Grown Up
toronto
There's a particular kind of moment that happens when the last child finally moves out. The house becomes yours again — maybe for the first time since you bought it. The rooms that have been someone else's for years are suddenly available, waiting. And with them comes a question that is equal parts exciting and overwhelming: what do we do now?
For Lisa and her partner in Toronto, the answer had been forming for a long time. A dedicated reading room — a proper one, with a fireplace and the right chairs and light exactly as it should be. And a home office that could also serve as a beautiful guest room when the family came back. Two rooms. Two clear visions. And the right person to bring them to life.
This was not their first project with Gaddah. That matters — because when a client returns, it means the first experience was not just good but genuinely transformative. It means they trust you with the next chapter.
Location
Toronto
Project Type
Full decorating transformation
Scope
Two former bedrooms
Key Feature
Reading room with fireplace
Style
Warm collected elegance
Life Stage
Empty nesters, reclaiming space
Rooms
Reading room & home office
Client
Returning clients
The brass and glass bookshelves flanking the fireplace were the finishing element that elevated the room from well-designed to genuinely special. Brass and glass is a combination that rewards good lighting — in the evening, with the fire going and the lamps on, the shelves seem to glow. The books and collected objects that fill them are displayed, not stored. There is a difference, and it shows.
Grown Up is a project about life stage — about a home that had been serving one chapter of life for a long time, and was finally ready to serve the next one. It demonstrates something important about the Yassein Interiors approach: we design for where you are going, not just where you have been.
It is also a project about vision. Lisa knew what she wanted, but the distance between knowing what you want and having it in front of you is often vast. Gaddah's role was to close that distance — to take the reading room that had been imagined for years and make it real, better than imagined, the room that makes you close the door behind you with quiet satisfaction every time you enter it.
That is the work. And it is why clients come back.
The reading room came first, and it was the one Lisa had been imagining longest. The brief was specific: a fireplace as the centrepiece, proper seating for reading — the kind you can genuinely settle into for hours — and the built-in storage and display that a room like this needs to feel complete.
Gaddah designed the room around a pair of custom swivel recliners, positioned to allow two people to face the fire or turn toward each other without leaving their chairs. This seems like a small decision. It is not. The ability to move, to orient yourself differently depending on whether you're reading alone or talking with someone — that is what separates a room that is merely beautiful from a room that is genuinely liveable.
The second room — the home office and guest room — solved a problem that a lot of people in this life stage face: how to create a space that works fully as both, without looking like either one has been compromised. The solution began with a sit/stand desk positioned in front of the window, positioned deliberately to capture the view of the garden outside. A full-size sleeper sofa meant guests would sleep well without the room announcing itself as a guest room when no one was visiting.
Custom drapery framed the garden view rather than obscuring it — floor-to-ceiling panels that made the window itself feel like a considered design element rather than an aperture. This is a detail that transforms a room, and it is one that is easy to get wrong. When it's right, the whole room feels intentional from the moment you enter it.
“We are thrilled with the final stage of our renovations. We recently became empty nesters but have had grand plans for the two remaining rooms for a while. It was our dream to have a dedicated reading room and a guest room. Gaddah once again came in and did her magic! She listened to our vision for these rooms and drafted a plan which included the design, furniture, and accessories. We did not venture far from her original design. Gaddah has the gift of envisioning and bringing it to fruition. Thank you Gaddah!”
— Lisa N.
kind words
What makes this project resonate so deeply with our clients is the life stage it represents. These homeowners had spent decades putting the family first. The house worked for everyone else. Now it was their turn. And the transformation didn’t require a renovation, a new floor plan, or months of upheaval. It required someone who understood that the best rooms are designed around how you actually want to live — not how you used to.
That is the heart of what we do at Yassein Interiors. We listen to the life you are living now, and we make the home match. For these clients, that meant two rooms that had been waiting for this chapter just as long as they had.
Is it finally your turn?
Every project starts with a conversation — relaxed, complimentary, and entirely about you and your home.