Contemporary Tudor

Clients:

THE
CONTEMPORARY
TUDOR

CONTEMPORARY

The Contemporary Tudor home by Jesse Sahlani offers a refreshingly contemporary take on an elegant and historically entrenched design style. Nestled in a quaint neighborhood in Etobicoke, otherwise known as Princess Anne Manor, this 90 foot wide lot gave us the opportunity to design a home with sprawlingly wide proportions. Measuring in at almost 70 feet in width, this stunning custom home offers proportions that both do justice to the original design style, while dampening the height of what is a grandly large home. The result is an almost perfectly proportioned home featuring tall peaks, and a dauntingly wide footprint that features three large chimney stacks. Standing proud of the roofline with their wide proportions, these chimneys are the historically accurate detail that made Jesse fall in love with this design style in the first place, alongside the authentic cedar shake roof of course.

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As always, we started the design process for this home with a sun study, observing its position at different times of day in order to align each room with the suns path during the average highest time of use for each space. From this point Jesse sketches the floor plans and exteriors, an explorative, collaborative, and ever changing process that is the single most important practice behind any timeless design he is responsible for.

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The exterior cladding selections draw on the use of a combination of rough cut and smooth face natural Indiana limestone, a material that offers a far more refined aesthetic in comparison to the fieldstone or cobblestone accents synonymous with this design style. The vast majority of the exterior walls of the structure are clad with long custom cut rough faced Indiana limestone “bricks”. These limestone blockers were designed to imitate the look of brick, in a far sleeker, longer, and more contemporary format that ranges in width between 18″-24″.

Smooth-face limestone is used as an accent on the front entrance vestibule, as well as the chimney stacks. This feature offers a refined, and far more contemporary rendition of the classic vestibule. In our opinion, the common limestone panel rendition of this style of vestibule is overused, as they are often associated with the average “fancy home” in the mind of the consumer with no specific stylistic anchor. In this case, Jesse intended on bringing far more style into the front facade that blends well with other more contemporary design features.

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A great example of another contemporary design feature is the garage of this stunning estate. It was designed by Jesse to ensure it does not consume the front facade. To reduce the impact of the garage door massing, Jesse designed a step in the footprint, allowing him to utilize black paneling to clad the facade of both the home office and garage. Jesse also designed the mullions in each of these windows to resemble one another to make sure that the viewers of his design would have to take a second look. The result is just as functional while adding a feeling of “lightness” to the overall facade, quietly adding to a viewer’s visual understanding of this home as a contemporary nod to a historic and timeless design style.

Another specific design feature that we romanticize is the use of decorative roof vents. For this home, Jesse designed these roof vents into the top of each gable to mimic the look of a keystone. This avoids the presence of any unsightly venting anywhere else, similar to the methods of historic French Chateaus would incorporate them. The most obvious example of this method is actually the Louvre.

The windows on the exterior of this home are a notable feature on their own, aiding in the creation of both the proportions of this structure, the softening of the contemporary features through the use of square mullions that offer a touch of traditional design, and adding a contemporary flare through their sheer size in several areas.

On the rear facade, the windows grow in size significantly, offering views to the backyard pool, harnessing a wealth of natural light, and creating a seamless connection between the interior and exterior entertainment spaces.

The rear landscape design was created to function as an extension of the living room and kitchen areas within the home when entertaining or relaxing with family. The space features a pool, a thermal pool, a pool house that hosts two to three guests, and an outdoor covered loggia that acts as a breezeway between the main home and the pool house. The exterior kitchen, fireplace, patio heaters, and surround sound system are all amenities that both Jesse and John-Luke curated to support this end goal.

They also designed an extensive exterior lighting plan to create a unique ambiance both inside and out. When Jesse and John-Luke approach landscape design, they do so with both spaces in mind because the exterior gardens can be seen year-round through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The same effect is considered with garden lighting. This speaks to the importance of the rear entertainment space when designing a custom home. Increasing the length of seasonal usage and the amount of usage quickly becomes a priority when you approach exterior design in this manner.

The interior design plan utilizes a white oak palette that serves to warmly characterize the common areas, including the great room, the kitchen, the living room, and the entrance hallway. In the great room shown above, Jesse designed a vaulted ceiling that creates a grand yet invitingly warm environment in the space.

As always, Jesse’s design approach considers what you see through the large windows he designs for the exterior of every home he produces. In this case, the dining room window wall is symmetrically aligned with the pool as well as a small exterior garden. These windows serve to offer direct views of the backyard entertainment spaces to the dining room, as well as the foyer hallway to ensure you feel a connection to the exterior as soon as you walk in the door. The benefit of having such big windows is also that they harness a wealth of natural light into the space.

The waterfall staircase is a great example of the fine line the interior design plan for this home walks between traditional coziness and contemporary sleekness. Jesse paired this contemporary design profile with wrought iron pickets, grounding and blending it with the rest of what is a transitional palette.

The parlor room was designed to be an entertaining area for friends and business partners. This room was designed as a stunning two story space that serves to purpose the contemporary yet charming take on a traditional Tudor sitting room concept on the exterior. Everything from the marble bar and backsplash to the custom sofa, to the art-installation-esque light fixtures all add to the high-design feel of the space.

Some of these feelings you can create using products, but the unreplicable part is the experience of walking into a space like this and being stuck by the proportions and natural light. The result is a space that feels out of the ordinary in the best way possible.

The kitchen was designed with a similar sentiment in mind for entertaining, boasting a 15-foot wide that accommodates seating for six. The turquoise blue accent color is a welcomed site in a sea of the white oak ceiling and cabinet door cladding that makes the space so approachable.

The lighting over the island was also similarly approached with the intention of looking like an art installation. Jesse chose long flutes to get this intention across that are set at different heights, creating the effect of looking almost like a church organ.

The bedroom was designed with relaxation in mind. Lime wash finish paint, white oak ceilings, a custom white oak headboard, and light floors all work together to create a serene and calming environment. While the design plan in this space blends cohesively with other common areas in the home due to the similar use of white oak ceiling cladding, this is a great time to discuss the importance of designing each room around its intended function. Not all design plans have to be made consistent throughout the home, and the use of a beige palette that calms the mind after a long day is far more impactful to the end user than any loud design feature ever could be.

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