– story by Deborah Rogers; photography by www.nuttycake.com –
It’s a war m and sunny evening when I meet Susan and Len at their idiosyncratic North Saanich home. You could easily miss it, nestled as it is amongst the trees at the edge of the lagoon. The house is just over two years old now.
From the outside there is a very modern feel. The exterior is a soft grey-green, quite natural against the gravel, grass and trees it sits within. It’s a very approachable house, with playful angles and lots of glass. The front door is south facing and stands under a small porch with a Douglas fir pillar. Like all the doors within the house, the front door is divided into five horizontal glass panels; this transparency, with peek-through doors, windows everywhere and cut away walls, is a theme of the house.
Silvia Bonet, the home’s architect, explained that sun and light are hugely important to Susan and the house was built with that as a primary focus. The couple is thrilled by the fact that it is mainly heated with passive solar energy due to all the light coming into the house. As you move from the doorway you come immediately into the kitchen area. The units are all made of Douglas fir with its straight grain and clean, simple lines. The decision to site the kitchen at the centre of the house makes perfect sense once you know that Susan is a very keen cook and wine importer. There are stainless steel appliances and a long limestone countertop where I imagine much entertaining takes place. It’s a simple, functional kitchen that sits unprepossessing at the centre of the house, fulfilling its role without stealing the show.
It is the windows that really capture your attention walking past the kitchen. The whole back wall of the house is glass, split into large windows that follow the angle of the ceiling. Even with a warming fire at the centre, your eye is drawn to the trees beyond and the glimpses of water the glass allows. The garden feels like an extension of the room as there are no window dressings to detract from the view and the furnishings are simple and earth-toned.
Floors throughout the house are cherry. Interestingly, the floors had to fit with the fir chosen for the kitchen and other wood accents in the house. Interior Decorator Nina Zak helped choose the flooring that would sit comfortably alongside the strong, golden fir. Nina’s excellent colour sense also led to the selection of the light, muddy-brown of the living room walls which perfectly echo the mud flats beyond.
The main living space has a high vaulted ceiling with large skylights carefully placed to give natural light directly to the cooking surfaces. Off the airy, open living room though is a smaller, cosier space that houses Susan’s piano and where the couple loves to sit and read. Silvia, of Saanichton architecture firm Finlayson Bonet, explains how this lovely space was originally conceived as a solarium with a door to separate it from the rest of the house. The plan evolved through consultation to instead create a nook, with three walls of windows and skylights so it feels like a sun room. Many of the individual design touches were created especially for the furniture that Susan knew they wanted to bring with them to this new, retirement home. There is a low wall by the dining table, built just for the dresser that sits in front of it, the sun room wall perfectly holds the piano … all custom touches that sum up the benefit of having a personalized design.
To the left of the main entrance is a small office area. Light is allowed to filter into even this small corner by having a wall that doesn’t quite come up to the full ceiling height. Behind it Len and Susan are able to keep the inevitable clutter of a home business out of sight of the main living areas of the house. A large garage and convenient laundry room are both accessed off the corridor that runs behind the kitchen area. There is a powder room with the same simple fir cabinets and limestone countertops from Stone Trends in Sidney. All of the building materials were sourced locally, but much of the beautiful art that adorns the walls is from far-flung places. The couple have travelled extensively and lived many years overseas. Art from Japan, Singapore, South America and Africa is everywhere in the house, adding colour and life to each room.
The master bedroom is situated at the rear of the house and benefits from the same view out to the water that you see from the living room. Some of the furniture in the house has been made by Susan herself, including the bed here and in the guest room. There is a colourful quilt on the bed made from Japanese handkerchiefs, gifted to Susan by students when she taught English there. It’s a delightful room, a little darker and cosier feeling than the main living space, and always with the trees visible. The en-suite bathroom has a luxurious feel, with heated tile floor and oversized glass shower stall. The tub sits in the corner with windows on two sides, another touch that Susan was able to add due to her close relationship with the architect.
Silvia had worked with Susan on a previous design project so came to the site with a clear idea of what would work for this client. Of the design process, Silvia says: “I don’t want to know what you want, I want to know how you live, and what’s important to you. Knowing the things that make a client happy is very important; then you can make a space that is very personalized, very unique.” Coming up the irregular stairway that wraps around the kitchen to stand on the loft corridor, this sense of individualized uniqueness becomes most clear. Both Susan and Silvia claim this view down over the kitchen and living space as their favourite spot in the house. From here you can appreciate the design as a whole, with light flooding into every corner, and a multitude of angles and planes adding interest everywhere you look.
Off this open loft corridor are a guest room, guest bathroom and sewing room. Silvia loves to work with a high ceiling, at their maximum they are 12 feet in these upstairs rooms, but they slope to a more familiar seven feet, ensuring you don’t feel lost. The extra height allows high cut-out windows on the southeast plane capturing the sun as it moves through the day and creating another angle and point of interest. Additionally you get the view right into the treetops.
The house stands on land originally owned by Susan’s grandfather, later lived on by her parents. It is wonderful to see this new home fitting so neatly into the familiar space she has known all her life. Susan speaks warmly of Silvia and the “wonderful job” she did with the design. She also speaks very highly of her meticulous contractor, Paul Samra, who made the six-month build such a fun, exciting and pain-free process.
