A Little French Flair
STORY MARG BRUINEMAN | PHOTOGRAPHY SANDY MACKAY
This Innisfil home on Lake Simcoe underwent major remodelling, including repainting the exterior in Benjamin Moore Hudson Bay 1680.
A long, shared driveway off Big Bay Point Road leads to a home nicely nestled on the Kempenfelt Bay shoreline just as it opens to Lake Simcoe in Innisfil.
While the original design offered all the comforts, in addition to a stunning waterfront view even on foggy days, what it missed was the warm, homey feel, explains designer Germaine (Gill) Vella of Elevated Designs in Innisfil.
“It was a very contemporary feeling home; stunning with great bones but the client just wanted to put their own stamp on it,” says Germaine. “So we ended up opening the kitchen space to make it much larger and we added a small addition so that the laundry room could be removed from the mudroom entrance into its own space. In the kitchen, they wanted to create a modern, contemporary farmhouse but with a little French flair, which is where the range hood inspiration came from.”
The home’s kitchen colours are carried throughout the décor. An outstanding white marble backsplash with black-and-grey streaks turns the gas stove area, under the range hood, into a work of art. The pot-filler and spice niche complete the chef’s kitchen.
The end result is a spacious, yet simple main-floor renovation where the rooms seamlessly connect through a large open space that offers calming views of the water from just about every angle. The cook’s kitchen contains spice and oil niches with a pot-filler tap above the stove for easy seafood boils and pasta nights for family and friends. Inset-style, one-inch shaker-style cabinets from Kas Kitchens line the lower level along the perimeter and island. While there are no upper cabinets, a pair of cabinet towers with accent lighting book-end the kitchen’s main feature, a marble backsplash in the nook behind the range.
The island, towers and shelving are white oak, playing off the white oak floors and staircase. But when it comes to natural wood, Germaine tells her clients not to expect perfect matches, no two trees are the same. “When you’re picking your flooring, your cabinetry and your staircases, you’ll always, always, always have a variation,” she says. “But that’s what’s so unique and lovely about wood, is that it is so different, it’s got character to it.” Germaine transitioned into interior designing while wrapping up an 18-year career as a 911 dispatcher and special constable while also managing to fit in design studies at Georgian College.
The sunken family room redesign maintains the existing coffered ceiling but with bright Benjamin Moore Cloud White walls and floor-to-ceiling windows with a view of Lake Simcoe.
The homeowners loved the existing coffered ceiling over the sunken living room and staircase, but felt it was all very grey, especially when combined with the formerly grey kitchen and flooring, and wanted to warm it up. One of the challenges, adds Germaine, was removing the grey stain from the steps leading to the second floor to expose the natural light tone of the white oak through a stain to match the floors.
Large sofas now adorn the living room, which also has two swivel club chairs that can face either the lake or the television.
Germaine thought the wood-burning fireplace was lost in its beige stone and surrounding white wall. She replaced the stone with a somewhat darker blue, charcoal and medium-grey stone combination that now stretches floor-to-ceiling, becoming a focal point and setting the tone for the rest of the home, including the kitchen with its darker cabinetry.
“As soon as you walk in you see the gorgeous lake views and then you start looking around and you fall in love with the wood-burning fireplace, the smell and the cosy feel of it,” Germaine says. “Having that contrasting stone speaks to that modern farmhouse but brings cosiness.”
Slate tile in a herringbone pattern lines the floor in the mudroom addition painted Benjamin Moore Night Train.
Meanwhile the herringbone pattern of the white oak floors carries over to the slate floors in the mudroom and the new, attached doorless laundry room at the home’s side entrance. The roughly 10-by-10-foot addition built by Corner Contracting allows space for a second pantry fridge, stacked laundry units and storage and pantry space. That left enough room in the mudroom for large cabinetry (Kas Kitchens) with space for shoes underneath and a closet for storage.
Exterior was painted in Benjamin Moore Hudson Bay 1680.
The exterior of the house, garage and the boathouse went from a beige to a Hudson Bay 1680 blue, and an awning was added above the side door leading to the mudroom as an architectural accent with features similar to the formal front door. Exterior landscaping included creating a pathway to the side entrance.
The spectacular large sunken family room has art on every wall, a wood-burning fireplace and views of Lake Simcoe. The Balboa swivel chairs are from Pottery Barn.
While all the work to the main floor is complete, the homeowners already have plans to revamp the second floor and make some improvements to the lower-level living areas. OH