John and Juli Baker have been slowly updating their idyllic cottage on the shores of Lake Huron for a while now, and we’ve been living vicariously through them. (We last checked in on the progress in 2011, and peeked inside the airy guest cottage in 2012). So when we spotted on Instagram that the couple (who own Mjölk, one of our favorite design shops in Toronto) had made major updates to their country retreat, including a new kitchen, we had to get the details. Here?s a look inside.
Photography courtesy of Juli Baker.

Above: The quintessential cottage, originally owned by Juli’s parents, is on the shores of Ontario’s serene Georgian Bay?but was “cramped and musty” before John and Juli began stripping it back to its essential elements several years ago.
Above:  The couple wanted an open kitchen in the ?unused? side of the house, but during the first phase of their renovation they settled for a more temporary space with Ikea cabinets and a plywood wall near the entryway. Then opportunity struck unexpectedly. ?The catalyst was that our under-counter fridge broke and no one would repair it,” Juli says. “We weren?t going to invest in a new one (we had bought that one at a deeply discounted price), so we needed a full-size fridge, and therefore the only way we could fit it would be to move the kitchen.” John sketched the basics of the design, and Toronto architecture firm Studio Junction, who also designed the coupl...