The Wall That Came Down: A Multi-Generational Home Renovation in Kitsilano

Designing for How a Family Actually Lives

When designer Nisha first walked through the house, the brief wasn’t about style. It was about function — specifically, how eight people across three generations could share one property without constantly getting in each other’s way.

The answer wasn’t a bigger house. It was a smarter one.

Upstairs, the layout needed to work for a young family with three active kids. Downstairs, the parents needed a space that felt genuinely independent — not a basement tacked onto the back of someone else’s home. Both goals required the kind of careful planning that only happens when design and construction work together from the beginning. That’s the core of how Kerr’s design-build process works — one team, responsible for every decision, from the first concept drawing to the final coat of paint.

The Wall That Made the Difference

Upstairs, the biggest structural change is also the one meant to be least visible. Where a load-bearing wall and a fireplace once separated the kitchen from the family room, there’s now one open great room — but openness wasn’t the goal for its own sake.

“Something that’s really important to me as a designer is making it feel like it’s not been renovated,” Nisha explains in the video walkthrough. To achieve that, her team matched new trim and millwork to the home’s original detailing. The opening reads as though it was always part of the house — not a renovation decision, but the way the home was built.

That level of care requires a close working relationship between the design team and the builders on site. When the same firm handles both, the details don’t get lost in translation.

A Bathroom the Family Never Had

Not every change is meant to disappear. Upstairs, the primary bedroom gained something the family had never had before: a private ensuite. Nisha created it by pulling a jogged wall forward — a relatively small structural move that unlocked an entirely new level of comfort. A laundry closet was tucked neatly into the hallway alongside it, solving a storage problem without sacrificing floor area.

Small decisions, compounded across a whole house, are what make a renovation feel complete rather than corrected.

Then there are the details built specifically for three girls sharing a bathroom. “There’s three girls, so we have two medicine cabinets — so hopefully not as many fights,” Nisha says. It’s the kind of solution that doesn’t show up on a floor plan but shows up every single morning.

Downstairs, the challenge was different. Legal suites in Vancouver can easily feel like an afterthought — a basement carved out of whatever space remained after the main floor was done. This one was designed from the beginning to be a real home.

Garden-level access, natural light brought in through carefully placed windows, and a layout that gives the parents genuine independence — not just a separate door. The suite was designed and permitted as part of the same project, handled entirely in-house by Kerr Design Build’s team. Navigating Vancouver’s permit process for a legal suite adds complexity, but it also adds long-term value — both for the family and for the property itself.