Is This the Most Stylish Basement Renovation Ever?

When Ontario, Canada-based designer Lisa Kooistra reimagined this 1,800-square-foot home, she knew she'd have to get creative. The energetic young family of four living here craved bright, versatile spaces that could grow with them (and stow their stuff with style), and their dark, leaky 570-square-foot basement wasn’t pulling its weight.

Lisa partnered with local craftspeople, sourced durable, eco-friendly building materials and sourced locavore Toronto decor to transform all three floors of this home from the bottom up. Today the basement is the home’s signature feature — and it now boasts office space, a home gym, a walk-in pantry, wine storage, a reading nook and a multipurpose family room. When it comes to underground living space, she’s proven the sky’s the limit.

Transitional spaces like this foyer benefit from touchable textiles just as much as cozy gathering areas do. “We wanted to create a sense of luxury with chenille and velvet fabrics throughout,” Lisa says. With the lozenge-shaped aubergine bench, “the idea was to add this fabric with a sense of impact and to help add a statement in the newly-designed entry.”

That impactful shade also has significance to her clients, one of whom is Indian. “This color is rich but still neutral and has some unique meanings,” Lisa explains. “Purple is associated with spirituality, the sacred, higher self, third eye, fulfillment and vitality. Purple helps align oneself with the whole of the universe.”

Though flow-anywhere layouts are massively popular, Lisa and her clients were less than infatuated with how the home’s front-door sight line carried all the way through its ground floor. The solution? Dividing the entry and living areas with a wall (adorned on this side with a seaside painting) added storage and created a place to pause.

“I knew by leaving [the layout] as-is that you would walk in and have a lack of storage but also see directly into the kitchen and the back of the new sectional,” Lisa recalls. “The clients had mentioned that they struggled with looking at homes with a similar footprint. I had this Aha! moment and thought [the wall] would be such a great addition to the space. This way we could solve all these problems and add a beautiful, well-designed entry that they can enjoy.”

Lisa enlisted RusticHouse Interiors, a local woodworking team, to create the bespoke storage space her clients craved. They and their little daughters now have a warm, stylish spot to sit and stow outerware, as well as under-bench cubbies for additional items.