventh person trying to find somewhere to stand.
With the new space we kept the tub and toilet where they were but took that little, tiny vanity and put in a massive, solid wood, double vanity with a huge linen closet. And the walking space? Instead of no room to stand we now have space for a dance floor in there. Everyone fits and no one stands in the tub.
This house is so old that this bathroom’s last major update was probably 150 years ago. Think about how many families have come through that room. It was time.
Building a room with the character of a century home, with a modern twist, is an exciting challenge, but I think we pulled it off. We reused some of the old trim, and remade what we couldn’t save or match. The materials we used kept the feeling alive. Deep, rich colours and solid wood cabinetry to pull on the wood accents from the rest of the home. Nothing in here was slapped into place, every material and colour was chosen carefully. These great clients deserved the best, and this amazing home that has stood for generations deserved respect. We took the space to 2026 with small luxuries like a smart toilet with built-in bidet and seat warmer. One thing the client asked for from day one was a way to hide seven electric toothbrushes. They were tired of the counter looking like a charging station. Sounds simple, but it wasn’t. A standard 120-volt outlet inside a cabinet is against Ontario building code. Low voltage wiring is allowed, but a typical Oral-B charger plugs into a regular outlet. So we went hunting. Found a low-voltage charging solution, built it into the linen closet, and now all seven toothbrushes live behind a door.
Every inch of this bathroom was thought through. Not just how it looks, but how seven people were actually going to live in it.
That’s the part I love about this work. Old houses have stories, and when you renovate them right, you add a chapter instead of tearing one out. Every room tells a story, this one just had a big story to tell.