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Cottage season is upon us Canadians, and LAWD DO WE LOVE A GOOD COTTAGE PARTY!  My sister and BIL were up at their Québec cottage over the weekend getting it all set up for the summer and I am beyond stoked to enjoy it and some good weather (and come up with some wicked drink concoctions). Needless to say I have rustic, waterfront dwellings on the brain so I thought I would pick some of my favourite spaces from the gods of rustic dwellings, Pearson Design Group (featured over the winter here and here).

San Francisco firm Klopf Architecture sent over some details of their latest project. The owners dreamed of an Eichler remodel that they would live in forever. Their vision was clean, contemporary and open. Klopf Architecture would design, and reconfigure bathrooms/laundry areas and upgrade systems to be more efficient. This talented executive mother of five decorated and furnished the home herself. Such a beauty – the centre courtyard is a dream of mine…something to keep all of my cats contained where I don’t have to watch their every move. I would be out there all of the time, and the spaciousness of the interior with all of those massive windows is spot on. 

Over the years a jumble of 19th century barns were moved and remodeled, added to and almost disappeared beneath new work. Owners came and went until the current occupants engaged architectural firm Christoff : Finio to add their layer to the buildings. That’s what so many old buildings are… layers. Layers of new work and old, layers of materials, layers of lives and layers of meanings. Creating a new home from this jumble of layers doesn’t always mean stripping back to basics. Sometimes it just means rationalising, reworking, rearranging and revealing to reveal the beauty.

It may take a lot of discipline to live the minimalist life (and in this case a lot of money) but, oh, how beautiful is the simple line, the intersection of positive and negative, boxes balanced on manicured lawns, glass walls throwing privacy to the wind. Austere luxury by AABE (Atelier d’Architecture Bruno Erpicum & Partners).

Sublime. These spaces, gloriously styled and flawlessly captured on camera, are the work of Brisbane stylist and photographer Kara Rosenlund