The pool was conceived of as a jar of blinking fire flies. The light comes from over a hundred fiber optic nodes that blink on and off.

Photo: Kayla Stark © 2018 Houzz

Eric Rorer Photography

Terri Glanger Photography

The clients wanted a resort style bathroom. The pebbles are loose & underneath is tiled with underfloor heating to dry out the pebbles. Timber stepping matts are laid in between the pebbles.

This home is in a rural area. The client was wanting a home reminiscent of those built by the auto barons of Detroit decades before. The home focuses on a nature area enhanced and expanded as part of this property development. The water feature, with its surrounding woodland and wetland areas, supports wild life species and was a significant part of the focus for our design. We orientated all primary living areas to allow for sight lines to the water feature. This included developing an underground pool room where its only windows looked over the water while the room itself was depressed below grade, ensuring that it would not block the views from other areas of the home. The underground room for the pool was constructed of cast-in-place architectural grade concrete arches intended to become the decorative finish inside the room. An elevated exterior patio sits as an entertaining area above this room while the rear yard lawn conceals the remainder of its imposing size. A skylight through the grass is the only hint at what lies below. Great care was taken to locate the home on a small open space on the property overlooking the natural area and anticipated water feature. We nestled the home into the clearing between existing trees and along the edge of a natural slope which enhanced the design potential and functional options needed for the home. The style of the home not only fits the requirements of an owner with a desire for a very traditional mid-western estate house, but also its location amongst other rural estate lots. The development is in an area dotted with large homes amongst small orchards, small farms, and rolling woodlands. Materials for this home are a mixture of clay brick and limestone for the exterior walls. Both materials are readily available and sourced from the local area. We used locally sourced northern oak wood for the interior trim. The black cherry trees that were removed were utilized as hardwood flooring for the home we designed next door. Mechanical systems were carefully designed to obtain a high level of efficiency. The pool room has a separate, and rather unique, heating system. The heat recovered as part of the dehumidification and cooling process is re-directed to maintain the water temperature in the pool. This process allows what would have been wasted heat energy to be re-captured and utilized. We carefully designed this system as a negative pressure room to control both humidity and ensure that odors from the pool would not be detectable in the house. The underground character of the pool room also allowed it to be highly insulated and sealed for high energy efficiency. The disadvantage was a sacrifice on natural day lighting around the entire room. A commercial skylight, with reflective coatings, was added through the lawn-covered roof. The skylight added a lot of natural daylight and was a natural chase to recover warm humid air and supply new cooled and dehumidified air back into the enclosed space below. Landscaping was restored with primarily native plant and tree materials, which required little long term maintenance. The dedicated nature area is thriving with more wildlife than originally on site when the property was undeveloped. It is rare to be on site and to not see numerous wild turkey, white tail deer, waterfowl and small animals native to the area. This home provides a good example of how the needs of a luxury estate style home can nestle comfortably into an existing environment and ensure that the natural setting is not only maintained but protected for future generations.

The built-in bookcases in this living room help provide much needed storage in a small home while helping to bounce light into the room from the windows. At night the books are illuminated by the monopoint track fixtures. Renovation/Addition. Rob Karosis Photography

The living room has a built-in media niche. The cabinet doors are paneled in white to match the walls while the top is a natural live edge in Monkey Pod wood. The feature wall was highlighted by the use of modular arts in the same color as the walls but with a texture reminiscent of ripples on water. On either side of the TV hang a cluster of wooden pendants. The paneled walls and ceiling are painted white creating a seamless design. The teak glass sliding doors pocket into the walls creating an indoor-outdoor space. The great room is decorated in blues, greens and whites, with a jute rug on the floor, a solid log coffee table, slip covered white sofa, and custom blue and green throw pillows.

MLR PHOTO

Designers: Kim and Chris Woodroffe e-mail:cwoodrof@gmail.com Photographer: Merle Prosofsky Photography Ltd.

Photos by bright designlab.

Fresh Blue tile, marble hex tile in guest bathroom

Richard Leo Johnson Wall Color: Benjamin Moore - White Wisp OC-54 Ceiling & Trim Color: Sherwin Williams Extra White 7006 Door Color: Benjmain Moore - Gray Owl OC-52 Bed: Jonathon Wesley Upholstery Headboard Pillows: Headgehouse, Majorca - Navy and Cranberry Duvet: Area Inc., Marie - Grey, 100% Linen Wall Swinger: House of Troy, Generation 3 LED - White Rug: Loloi, QN-01 Indigo Wall Baskets: Asher + Rye, TineKHome