Kleinburg Cathedral

Clients:

THE KLEINBURG
CATHEDRAL

CONTEMPORARY

The Kleinburg Cathedral, located in a prestigious wooded area of downtown Kleinburg, presented lead designer Jesse Sahlani an opportunity to create a unique footprint that would take a lead role in shaping the design of this home. Drawing on the classic California farmhouse as influence, this contemporary and grand rendition reflects Jesse’s unmistakable proportional signature. The home’s width spans over 71 feet, it’s height almost 36 feet, and it includes 10,000 square feet of highly finished interior space that offers a host of unique amenities. The footprint allowed Jesse to design two architecturally significant facades featuring three garages, an exterior courtyard, and a full height great room with direct access to the outdoor amenities.

Jesse drew on timeless details inherent to a wealth of historic masonry design styles including traditional brick soffit steps, rustic wood window and door headers, a dramatically steep roofline clad with natural slate stone, and architectural banding details throughout. By top venting the roof, the soffits are removed from the roofline, creating a contemporary, clean edge where the roof meets the brick. The white painted finish on the brick achieves the understated texture while providing a more seamless visual than that of a typical fragmented mortar and brick exterior with inconsistencies in colour. Standing in contrast to the more traditional elements of the home is the overtly contemporary massing on the right side, which is clad in wood panels and large windows, features Jesse sought to tempering the visual impact of through the incorporation of custom architectural banding and cornice molding.

As always, Jesse starts each home he designs with a sketch and a sun study. These are integral steps in the process for the sole reason of being able to master-plan each development we commit to at a high level.

We believe that by increasing the amount of natural light that enters the home, you automatically increase the quality of the space. In this case, Jesse positioned the windows of the home within the floor plan to maximize the amount of natural light based on the average highest time of use for each room.

Jesse’s ability to sketch both the exterior of the homes he commits to designing and the interior perspective views of his interior design plans has proven to be a discerning difference in his ability to create timeless home designs. While much more goes into these projects than sketches, including a long and iterative process where every detail is questioned several times over, we believe sketching is the only road to timeless design.

The home features an exterior courtyard that Jesse places between the office and the cathedral-style great room. This space features planting plans and outdoor lounge furniture, offering a luxurious outdoor space that can be easily accessed. This feature also serves to create an indoor/outdoor connection, even if it is only visually beneficial. Unique footprints that create amenities like this are a specialty of Jesse’s, as he seeks to develop a sense of intentional design no matter where you stand throughout the grounds.

The classic farmhouse design style inspired the interior of this home, though Jesse designed to a far more contemporary standard. He created a wood ceiling feature in both the kitchen and the cathedral-style great room. The wood beams throughout the ceilings feature integrated LED lighting, creating a unique ambience within the space when you pair the white oak panels and the warm glow of the indirect lighting.

An eclectic mix of traditional styling with a contemporary flare underscores the environment in almost every room of the home. By prioritizing common areas spatially to be within view of the heavily wooded conservation area the home backs onto, our firm was able to create an indoor/outdoor connection without opening a single window or door.

Large format windows that employ the use of a traditional yet specifically proportioned mullion design serve as the perfect backdrop for the dramatic and cozy interior design plan. Some of our favorite features include a mixture of light wood, wide plank herringbone flooring, flat panel rustic pine plank-clad cabinetry, a wealth of ceiling details that include ambient lighting, and a two-story cathedral-style great room characterized by its proportions.

This ceiling feature creates a luxurious setting while solving the common problem with two-storey spaces; they often feel cold or empty as a result of their proportions. To combat this, Jesse ensured this feature is unmissable, playing an integral role in the creation of the desired environment. The volume of wood within the space also creates the effect that the ceiling is within reach to an extent, serving to ground the height of the space

The lounge was designed with a masculine and dark palette at the forefront of it. Jesse designed this space to juxtapose the warm wood and light walls throughout the home through the creation of a room that offers a dramatic palette change.

This space was designed through the eyes of a visitor entering the front door. When you look straight ahead, you see wonderful warm wood and ambient lighting, and when you look to your right, you see a contrastingly dark yet luxuriously inviting space.

CONTEMPORARY

In the great room, Jesse’s interior design work complements the proportions of the space timelessly. The ceiling height at the top of the cathedral-style vaulted peak is 24 feet in height, while every other proportion in the room is designed to be low and wide, aiding the warm wood ceiling feature in grounding the space in a way that no other combination of proportions could. On one side, the bench is home to decor and can offer additional casual seating in an entertaining setting. On the other, the bench serves as a dining room banquette that is home to two wine fridges, glasses, serving space, and supply storage.

Theres a little bit of sculpture in everything we do, and the staircase of the Kleinburg Cathedral is a great example of this. White oak railings were used to create the massing, drawing on the use of the same wood species as the main floor kitchen and full-height great room cathedral ceilings. The unique railing banding features rustic metal with an antique bronze patina and integrated LED accent lighting. On the staircase wall, we have incorporated a unique wall cladding that adds to the sculptural ethos of the feature. This design is a true representation of Jesse’s love for the incorporation of steel features into the home in a highly refined and suave way, while revealing the true role of a staircase within the home as a sculpture or an art installation. When you look at almost any design feature through this lens the depth of your design almost automatically benefits from it and this design is no exception.

The bedroom design was centred around the creation of a serene and relaxing environment. The space almost solely relies on ambient lighting, a feature that inherently increases sleep quality. Jesse once again included a white oak ceiling cladding, this time in a bit of a different “cove” format, along with a floating fireplace feature within the space, serving to visually separate it from the entrance to the rooftop patio as well as the principle ensuite bathroom.