Power Room with single mason vanity

This beautiful, modern farm style custom home was elevated into a sophisticated design with layers of warm whites, panelled walls, t&g ceilings and natural granite stone. It's built on top of an escarpment designed with large windows that has a spectacular view from every angle. There are so many custom details that make this home so special. From the custom front entry mahogany door, white oak sliding doors, antiqued pocket doors, herringbone slate floors, a dog shower, to the specially designed room to store their firewood for their 20-foot high custom stone fireplace. Other added bonus features include the four-season room with a cathedral wood panelled ceiling, large windows on every side to take in the breaking views, and a 1600 sqft fully finished detached heated garage.

風景の舎｜Studio tanpopo-gumi 撮影｜野口 兼史

サニタリースペースはベッドルームと一体になっています。ガラスパーティションで境界がなんとなくあるだけで、２つを１つにすることでお互いを広くしているのは玄関側と同じ考え方です。バスルームにもベッドルームに面して窓をつけて光を入れ、透明感をつくっています。

Laminate bench. Drawer: Satin lacquer Dulux Grand Piano. The long handle on the drawer doubles as a hand towel rail. Tiles, light fitting and other by owner.

Perched high above the Islington Golf course, on a quiet cul-de-sac, this contemporary residential home is all about bringing the outdoor surroundings in. In keeping with the French style, a metal and slate mansard roofline dominates the façade, while inside, an open concept main floor split across three elevations, is punctuated by reclaimed rough hewn fir beams and a herringbone dark walnut floor. The elegant kitchen includes Calacatta marble countertops, Wolf range, SubZero glass paned refrigerator, open walnut shelving, blue/black cabinetry with hand forged bronze hardware and a larder with a SubZero freezer, wine fridge and even a dog bed. The emphasis on wood detailing continues with Pella fir windows framing a full view of the canopy of trees that hang over the golf course and back of the house. This project included a full reimagining of the backyard landscaping and features the use of Thermory decking and a refurbished in-ground pool surrounded by dark Eramosa limestone. Design elements include the use of three species of wood, warm metals, various marbles, bespoke lighting fixtures and Canadian art as a focal point within each space. The main walnut waterfall staircase features a custom hand forged metal railing with tuning fork spindles. The end result is a nod to the elegance of French Country, mixed with the modern day requirements of a family of four and two dogs!

Robin Bailey

This home is in a rural area. The client was wanting a home reminiscent of those built by the auto barons of Detroit decades before. The home focuses on a nature area enhanced and expanded as part of this property development. The water feature, with its surrounding woodland and wetland areas, supports wild life species and was a significant part of the focus for our design. We orientated all primary living areas to allow for sight lines to the water feature. This included developing an underground pool room where its only windows looked over the water while the room itself was depressed below grade, ensuring that it would not block the views from other areas of the home. The underground room for the pool was constructed of cast-in-place architectural grade concrete arches intended to become the decorative finish inside the room. An elevated exterior patio sits as an entertaining area above this room while the rear yard lawn conceals the remainder of its imposing size. A skylight through the grass is the only hint at what lies below. Great care was taken to locate the home on a small open space on the property overlooking the natural area and anticipated water feature. We nestled the home into the clearing between existing trees and along the edge of a natural slope which enhanced the design potential and functional options needed for the home. The style of the home not only fits the requirements of an owner with a desire for a very traditional mid-western estate house, but also its location amongst other rural estate lots. The development is in an area dotted with large homes amongst small orchards, small farms, and rolling woodlands. Materials for this home are a mixture of clay brick and limestone for the exterior walls. Both materials are readily available and sourced from the local area. We used locally sourced northern oak wood for the interior trim. The black cherry trees that were removed were utilized as hardwood flooring for the home we designed next door. Mechanical systems were carefully designed to obtain a high level of efficiency. The pool room has a separate, and rather unique, heating system. The heat recovered as part of the dehumidification and cooling process is re-directed to maintain the water temperature in the pool. This process allows what would have been wasted heat energy to be re-captured and utilized. We carefully designed this system as a negative pressure room to control both humidity and ensure that odors from the pool would not be detectable in the house. The underground character of the pool room also allowed it to be highly insulated and sealed for high energy efficiency. The disadvantage was a sacrifice on natural day lighting around the entire room. A commercial skylight, with reflective coatings, was added through the lawn-covered roof. The skylight added a lot of natural daylight and was a natural chase to recover warm humid air and supply new cooled and dehumidified air back into the enclosed space below. Landscaping was restored with primarily native plant and tree materials, which required little long term maintenance. The dedicated nature area is thriving with more wildlife than originally on site when the property was undeveloped. It is rare to be on site and to not see numerous wild turkey, white tail deer, waterfowl and small animals native to the area. This home provides a good example of how the needs of a luxury estate style home can nestle comfortably into an existing environment and ensure that the natural setting is not only maintained but protected for future generations.

Who doesn’t love a fun powder room? We sure do! We wanted to incorporate design elements from the rest of the home using new materials and finishes to transform thiswashroom into the glamourous space that it is. This powder room features a furniturestyle vanity with NaturalCalacatta Corchia Marble countertops, hammered copper sink andstained oak millwork set against a bold and beautiful tile backdrop. But the fun doesn’t stop there, on the floors we used a dark and moody marble like tile to really add that wow factor and tie into the other elements within the space. The stark veining in these tiles pulls white, beige, gold, black and brown together to complete the look in this stunning little powder room.

Tommy Daspit Photographer