Toronto designer Jamie Cheveldeyoff’s house requires a certain suspension of disbelief. That’s because suspension itself is a frequent theme here. Lamps, his kitchen island, bed and even the toilet paper roll all hang from the ceiling. “It is hard to categorize my style, but when I had to, it’d be a type of a repurposed-steampunk-rustic-mechanical sorta thing,” he states.

When he bought the house, there were nicotine stains running down the walls along with a bogus crumbling ceiling nearly 2 feet below the actual ceiling which cut off portions of their walls and windows. But Cheveldeyoff, who studied design and lighting design at Ryerson University and is now with Koma Designs, revived the whole house in a calendar year, taking great care to highlight first specifics. “I enjoy when I am doing work on the house that I’m adding to a bit of work that started over 100 years back and remains here, working,” he states.

in a Glance
Who resides: Jamie Cheveldeyoff along with his dog, Tyrone
Location: Parkdale neighborhood of Toronto
Size: 1,500 square feet; 4 bedrooms, 2 baths

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“I enjoy mixing modern with antique and archaic items — big, chunky, rustic pieces with delicate information and powerful, bold colours with subtle colors,” Cheveldeyoff states.

The living room is furnished with repurposed things: the coffee table is composed of an old woodstove base and thick glass top. The old army speakers which stand at the windows are connected to an iPod dock, and also the DIY sofa is constructed of cushions placed on industrial tractors using a thick glass backrest. The side-table lamps are suspended from the ceiling.

Jenn Hannotte / Hannotte Interiors

An open staircase divides the kitchen area from the living space. The first banister remains, but has been upgraded with modern suspension cord. An excess seating area is tucked beneath the landing.

Jenn Hannotte / Hannotte Interiors

Cheveldeyoff’s favorite recent auction purchase is this leather chaise. “It feels to me as though it was made in Quebec or something due to its layout, somewhat like a sleigh, and also the hand stitching and hand-carved wood underneath,” he states.

Jenn Hannotte / Hannotte Interiors

Cheveldeyoff stripped a thick plaster wall to reveal this brick wall which runs the length of the house. Tractor seats line a rustic beam retrieved from Toronto’s Distillery District that’s set on casters under suspended mirrors.

Jenn Hannotte / Hannotte Interiors

The kitchen is a migration place for guests, who love the repurposed street lamp which hangs over the suspended glass island.

Cheveldeyoff poured his own concrete countertops and built the cabinets. A cork flooring backsplash adds warmth and contrasts the cold concrete countertop and stainless steel cabinets.

Jenn Hannotte / Hannotte Interiors

Glass, mirrors and chrome bar stools warmth against the brick walls and natural driftwood that hangs onto a sea-blue accent wall.

Jenn Hannotte / Hannotte Interiors

The toilet paper holder “was meant to be a joke, because I suspend everything,” Cheveldeyoff states. “I thought it’d be funny if even the toilet paper was hanging from the ceiling. Then I realized that I could make it store toilet paper also and therefore simply need to alter the holder after each six rolls.”

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A large sliding barn door separates the toilet by the second-floor landing which features a cast aluminum skeleton chair designed by Michael Aram of New York.

Jenn Hannotte / Hannotte Interiors

Cheveldeyoff’s bedroom is located in the basement of the house — the part of the first space that was unlivable. He exposed the first stone foundation and additional polished concrete floors. A warm wood ceiling balances the distance. The ceiling is low, therefore that he suspended a lot of the furniture to make a sense of weightlessness.

Jenn Hannotte / Hannotte Interiors

Suspending furniture makes it “easier to wash and take care of the floor, but it also leaves the floor area seem bigger, because there’s no clutter of dining table or kitchen or mattress legs blocking your vision,” Cheveldeyoff states. “But most importantly, it evokes a sense of calmness. When things hang, they’re floating or seemingly weightless and so take in their particular vibration, even different than everything else happening in the room.”

Jenn Hannotte / Hannotte Interiors

Each one the lamp shades in the house are transparent to allow the most light to pass through and light the space. A heap of loose change onto the floor speaks to the doctrine “Less is more.”

Jenn Hannotte / Hannotte Interiors

Jamie Cheveldeyoff and Tyrone sit at the office area, tucked in the corner of their bedroom. “The part I really like the most is that when I paint a wall or build a deck, I’m building it for my house, not a landlord’s or somebody else’s property, like one tends to do most of their lives till they have a house,” he states. “Plus it makes me proud when people like my house and find it intriguing and unusual.”

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