What do you do with a small house, a five-person family, and clutter that’s growing out of bounds? Kevin Fitzsimons, interior designer and editor of yoursource magazine, walks us through the transformation of a modest older home into a modern, multi-functional space.

When Anna Mammoliti and her family outgrew their small, semidetached house, but didn’t want to move from their comfy neighborhood just steps from Yonge and Eglinton, something had to give.

When a major transformation was due, they picked up the phone and called Kevin Fitzsimons. The first thing Kevin did was quash their idea for an addition. An open, modern space wouldn’t work when tacked onto the back of the older home, with its burrow of tiny rooms and narrow staircases. If they wanted a house that was big enough to accommodate their social, family-focused lifestyle, they had to rethink how their existing home functioned. In other words, rather than add to the outside, subtract from the inside. Open up, modernize, and make multi-functionality the mantra that informs every step of the design.

The old house was a collection of different rooms which all performed separate functions. Now it’s a fluid space that transforms according to a growing family’s needs.