A penthouse design that celebrates colour and contrast

Big can be beautiful – if you know how to organize the ebb and flow of a space.

Published Apr 17, 2026  •  3 minute read

Softy creamy tones and an emphasis on colour and comfort dominate in the living room.  PHOTOS BY YIANNI TONG PHOTOGRAPHY

What’s fascinating about this mid-town penthouse design by Stone & Associates principal Katherine Stone is how it uses contrast – light vs. dark, hard vs. soft, modern vs. traditional, even straight vs. curved – to help make this expansive space feel downright cozy.

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The owners, longtime clients of Stone’s, were downsizing from a large family home which had been decorated in traditional style. “But this time, [they] wanted a lot of colour and a more modern approach,” she says.

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Interestingly, the project itself underwent a major transformation while construction was underway, which slightly changed the priorities. The penthouse next door became available, and the clients decided to buy it and significantly enlarge the size of their unit.

There now was room for an expanded home office for him and an artist’s studio for her, along with double ensuites and other luxuries. But it also meant Stone had to manage a much larger space and somehow maintain a sense of comfort and human scale.

Cylindrical exhaust vents contrast with the clean, rectilinear layout of the kitchen.

“Scale is a very important element in design,” she notes. “Instead of just filling up a large space, you have to know when to just leave the space open.”

The balance between what she calls “ebb and flow” creates variety, a sense of pathways through different areas, and a clear division among centres – crucial in large, open spaces.

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One of the most marked contrasts in the design appears the minute one alights from the private elevator into the foyer, a rich cocoon featuring walls finished in matte sable-toned wallpaper.

To keep things from crossing over into gloomy, there’s a bright coffered ceiling overhead, lit by an expansive modern chandelier, while underfoot is a strongly patterned black-and-taupe tile floor.

It’s a dramatic counterpoint to the penthouse’s most breathtaking feature, straight ahead: a wide, wraparound city view in two directions, stretching from floor to ceiling and almost wall to wall.

In the foyer, a dramatic mix of sable walls and a strongly patterned tile floor contrast with the bright view of trees and city skyline through wraparound windows.

In the main living area, the palette becomes lighter and softer, with creamy furnishings – including a pair of laid-back Eames-style chairs and a cozy sectional upholstered in leaf green.

The grouping is anchored by a curved area rug with stripes that gradually lighten from green to cream; its round edge softens the penthouse’s rectilinear bones, while the green adds a touch of spring to the view, which during a Toronto winter tends to fade to grey.

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In another play on geometry, the kitchen features a pair of freestanding cylindrical exhaust hoods finished in stainless steel over the cooktop in the island. “She wanted to be able to look outside while she cooks,” Stone explains.

But one of the living room’s standout elements is a combined fireplace/entertainment unit that takes up one dividing wall, comprising a white monolith with two horizontal cutouts: an upper line with recessed lighting that wraps from part of the front around the side, and another, larger recess at eye level, inset with black glass.

The unique fireplace/entertainment unit is a clever and stylish way to house (and hide) the TV.

On its left side, a minimalist gas fireplace glows; to the right, touch the remote and the TV lights up. It’s a novel and stylish way to solve the common problem of where to put the TV.

A rather awkward long corridor off the main space, created when the penthouses were combined, required some thought in order to reduce the feeling of a long trudge down to the bedrooms. Here, Stone deployed a number of design tricks.

The most dramatic was to create an “intersection” of sorts at the doorway to the home office. First, she bumped in the walls in a few inches, to create an impression of a break in the hallway.

She then added a panel in natural olive, which forms a grand entrance to the home office on one side, continues up and across the ceiling, and down the other side.

“It’s a sustainable design; you can add and take away pieces or artwork, and it won’t date after a few years,” she says. “There’s lots of interesting details, and it’s very personal. It’s really a very joyful home.”

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