A playhouse for little ones (and grownups!)

Indee Design, a studio founded by Florence Charron, is proud to present ATELIER CHABOT, a playhouse for kids (and adults!) The challenge for this project was considerate, transforming a duplex into a single-family home in Plateau-Mont-Royal, a residential district of Montreal. On a mission looking to change the lives of their family, the owners were trying to decide whether to take a trip around the world by sea or to purchase a home. This project combines both of those dreams, which seemed to oppose one another. For these great travelers, the notion of travel became the common thread of this project, which inspired the idea of creating a space where the inner child can awaken within.

Atelier Chabot
Photo credit: Caroline Thibault

An original and fun transformation

The duplex, having retained the previous layout, was a space that was quite partitioned and confined. The designer proposed a modification by creating a new vertical circulation space between the two floors. Additionally, she also suggested relocating the focal point of the home to be the living room space. To achieve this, she brought the staircase to the forefront, opting for transparent perforated steel panels to create the stairs, the landing, the catamaran net, and the slide landing on the kitchen counter. The intervention was intended to be radical, using wood tones and navy blue steel with an intensity that varies throughout the day.

Atelier Chabot
Photo credit: Caroline Thibault

Atelier Chabot
Photo credit: Caroline Thibault

Atelier Chabot
Photo credit: Caroline Thibault

A playhouse for kids and adults

The duplex was transformed into a house where space is experienced differently than in a standard house. Communication between each room varies due to the original, playful, and unexpected elements placed strategically throughout the house, addressing the adults as much as the children. A rock-climbing wall decorates the children’s bedroom, and a slide connects the catamaran net to the kitchen as an alternative to the stairs. Indee Design selected noble local materials such as maple wood, and the curtains add a theatrical touch, while emphasizing the playful spirit of the space.

Atelier Chabot
Photo credit: Caroline Thibault

Atelier Chabot
Photo credit: Caroline Thibault

Atelier Chabot
Photo credit: Caroline Thibault

A play of light and materials

Initially, the house was missing light. By transforming the circulation, the space now circulates light at all hours of the day, thus Indee Design introduced a solution that benefits from natural lighting from sunrise to sunset. In the morning, the sun shines in from the courtyard at the front of the house. At midday, the light enters the house through the skylights. A light opening on the ceiling, from which light falls to the ground at a ninety-degree angle, creates transparency between the top and ground floor to enable light to shine through. 

Atelier Chabot
Photo credit: Caroline Thibault

Atelier Chabot
Photo credit: Caroline Thibault

With the bathroom, a more traditional yet joyful direction was taken through the selection of ceramics that revisit period cement tiles. The agency chose joyous paint palettes to reinforce recycled objects, such as a clawfoot bathtub. Finally, a large and colorful mural at the entrance gives the space a unique character.

Atelier Chabot
Photo credit: Caroline Thibault

The catamaran net conjures up images of a sailboat suspended above the living room, from which you can sit and contemplate the starry sky. It evokes feelings of both weightlessness and escape.

Atelier Chabot
Photo credit: Caroline Thibault

Atelier Chabot
Photo credit: Caroline Thibault

The rock-climbing wall, visible from the ground floor, adds a playful touch, and Florence had maple panels geometrically drilled in for the walls to accommodate its colored attachments. The children can live in the space at different heights and geometries and can play as formerly prohibited, as they can now jump as high as the ceiling.

About Indee Design

Founded in 2018 by Florence Charron, Indee Design projects have received numerous industry acknowledgements and awards, certificates, and recognitions. The agency won two Grand Prix de Design 2022 awards, including the Platinum Prize for Children's Areas and the Grand Winner Prize for the Atelier Chabot project in the residential interior design category. The uniqueness of Indee Design resides in its capacity to mix different styles and palettes. The agency strongly values respect for the needs of its clients, their lifestyles and, most importantly, their well-being.