Here I share the projects that I am currently working on, or that have been newly released to the wild...or for permit, but saying I released them to the wild is much more fun.
If you’ve ever been trapped in a room with me and started talking houses, you’d know that I’m a sucker for the style of house that lasts decades. The kind that when you look at it, you can’t tell if it was built this year or fifty years ago.
This house is another example of that look:
Simple, traditional, elegant. What a beautiful home!
Natural light is so important to how a home feels. When a home is bright and airy, it just feels cleaner, more cozy, and freeing (or am I the only one that feels constricted or trapped in dark spaces?).
Here’s a new idea to help bring more light into your home: side porches.
This home has a cut-out in the middle to allow for a side porch on the main floor, and the cut-out continues all the way up the second floor, but instead of being covered on the second floor there are additional windows.
This allows a central staircase, but still having light flood the stairwell rather than being enclosed by rooms on all sides.
Anyone else want to throw those double sliding doors wide open to allow fresh air to permeate all through the home (with the screening on the other side keeping out the bugs)?
This is a gorgeous traditionally-styled home with a spacious floor plan to match. A baking station, 4 bedrooms, two-storey great room, coffered ceilings, and an impressive master bathroom are all found in this floor plan.
Does this look like your dream home? Contact us to get your design started!
Pantries are the superhero of the kitchen. It’s where everything gets shoved out of sight, so messiness isn’t a big deal.
Put a counter inside of it and it becomes a whole other level. Instead of having your toaster and blender out in the main area of the kitchen, put them in the pantry, and shut the door to the view of the toaster crumbs littering the counter.
This pantry takes it even further. These are all floor-to-ceiling cabinets with pull out drawers, a built-in microwave and espresso machine, and a spot in front of a window to put the pearl white Kitchen-aid mixer (which, let’s face it, you only use around the holidays to bake a ridiculous amount of cookies, and it’s too heavy to pull out of a cabinet but looks so nice on the counter). You can even have a cabinet to put your rechargeable stick vacuum. Those handy little buggers.
It’s easily accessed when hauling all the groceries in from the car, and you can quickly grab your toast when rushing out the door. Choose a fun cabinet colour and some sleek pulls, and it really becomes quite a feature.
Natural wood gives that special something to the warmth and character of your home’s exterior.
This home, for example, keeps the majority of the house minimal, but the cedar shakes in the gables really elevate the style:
A natural cedar shake will patina over time to a soft grey if left untreated. You can stain the shakes to enrich their colour, or you could use a faux shake that keeps your desired wood colour consistent over time, without the maintenance!
Curb appeal is incrediblyimportant when designing a new home.
Nobody wants to have a house that people look at and say ‘meh’ while shrugging their shoulders and making that half smile that is apologizing if what they just said is offensive.
You want the house that people drive by and rubberneck just so they can see it longer.
But, how do you do that?
Well, sometimes there is such thing as ‘too much’. Simplicity can be key here. Take this house for example:
If you break it down, it really is just one main two-storey box, with another box on the side for the garage.
Boring, right?
Now add the arch-top wood front doors, a two-storey covered entry with chunky pillars that don’t look undersized for the visual ‘weight’ they carry, banding that draws your eyes from one side to the other, and the stone. Oh, the stone! Just the height of the stone itself makes it look incredibly grounded, like even a bulldozer would get stopped dead pushing up against it.
When you’re thinking of your curb appeal, think about the details. Those are really what make the beholder say ‘WOW’.
Is it just me or is every piece of clothing ‘hang to dry’ these days?
If you were designing your dream laundry room, what would it have?
Front loading machines on pedestals?
Shelves for your laundry baskets?
Pull out drawers for dirty clothes?
So much space you can spin around, arms outstretched, and not hit anything?
For one of the most regularly used rooms in the house, it sometimes get the bum end of the deal when it comes to space.
Here’s my solution: Make it a multi-use space.
Take this snippet from a plan I’m working on for example:
It’s no longer just a space to do laundry. It’s also a place to wash the dog, to store Costco-sized packages of paper towels, and easy access to a powder room from the backyard. Plus, look at all that floor space!! Think of all the expandable clothes hanging racks that can fit in that room!
WOW. This year has been crazy. For more reasons than just work. Do you feel like you’re doing more than ever or are you feeling like you’re finally getting a chance to take a step back and relax?
It has been an absolute whirlwind here at Centre Line Home Design. So many people are re-evaluating their living spaces and considering a larger space, or a more efficient space, or are no longer tied to a certain location and are moving away from the city.
I find it funny that whenever someone hands me their sketches of what they want, they always apologize for them. Trust me, I don’t expect top draftsman quality when we’re going through your drawings. If that were the case, you wouldn’t need me, right? Plus, check out how my sketches look when I’m brainstorming ideas:
Ridiculous, right? Not what you would expect from someone that’s been doing this for 15 years? That word? Supposed to say ‘hooks’ even though it looks like ‘nooks’.
I totally understand being embarrassed by your sketching ability, but if it gets the point across?
Do you like the light that comes through a glass front door system, but don’t want the awkwardness of hiding when you hear a knock on the door, but weren’t expecting anyone?
Frosted glass is your new best friend!
This house used a huge glass front entry system but frosted the glass so they don’t have to worry about the privacy factor of clear glass.
