Peter Fallico's main floor makeover

When Peter Fallico renovated a handsome old house in the South Kingsway neighbourhood of Toronto for his popular series, Home to Flip on HGTV, his guiding principle was to maximize the "wow" factor that adds to the home’s value, without embarking on unnecessary and expensive alterations that can’t guarantee a payback. The whole secret, he claims, is to work as much as possible with what you’ve got.

And in this house, he had a lot. "The house had great bones and lots of charm: original leaded windows, nicely proportioned rooms, and woodwork that was in fine condition." Even the original 1920s hardware was salvageable; Peter removed it, sanded and polished, then put it back. “You can’t get hardware like that today,” he says.


Sitting area The living room contained not one, but two wonderful features, which needed only a bit of updating to make them sing: a fireplace with its original Art Deco stone surround, and a wide bay window with leaded glass panes. The first thing was to lighten and brighten the room with warm dove-grey walls, and to paint the woodwork and mouldings white. The fine oak-strip floors needed only a light sanding and dark stain; dark floors work well with light walls, since they add crispness to the whole room. A coat of white paint also brought out the lovely moulding details of the fireplace mantel and provided a frame for the stone surround.