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Great Taste Concrete Plans

When a unique factory-turned-residential-space

in Centretown came onto the market, a discerning buyer quickly snapped it up. He then called Serina Fraser of Clear Interior Design, asking the interior designer to oversee a full renovation that would honour the building’s roots by returning it to a rawer state. She relished the opportunity, embracing a pared-down aesthetic that incorporated the client’s love for Japanese architecture.

The powder room condenses this vision into one intimate space. “People sometimes ask me, ‘Why concentrate so much energy on a powder room?’ but I see it as a little pocket of experience,” she explains. Custom millwork in the powder room plays on the clean lines of Japanese design, as does a neutral palette that pairs shades of charcoal and black on the walls and floor with a creamy maple counter. That counter tapers to a point because the room is irregularly shaped, narrow at the entrance and widest at the back. That unconventional shape led Fraser to start playing with the angles, carefully matching the concrete Ciot tile on two walls. The third wall is clad in a black woven wallpaper that references Japanese textures. Three pendant fixtures add mood lighting, the glass slit up the side so that the downlighting is complemented by a side glow emphasizing the concrete tile. And the shelf above the toilet? Its triangular form casts a unique shadow along the corner. The owner plans to source glassware for the shelf, an homage to the origins of the space as a glass factory.

Whimsy is provided by the mirror over the vanity, the curves of the acacia wood contradicting the linear and geometric motifs all around it. “It was a much-loved piece that belonged to the client’s former house,” says Fraser. “He wanted to take it with him, and this was exactly where he wanted it to be.” It’s just another injection of personality into this one-of-a-kind retreat. — Sarah Brown