Shingle style muskoka compound

Clients:

SHINGLE STYLE
MUSKOKA
COMPOUND

CONTEMPORARY

The Shingle Style Family Compound was designed by Jesse to capture the traditional charm of the New England Shingle Style, while reflecting his love for the proportions of the Art & Crafts style homes that grace the English Countryside. The exterior material palette features a traditional and organic blend of rustic limestone rubble accents, as well as cedar shakes that clad the roof and walls. The simplicity of this material palette speaks to Jesse’s intentions of highlighting the unique proportions that make this grand home feel so natural in its setting. The width of the home, prominence of the front and rear gable proportions, solidity of the buttress style vestibule columns, and sprawlingness of the garage wing are all independently unique proportional profiles that feel out of the ordinary in the best way possible upon approach.

As always, Jesse starts his design process with sketching, developing his design vision organically until the design communicates the feeling he originally had when he first thought of it. From this point, Jesse and his team bring the home to life in 3D rendered form to provide an accurate depiction of the final design intent, materials, and environment. The sketch featured on the left was one of his first for the project, capturing the high-level form, auxiliary structure layout, and amenity master planning that he envisioned after his initial site visit and boat tour of the surrounding shoreline. What he realized from this perspective was that the property was highly unique in composition, and featured steep grading as you got closer to the lake, exposed portions of the Canadian shield to contend with, a private island that required a walking bridge to utilize, and over 300 linear feet of shoreline. However, the grading posed the most significant challenge both aesthetically and functionally, as he did not want the home to feel like it was three storeys in height. To that end, the proportions he sketched here very much came to fruition in the form of a low and wide feeling home that wears it’s 12,000 square foot size very well.

Working with lots that have unique topographic or natural features is always a favorite of Jesse’s, especially when the lot is large enough to incorporate unique proportions and footprints. In this case, he designed a long, winding driveway that curved towards the garage courtyard that is tucked off to the right side of the home. His intention was to create a luxurious and spacious experience upon entering the grounds.

He also designed a single-storey covered breezeway structure that leads to the garage courtyard, featuring stone archway accents. This feature is one of our favourite exterior design details because of the traditional charm it adds to the character of the facade.

The front door Tourette-style vestibule offers a touch of coastal charm, resembling a traditional rendition of a lighthouse. With that in mind, it’s no coincidence that Jesse designed this vestibule to harness natural light into the second-floor bedroom hallway during the morning hours. The limestone rubble vestibule columns were also designed to capture this soulful coastal yet traditional character, offering a sense of visual solidity to the home through the use of tapered buttress-style proportions. Unique masonry accents like this are what its all about for us, as they offer a timeless sense of design intention to any viewer.

The garage courtyard creates an impressive setting for guests to pull up to, offering a sense of sprawling luxury that is experiential in nature upon first approach. This feeling is supported by the idea that once you are in the courtyard, you are surrounded by a range of unique proportions, design details, and traditional materials. The garage wing of this home serves another purpose, however, as it was designed to offer a nod to the horse stables that were synonymous with historic renditions of this design style. This single-storey wing of the home also offers a uniquely eclectic mix of proportions in the grand scheme of the compound.

The exterior landscape design and amenity layouts were also master-planned through the initial site planning process. This compound was designed for a large family who wants both a sense of independence and connectivity to one another. To that end, Jesse designed the main home to feature 6 bedrooms that each have an ensuite bathroom and walk-in closet. He also designed a guest house on a separate island that features a walking bridge, as well as a guest suite above the boat house. Each of these guest amenities give each family the space required to thoroughly enjoy their vacation. Each of these structures also offers a unique experience both stylistically as well as visually because of their respective views.

The main home features an exterior pool terrace, including an outdoor kitchen and fire pit lounge that serve as the central entertaining area. Each of the auxiliary structures have access to these outdoor amenities.

Every amenity throughout the grounds was placed based on its natural light exposure needs and positioning between the three homes to optimize flow. It was also designed to feel both tangibly connected and “close” despite the lots sprawling nature, unique topography, and range of natural features. Jesse achieved this effect by designing both the interior floor plans, exterior amenity layouts, and landscape design, including both soft and hardscape designs. His inclusion of specific shrubbery and ambient garden lighting, winding pathways and bridges, and local materials all blend beautifully with the surroundings. The proportions were designed to support this effect as well, almost feeling nestled into the woods as if it had been there before the surrounding foliage. What we are describing outside of the factual information above is the feeling we would want a guest to have. It’s a feeling that we have chased through the design process until we feel it again upon visual review.

The boat house was designed to serve as a stylistic extension of the main home at the lakefront, characterizing the compound upon approach by boat. It also serves the functional role of making access to the lake and the boats/watersports far more dignified than the grading of the lot would have otherwise allowed. Everything from window placement to floor plan layouts were impacted by Jesse’s hunt for the ideal placement of this amenity for both approval purposes, ease of access, and to offer the residing family unbelievable lake views. As a result, the guest suite of this structure has some of the best views while offering a tanning area, storage, and access to a floating swim-up dock.

A similar sentiment of prioritizing specific views was achieved when looking at the lakefront gym and pool house, which is yet another amenity that extends the stylistic intention to every corner of this lot. More importantly, it offers an amenity that is incredibly important to this active family’s lifestyle. Jesse took the opportunity to design a characteristically personified version of the main home’s style, featuring a unique roofline, oversized corner columns, and a faux chimney to create an impactful sense of traditional charm within a direct view of the kitchen and living room. The result is that no matter what window you look out of, you will see an architecturally significant wing or auxiliary structure, ambiently lit gardens, an outdoor amenity, or views of the lake.

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