This New-Build Feels Like A Modern Farmhouse In The Country

This area in Burlington is filled with new build homes. This house though, this new build in particular, is very unique and very different from a lot of the new build homes that you see in the area. Modern farmhouse can have a very broad terminology to it. It can go more traditional, it can go more country, it can go more modern. So when they said they want modern farmhouse, I really dove deep with the clients to find out what that definition meant to them. And we kept calling it sort of a refined modern farmhouse. So there's a lot of contemporary details in this home, very clean lines, but you will find some very great transitional details and nods towards farmhouse without it being or introducing any of the rustic elements. In the front entry, we decided to do a focal wall by adding millwork design in a chevron pattern. And it was really important that that area defined and introduced what to expect throughout the home. We chose to paint the millwork in this beautiful, rich blue-gray, and you'll see that color carried throughout the house as well. We brought in some of the refined farmhouse through a lot of the accents and the styling that we did in the front entry. And then we did have a custom console made as well, and we chose to paint it in an off-white so that it would create contrast with the blue panel. And everything has a very simple, subtle detail to it that is a nod towards transitional. There is a separate dining room off the front entry of this house. It is really unique in the sense that we did a custom wine rack built in there. It's not a modular system that we put together. We designed this from scratch. You'll see that nice stained oak on those built-ins too. But it was also a separation or a dividing point from the dining room to the client's piano room. They wanted the piano room just to sort of be an interest in the background, but the foreground focus was really the dining room as well as the wine wall when you come in. The sight lines from the front of the house to the back of the house are spectacular. So when you come in, it was really important for the clients that that sight line was maintained. So we chose to do a glass wall for the staircase so that there wasn't a wall there or any fussy railings impeding the view. The space in their family room where the windows are on all three sides, initially the clients are a little bit hesitant to do anything there, but I had to work hard to convince them that it needed something. It was going to be a space that they were going to sit down in, have their morning coffee, really enjoy the view. And if we left it empty, it wouldn't do the view, the windows, or the space any justice at all. I just simply reassured them that whatever we selected for that area, it would stay low profile, it would complement the rest of the space, but ultimately it would lead your eye to the windows and the exterior view without it just sitting there empty. We decided to go with a really sleek contemporary modern fireplace and up above the clients chose to go with also a very clean line framed TV, which was really important. We didn't want the TV to end up too high. Thankfully we have a very large open concept space where we were able to shift the furniture back far enough so that you're not too close to the TV. They didn't want, you know, big built-ins or anything like that around the fireplace with the TV, so we chose to do built-in cabinets, a low profile console for storage of games, movies, devices. We clad that whole surface in a porcelain slab or two porcelain slabs. It's really difficult actually to figure out where that seam is and know that it's two slabs. The fabricator did a great job and then again to bring in some transitional details we chose to add millwork or casing and actually in this case some large baseboards to create the millwork frame around the porcelain and really draw your eye in. Even though it's, you know, tone on tone, white on white, those moldings and that millwork create depth and dimension to the space. Within the three spaces we chose to connect the built-in that's underneath the fireplace with the same color stain as the island as well as the ceiling beam in the kitchen. So again, just really simple connections and then we chose to introduce that same blue gray color in the breakfast chairs as well. Again, it's a large open concept space so I felt adding color to the chairs would really define the space and help unify it and then that same color is carried through the lower cabinets in the kitchen. We went with a beautiful apron front sink which is a nod towards the farmhouse as well. We kept our plumbing fixtures very transitional in detail and more specifically I was very particular about the type of cabinetry hardware that went on the door and drawer fronts so the beautiful cup poles that we put on the drawers again are also a nod towards modern farmhouse. We decided to do these cone shaped pendants over the island as well. Again, super simple but sleek and striking. They carry their own weight. You'll see that the windows in this house are a statement in and of itself so we didn't want to overpower the beautiful black windows with a backsplash so we chose to carry the marble subway tile all the way up to complement that. When you don't have upper cabinets defining the stop and start point it's really important to make sure you carry that backsplash right throughout. For our client's office space, again they're a family of five so we created that as a multifunctional space for the family so if our clients need to go in there and work it's a space they can do that. It's also a space if the family just wants some quiet time, they want to curl up with a good book and do some reading, it's very versatile. There's a lot of open cabinetry which they were fine with that but what we had to work on with them was the colour. We have a lot of white throughout the house so it would have been the easiest thing in the world to just paint the cabinets out white and I was able to convince them to go with this really deep rich grey colour that really you know you walk in and it's the cabinets that speak volumes in there. We do have a mudroom that the clients use every day so that's their main mudroom off the garage that they come in from the side entry. Now the key for that space for the clients was that they wanted it to be mainly used for their family and for their guests in the summertime when they do have access to the pool so the kids can come in. We added another powder room in that space as well as beautiful tile floor in there, durable, practical, they can throw all their swimsuits, pool towels, everything into that washer and dryer without having to lug it upstairs where there's an even bigger and better laundry room up there. In the hallway upstairs you'll see that the staircase design carries up to that level, glass railings, super sleek and simple. Because it's such a long hallway we chose to create contrast by painting the doors in a darker colour and for the door leading to the laundry room as well as the master suite we did custom sliding doors that are a nod towards the farmhouse but they are more contemporary in style. The second floor laundry room, every request that I get from a client for a laundry room is that they just want to enjoy doing laundry. I love cabinetry, I think it's so impactful. My background started out in cabinetry design so it was really important for me in the space to introduce this beautiful blue colour and just let the cabinetry dominate that space and we refined the modern farmhouse feel through a really nice pale off-white glass subway tile backsplash. It reads a little bit blue-green which is a nice compliment to the white countertops as well as the white walls. The placement of the laundry room was key, it's got a beautiful nice big window when you walk in you don't even know it's a laundry room at first and the view out the front is just super fantastic so nice long countertop space to be folding laundry and you're not staring at a wall you're enjoying the outdoors at the same time. The master bedroom, the ceiling in here was so important to capture. The easiest thing in the world would have been to just drywall the space, paint it out but I knew as soon as I saw it that we had to do something really interesting. We did just a simple shaker style panelling which reads a little bit like a board and batten and then the rest of the walls are all shiplap and we decided to actually carry the same material as the hardwood floor and apply it to the ceiling as well. It's such a large space, lots of natural light, we wanted to find a way to bring some warmth back in and really draw your eye up and I felt that applying the hardwood from the floor onto the ceiling would achieve both of those things. We do have a large master ensuite in this house as well so it's a long floating vanity. The bathroom is overall in an off-white and the contrast is found through the black accents, the oak cabinetry and those details add the warmth and interest. We did do a curbless shower in there too so it was important that the flooring choice carries throughout and keeps it nice and consistent. The view with the tub is fantastic so privacy is key, we do have a blind on that window as well. Lots of questions get asked all the time about how to keep large contemporary windows private in a bathroom space but it still allows this beautiful natural light to flood in. It's always really great when our clients come to us and they have some idea or some sense of their style so when they approached us and told us the modern farmhouse and we were able to work through what that specifically meant to them to make sure that we were a good fit first as client and designer and then they were very trusting to take that definition, be inspired by the architectural impacts that the home already was and bring all of those elements together to create the refined modern farmhouse.