The post Ali Budd Shakes Up Cottagecore With A City-Slick Look In This Lakehouse appeared first on House & Home.

Joanna Smeeth, principal designer at INDA Interiors helped her clients bring warmth into their dark, contemporary cottage in the Kawarthas. See how she brought in earthy elements with a branch chandelier, layered rugs, comfortable seating and plenty of wood, including a new butcher block counter. “Now you can lean back, put your feet up, grab a cup of coffee, light a fire and you’re here.” Watch the full tour!

The post A Modern Four Season Cottage Turns Into A Cozy Retreat appeared first on House & Home.

Hidden rooms behind secret doors — it’s the stuff of fairy tales. In the case of this guesthouse on Muskoka’s Lake of Bays, the magic is in the kitchen. Pantry cabinet doors open to reveal not canned goods and dried pasta, but a tidy foyer leading to two cozy bedrooms, each with king-size beds. “It’s a miracle cabin, like fishes and loaves,” says owner Don Tapscott. Don is a consultant, speaker and renowned author of many books including the bestselling Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything and Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies Is Changing the World, and his wife, Ana P. Lopes, is a corporate director at The Tapscott Group as well as a director for many not-for-profit organizations. Though a modest 1,040 square feet, the cabin feels three times as big, with not a single inch wasted. “It’s a perfect little puzzle with no dead space,” says Ana. “There’s nothing superfluous.”

The Toronto couple has successfully renovated several properties over 40 years of marriage including their cottage, dubbed “The Lodge,” featured in House & Home’s May 2011 issue, and their condo, in the March 2017 issue. The next project was to rebuild their original cottage bunkie and create a four-season guesthouse with the help of builder Mike McCabe of Foxpoint Construction. Ana asked Clarisa Llaneza of Clarisa Llaneza Studio in Toronto to spearhead the interior design and improve the layout while keeping the footprint in order to adhere to the area’s bylaw restrictions.

The guesthouse includes a foyer, living and dining area, kitchen, two bedrooms, a laundry closet with stacked washer and dryer, a full bathroom and a powder room. To complement the Adirondack lodge–style main cottage, they decided on a moody “Belgium meets Muskoka” vibe. Clarisa echoed the main cottage’s brown exterior and went soulful and spare in the new space, layering in earthy hues and black shades to blend in with the craggy Canadian terrain.

In the new layout, the bedrooms are tucked behind the kitchen. “Guests might think the double door leading to the bedroom corridor could easily be a fridge or a pantry, giving the impression of a larger kitchen,” says Clarisa. The door also limits sound transfer; guests can chat into the night and not disturb anyone’s sleep. Don jokes he’s getting used to hearing a familiar refrain: “People settle in and say, ‘Do we have to come out? Maybe we’ll just see you in a while.’ ”

Keep scrolling for a look inside!

The post Don Tapscott And Ana P. Lopes’ Guesthouse Is A Tranquil Hideaway appeared first on House & Home.

“We blame the dog!” laughs Colleen Peters of her family’s love affair with Lake Whatcom, near Bellingham, Wash., just south of the Canadian border. Back in 2007, when Colleen and her husband, Matthew Peters, a partner at the law firm McCarthy Tétrault, were road-tripping with their four young children, they stopped at a campsite in the area on their way back to Surrey, B.C. Unfortunately, their cockapoo, Kopper, wasn’t allowed, so they couldn’t stay. The rugged beauty of the place stuck with them, though, so they returned to camp two weeks later and their love of Lake Whatcom was cemented. “We didn’t want to vacation without Kopper again,” says Colleen. “If only the campground had permitted dogs — but it didn’t, so we joke that Kopper was the reason we built our first cottage.”

Their Craftsman cottage was within walking distance of the water and the family enjoyed it for nearly 10 years. But when a nearby lakefront lot became available in 2017, the couple jumped at it. “We always dreamed of being right on the lake,” says Colleen. They sold the cottage and enlisted friend and architect Jim Aalders in Victoria to design a more substantial vacation house. Close friend Lisa Moody of Grapevine Designs signed on to handle the interiors.

“We were excited for the building process and the chance to explore a more modern design style,” says Colleen. After working through the permits and just as they were ready to break ground, the pandemic hit and the border closed. Already experienced with new construction, Colleen and Matthew were comfortable forging ahead remotely. They hired builder Nick Ivancovich of NJI Design & Construction whose work they’d always admired. He agreed to build the three-level, four-bedroom, four-bathroom house.

The post A Lakefront House Celebrates Serene West Coast Style appeared first on House & Home.

During the dog days of summer in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, it’s all about hiking, cycling, boating, lakeside lounging and easy-breezy entertaining. Mizia Emond-Lavoie and her partner love to get away to their Magog, Que., home on Lac Memphramagog, just 120 kilometres southeast of Montreal. The couple are known for hosting fun-filled parties that no one ever seems to want to leave. But at times, there wasn’t enough space to accommodate everyone visiting. An additional guest house would be ideal, they decided. For a while, they had wanted to convert an old garage on the property and the time was finally right. It would make the perfect guest cottage. Lockdown life in 2020 gave them the final push they needed. “Things were so uncertain during that time. And if our family wanted to get out of the city, they would have their own private place to stay and still be close to us.”

