VR Listing
The listing: 112 Warren Rd., Toronto
Asking Price: $11,680,000
Taxes: $28,574.51 (2019)
Lot Size: 75 feet by 173 feet
Agents: Elise Kalles (Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd.)
The back story
The Georgian-style house owned by Jeffrey Wynn is built over a sprawling 7,000-square-foot area.VR Listing
The Georgian-style house at 112 Warren Rd. was built in 1908 for a member of the Gooderham family.
Gooderham and Worts had already achieved the status of Canada’s largest distillery after setting up a still in 1837 at the historic site that’s known today as Toronto’s Distillery District.
Jeffrey Wynn, the current owner of the 21/2-storey house, says records show it was the first residence on Warren Road, back in the days when Forest Hill was a nascent suburb of Toronto.
Mr. Wynn is a history buff and Art Deco aficionado who purchased the house about 13 years ago. Together with his wife, Nirit Gilboa, he has turned the house into a backdrop for the couple’s collection of 1930s furniture and art.
Mr. Wynn became interested in the Bauhaus and Art Deco movements as a teenager growing up in Toronto, where he bought his first piece at the Harbourfront Antiques Market. The granddaughter clock still stands in his home.
“Art Deco is geometric, automotive and movement,” Mr. Wynn says of the style’s hallmarks. “It’s a switch from Art Nouveau in the 1920s straight up until 1939.”
The house today
When Mr. Wynn and Ms. Gilboa purchased the nearly 7,000-square-foot house, original elements such as the intricate plaster mouldings, vintage radiators and oak hardwoods floors were still in place.
The couple did not want to dramatically alter the house’s traditional centre-hall plan, but they did want to create a more open layout for their family of five young children. Mr. Wynn, who is a property developer, also brought in artisans to adapt some of the building’s formal architecture to the curves and streamlined shapes of Art Deco.
The kitchen was moved from its original place to an expansive space at the rear that was being used as a den.VR Listing
Today guests arrive to a foyer with panelled walls and a floor of checkered black and white marble.
When the Wynn family purchased the home, the kitchen was located in a room at the front, overlooking the street.
The couple moved it to an expansive space at the rear that was being used as a den.
Today the modern kitchen and family dining area has a wall of windows overlooking the swimming pool and back garden.
The family dining area overlooks the swimming pool and back garden.VR Listing
“We just opened it up with glass,” Mr. Wynn says.
Built-in appliances include two wall ovens, two dishwashers and a large side-by-side refrigerator.
Ms. Gilboa designed the kitchen, which has a breakfast bar and custom-made floor-to-ceiling cupboards. One door in the wall of wood hides a powder room.
In the large living room, Mr. Wynn had a fireplace surround made to replicate one found in a Deco-style residence in the Hollywood Hills. An etched mirror salvaged from the same home depicts the aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart.
Guests arrive to a foyer with panelled walls and a floor of checkered black and white marble.VR Listing
The main floor also has a family room and a study with walls panelled in undulating wood veneer. From the family room, sliding doors open to the terrace.
The oak staircase to the second floor was painted in black lacquer and the treads were covered in red carpet, reminiscent of an Art Deco cinema, Mr. Wynn points out.
A butler’s staircase also provides a back way up to the third floor.
The master suite opens to a balcony.VR Listing
Upstairs, a large master suite includes a bedroom with sliding doors opening to a balcony. There’s a sitting room with a wood-burning fireplace and a marble hearth. The ensuite bathroom has a checkered marble floor and walls covered in marble tiles and beveled mirrors. There’s a geometric soaker tub and a glass-enclosed shower.
The ensuite bathroom has checkered marble floors and walls covered in marble tiles.VR Listing
There are three additional bedrooms and a family bathroom on that level.
The top floor has two bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms.
On the lower level, a recreation room provides a place for indoor play. In one room, Mr. Wynn swings away a false wall to reveal the original walk-in safe where the Gooderhams secured their valuables.
One of the three additional bedrooms is decorated in hues of pink, blue and white.VR Listing
The best feature
The Wynn family added a swimming pool and a hot tub to the expansive back garden.
Mr. Wynn also refurbished the original water fountain, which still stands on the lawn.
Mature trees provide shade and the garden beds are filled with perennials and annuals.
A swimming pool and hot tub in the back garden makes it a perfect party area.VR Listing
Mr. Wynn says the backyard oasis reminds him of California.
“We’ve had great parties because the whole garden lights up at night,” he says. “It looks like L.A.”
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Carolyn Ireland