Sustain Design Architects’ clean, unfussy work on a Kawarthas lakeside house created both a woodsy getaway for its owners, a place to welcome friends up from the city and, until recently, an idyllic year-round work-from-home space.
According to SDA principal architect Cathy Garrido, the clients bought the property in the summer of 2020. One section had already been cleared, with plenty of open space for a cottage, parking and a wide waterfront area suitable for landscaping, plus beachfront at the waterside. It also backed onto an environmentally protected area and was surrounded by mature woods, which gave it privacy from neighbouring cottages. It was perfect for a secluded hideaway far from the stress of the city.
From the parking area, the home’s “wings” are clearly apparent, with main living areas on the left and design studio and garage on the right, connected by a two-storey breezeway at centre.
The clients’ original plan, says Garrido, was to build a summer cottage while retaining a Toronto pied à terre downtown. Their wish list included comfortable spots where friends could stay, a private space for themselves, a home office for the husband, who works in the finance sector, and a studio workspace for the wife, a graphic designer.
But as the house came together, she recalls — this was the pandemic summer of 2020, after all — they decided to pull up stakes and move there permanently. This inspired a design that would be relaxed and cottagey but with a certain urbanity.
The kitchen has a relaxed urbanity, unusual for a country property, with sophisticated details like quartzite counters and backsplash, and an Art-Deco-style range hood with radius edges.
Half-hidden around a leafy bend and set in a roomy clearing, the house is organized into two wings set at a right angle to each other, conjoined by a side-lit front door and two-storey breezeway.
“A breezeway is just a nicer alternative to a regular foyer,” notes Garrido, “and the windows give you the first glimpse of the surrounding woods and water.” The breezeway also provides the first hint that the house, despite being generally clean and spare, still has a few architectural tricks up its sleeve.
The main floor of the breezeway connects the garage and the wife’s studio workspace to the main living area. From one end to the other, about a third of the width of the ceiling is brightened by what appears to be a skylight, supported by exposed Douglas fir joists. It’s only later, when you explore the upper level, that you discover the breezeway “skylight” is actually a reinforced glass floor, CN Tower-style. It’s sturdy enough to walk on, assuming you have the nerve — Garrido laughs and says she doesn’t — and brings in additional light from the windows on the second floor, brightening both levels.
The screen porch is the most traditional feature of the home, with its wood stove and stained knotty-pine shiplap walls and ceiling.
Back on the main floor, much of the left wing is a large open-plan space combining the kitchen, dining and living area, brightened by two enormous banks of sliding glass doors topped by transoms, framing a spectacular view of the lake. It’s a big room, but it’s neither cavernous nor cold: rich, primarily natural materials and tones — taupe kitchen cabinetry, white oak plank floors and simple, Japandi-flavoured furnishings — make the view and the abundant sunlight the main focus.
The kitchen, which has its own smaller glass side door, is less rustic in style than a typical cottage kitchen, with its clean, lightly moulded cabinets and sleek gold hardware. The centrepiece is a range hood with radius edges that give it a subtle Art Deco-style silhouette; a big island with an inset sink and a generously proportioned quartzite top define the kitchen’s edges without closing it off.
The breezeway connecting the garage and studio with the main part of the house has a unique feature that looks and acts as a skylight on the main floor, but reveals itself to be a glass floor on the second level.
At the opposite end, through another pair of sliding glass doors, the screen porch is traditional and cozy; its knotty pine shiplap walls and ceiling are as comforting as Hudson’s Bay blankets. Transparent vinyl windows on three sides open from both above and below. A classic wood stove is set on a raised concrete pedestal that doubles as log storage, and an old-fashioned picnic table and benches provide a place to gather on lazy summer nights watching the sun go down, or while tucking into a big lunch after spending the morning on the water.
The primary suite, accessed through a door next to the kitchen, has the same serene, uncluttered feeling as the rest of the home. Another big window has its own view overlooking a quiet scene of rocks, trees and the sparkling lake beyond. By comparison, the adjacent ensuite’s escarpment limestone-lined vanity and matching floor tiles seem almost flamboyant. But that’s only by comparison: the shower at one end, tiled in large swaths of this strongly banded stone, looks like it’s been carved out of the landscape.
Natural escarpment limestone tile, with its rich striping, gives a cozy, almost grotto-like feel to the ensuite.
In both wings, the upper storey has been given over to function. In the larger wing, an open staircase lined with a slatted rail, providing safety without closing off the view, leads to comfortable guest rooms and the husband’s workspace, which has its own private deck. The other wing, reached across the breezeway and that striking glass floor, leads to the art studio. It too has a private deck and a romantic view of the woods beyond.
“The house has a great flow of space,” observes Garrido. “Even though it’s quite large, it doesn’t feel gigantic; it’s very well organized, between public and private spaces, work and relaxation. And the tones are very calming and serene; even the kitchen isn’t too formal or fancy.”
There’s a bittersweet coda to the story, Garrido says. Only a few years after their dream home was completed, the husband made a job change that made its location impractical, and the reluctant decision was made to put the house on the market.
Looking back, he says, “What we loved most about our home was the amount of natural light that poured in from every direction,” giving them, for a while at least, a getaway that “seamlessly blended into the surrounding forest.”
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