The post Sophisticated Style Meets Rustic Charm At This Cottage In Magog, Que. appeared first on House & Home.

Most summer afternoons, you’ll find David Morris in the Muskoka room of his cottage on the Joseph River, sunk into the L-shaped sectional while the water laps against the dock. In many ways, the three-season room is a classic cottage-country space — wood beams, neutral palette, the aroma of pine needles — except this one boasts plush furniture and a retractable screen that locks out mosquitoes with the push of a button. The added efficiency, luxury and warmth are what make David happier here than practically anywhere else.

David is the chairman of his own property development group in Ontario. Until a couple of years ago, he owned a smaller spot on Lake Muskoka. When he began searching for a homier place with privacy and acreage, a friend and business associate with a place on the Joseph River mentioned an unsold turnkey cottage next door by J.S. Custom Builders. David decided to take the plunge. “It had a very classic, northern vibe,” he says. “I like to host my family and friends, so I was attracted to all the space. And seeing the impressive workmanship of my friend’s cottage by the same builder, I was comfortable taking the risk on a spec build.”

J.S. Custom Builders had already hired designer Jaime Drohan of Muskoka Living Interiors to take on the decorating, and David was happy to continue with the plan. Jaime, who grew up in the area and still lives nearby, is inspired by Muskoka’s classic cottages, but likes to bring them up to date. “I focus on neutral, earthy fabrics with lots of texture to bring the outside in, so you’re figuratively living in the woods,” she says of her decorating approach.

The post A Riverside Retreat In Muskoka, Ont., Offers Tranquil, Wooded Views appeared first on House & Home.

“As you approach the house, you have low slung architecture with a wonderful roofline. A massive glazing looks through to the lake,” says designer Neil Jonsohn of U31 Design. The kitchen is the entertaining hub with a baking station, double island and built-in breakfast bar. See the open-concept living space that features suspended wood-veneered light fixtures, a wood burning fireplace with a black granite surround and a 3-panel sliding door system that creates a seamless indoor-outdoor connection.

The post Tour A Lakefront Home With Contemporary Architecture appeared first on House & Home.

Trained to spot a gem, realtor Ruthie Shugarman saw potential when this 1970s-era waterfront Bowen Island cabin came to market in 2019. She and her lawyer husband, Danny, had long been searching for the perfect cabin in the Pacific Northwest to enjoy with their two teen children, Talia and Cooper, and this one hit all the right notes. Its clean-lined, three-story frame sat perched on Grafton Bay and captured perfect sunsets, while its almost 3,100-square-foot interiors, lined in cedar paneling with a 1970s galley kitchen in citrus hues, presented opportunities to riff on a design era Ruthie loved. It all went swimmingly—until the tide turned.

“At first, I embraced the little yellow kitchen,” says Ruthie. “It felt like a perennial pop of sunshine during the pandemic’s first cold, rainy winter.” But by the spring of 2020, the family found themselves spending more time here and Ruthie struggled to make the small space work. She tried adding updates like pastel-colored Smeg appliances—a pink toaster, an aqua blender, but it always felt wrong. “It started to feel like a lemonade stand,” she laughs.

The following spring, the couple made the decision: it was time for the cramped lemon kitchen to undergo a facelift.  She turned to friend and trained architect-turned-designer Jocelyn Ross of JRStudioworks. Jocelyn envisioned a space that felt both maritime-like without being kitschy, but also something that didn’t feel precious. Instead of eschewing the 1970s cedar, the designer leaned into it. Cabinets would be navy contrasted with white backsplash tile all framed in cedar.

We chatted with the architectural designer to find out how this kitchen went from bright to bold in a few key steps.

The post Before & After: A 1970s Bowen Island Cabin Gets A Modern Refresh appeared first on House & Home.

The post Whimsy And Wallpaper Transform This Florida Golf Cottage Into A Tropical Getaway appeared first on House & Home.

Patrick Warren and Kevin Kaufman searched high and low for a place to build a cottage that would reflect their free-spirited ethos. From the Gulf Islands to commuter community Bowen Island, nothing felt exactly right…until they found Halfmoon Bay on the Sunshine Coast. Their half-hectare lot overlooked the Georgia Strait, a historical lighthouse on a nearby island and a seal colony. Plus, it was an easy ferry ride to Vancouver.

They launched headfirst into the planning process — by setting up their tent. “We wanted to capture the sense of exploration you get by camping on the site,” says Patrick, who’s a senior associate at Frits de Vries Architects + Associates. As well as connecting them more closely to the land, camping also helped them orient the house (its footprint was designed to preserve almost all of the trees on the site), and influenced the interiors, too. Both sun and trees would impact where the cottage was sited; they soon figured out the best place for the principal suite in order to enjoy spectacular morning vistas. “We located the bedroom on our favorite part of the site,” says Kevin, who owns a custom aquarium company. “Now it feels like we’re waking up in paradise.”

Scroll down to see more of this stunning B.C. cottage!

The post A Contemporary Cottage On B.C.’s Halfmoon Bay Is An Homage To Japanese Retreats appeared first on House & Home.