The Point Grey Home
WEST POINT GREY, VANCOUVER, BC
A complete character home renovation in West Point Grey — rear addition, new upper floor, and laneway house — designed to honour a 1920s home while expressing something genuinely contemporary within it.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Full Home Renovation & Laneway House — West Point Grey, Vancouver
This 1920s character home in West Point Grey had more to give — it simply needed a designer willing to listen before drawing a single line. The homeowners loved their home and neighbourhood deeply, but the original layout had quietly outgrown the way they lived: compartmentalised, a little dark, and unable to accommodate the way their family gathered. The choice was to leave for something larger, or to invest in unlocking what was already there. They chose to stay — and to do it properly.
The result is a full character home renovation of rare completeness: a 600 sq ft rear addition creating a new open-plan kitchen and living space, a new upper-floor bedroom suite, and a Vancouver laneway house. Throughout, bespoke walnut millwork by River Valley Millworks — integrated bookshelves, a partition wall reading nook, coffered ceiling panels, and a bespoke wet bar — runs with quiet consistency. Travertine stone, Innotech windows and doors, and LED cove lighting complete a home where every material works with the next. Nothing was added without purpose. Nothing removed without consideration.
The guiding design idea was contextual restraint. From the street, the Point Grey Home still reads as a 1920s character home — warm, grounded, unmistakably itself. Step inside or around the back and a confident, contemporary house reveals itself: open without being undifferentiated, modern without being cold. That calibration — rooms that open to one another, but deliberately so — is the rare part. And it is precisely what over 35 years of design-build experience makes possible.
TYPE OF PROJECT: Full Home Renovation & Laneway House
LOCATION: West Point Grey, Vancouver, BC
DESIGNER: Leo Chester, Kerr Design Build
STATUS: Completed / June 2026
SCOPE: Full Renovation · Rear Addition · Upper Floor Addition · Laneway House
ARTICLE: The Point Grey Home: Before & After
Inside the Point Grey Home — Character, Craft & Connection
The Point Grey Home is defined by the details — the full-height walnut bookcase woven into the partition wall, the travertine waterfall island anchoring a kitchen built from scratch in a 600 sq ft rear addition, the coffered walnut ceiling that runs the length of the open-plan living space, and the Innotech Eclipse doors that dissolve the boundary between inside and garden.
Every material was chosen to work with the others. Every space was designed to open to the next — deliberately, not incidentally. This is what over 35 years of design-build experience looks like when it is working at its best.
The Reading Nook & Book-Lined Wall
The heart of the home. A full-height walnut bookcase built flush into the partition wall between the dining area and the living room, with a dedicated reading nook bench seat at its centre. This is where the brief, the millwork, and the light come together with complete conviction. The things this family loves aren’t arranged on top of the architecture. They are the architecture.
The Rear Addition & Garden Connection
The 600 sq ft rear addition transformed the back of this 1920s character home entirely. A new open-plan kitchen — travertine waterfall island, bespoke walnut cabinetry, large-format grey stone backsplash — and a living room with coffered walnut ceiling and LED cove lighting now open directly to the garden through Innotech Eclipse sliding doors and a generous covered deck with a proprietary aluminium louvre system. The connection to the outside was always there. This addition finally made it.
The Vancouver Laneway House
Designed in a complementary contemporary idiom — its own considered identity that quietly completes the lot. Whether for extended family, guests, or rental income, it transforms a single-family West Point Grey property into something that can support more than one chapter of life. On the street it reads as a careful neighbour to the main house. Up close, it is a properly designed home of its own.
Furniture & Interior Details
Leo Chester’s approach to furnishing the Point Grey Home follows the same logic as the architecture: nothing gratuitous, everything considered. The furniture was chosen to complement the walnut millwork and stone without competing with it — warm neutrals, natural textures, and a restrained palette that lets the built-in work breathe.
In the living room, a generous white slipcovered sofa and a pair of black open-frame rattan lounge chairs face the walnut reading nook across a round upholstered coffee table. The arrangement reinforces what Leo designed into the architecture: a room that invites you to stop, sit, and stay.
At the kitchen island, linen-toned bar stools with black legs echo the material contrast of the walnut cabinetry and white stone countertop. In the dining area, curved upholstered chairs around a dark round table create a space that feels intimate despite opening directly to the living room beyond.
Throughout, Leo’s own principle holds: beautifully detailed, considered products can look superb without an extravagant budget. The furniture doesn’t announce itself. It belongs.
Leo and Nisha Walk Through the Finished Home
Leo Chester and Nisha walk through the completed Point Grey Home — room by room, decision by decision. From the walnut reading nook and book-lined partition wall to the travertine kitchen, covered deck, and laneway house, they share the thinking behind every detail that shaped the finished result.
Inside the Point Grey Renovation — The Construction Process
Most people only see the finished result. This footage takes you inside during the build — the framing, the structural work of the rear addition, and the layout decisions that determine how a character home actually lives. The work that disappears behind the walls, but shapes everything you see.
Watch the Transformation: Point Grey Home Under Construction
From demolition to finished home. This footage follows the Point Grey Home through every stage of construction — a 1920s character home carefully taken apart and rebuilt into something that will last another century.
DESIGNER BIO
Designed by Leo Chester — Senior Designer, Kerr Design Build
Leo Chester is a Senior Designer at Kerr Design Build with 29 years of experience designing character home renovations, custom interiors, and home additions across Greater Vancouver. The Point Grey Home reflects his core belief: that the harder, more rewarding work is listening to a home before you change it — and letting what is already there guide what comes next.
Watch More Transformations
Follow along as we document the design and construction process behind our Vancouver projects — custom homes, renovations, and the stories behind them.