Home of the Week: Artist's studio is an (almost) blank canvas
517A CRAWFORD ST., TORONTO. ASKING PRICE: $489,900. For the past 24 years, this has been artist Barbara Klunder’s work studio and pied-à-terre when she needs a crash pad downtown. Over the years, Ms. Klunder – known as the creative force behind the visuals of 1980s hot spot the BamBoo club on Queen Street West – added to this home’s cool and funky character. But she strove to do so in a way that honoured the fact that the building was originally a 1903 “horse garage,” as she calls it, for a nearby farm. “I really liked the brick walls and the basics of this house,” she said.
The first floor is the bedroom, and the kitchen is on the second floor. She added an exposed wood accent wall and hung Edison light bulbs throughout giving it a rustic/modern feel.
The second floor is one large open space plus the bathroom and the small kitchen. “I asked myself: ‘How can I have the maximum amount of room upstairs and still have a kitchenette?’ ” Ms. Klunder said. She enlisted the help of her son, a budding builder, and he designed a little row kitchen that is only 21-inches in width.
Ms. Klunder added a number of small decor details, such as antique doors, including a sliding pair that separate the bedroom from the entrance.
The roof-top deck.
The bathroom features a smashed-dishes shower wall. Explaining that she needed a project to keep herself busy while her son went off and bicycled through Africa as a young man, Ms. Klunder said: ‘I was so motherly nervous. … So I did the smashed dishes shower.’ It took her all winter and approximately 100 plates, tea cups, bowls to complete it.