The homeowners of this project reached out to Frontiers Design Build via referral. They had recently purchased this rebuilt home on its 5-acre lot, and wanted to make it their own with some substantial upgrades. There were many facets of the property that they loved, like the overall character of the home, the stunning pond with beach entry, and the sprawling views across the countryside. Some elements were lacking, however. Without a proper garage, there was a deficit of family vehicle and general-purpose storage. This was the main driver of the project and was the catalyst for Frontiers designing a new 3-car garage complete with a utility/lawn vehicle bay and large upper storage loft. With the proposed garage being situated off to the south side of the home, this spurred on a functional shift from naturally using the front porch as the daily entry, to the existing secondary side entry becoming a more direct path to where the cars were going to be located. As the daily entry/egress to the home shifted to the south side of the home, the idea of enclosing the existing outdoor side porch into a mudroom became very relevant. Just in from this newly created mudroom, there was also a desire to do a location swap between the existing powder room and the existing laundry room to make more functional use of those spaces, with a primary focus on expanding upon the size of the main floor laundry.

The aesthetic of this project is a unique spin on the popular ‘modern farmhouse’ trend. The main house utilizes many materials and design cues that speak to a traditional rural home in its use of natural stone, natural wood siding, and traditional windows style. The addition of a modern detached garage, flat roof breezeway, and modern mudroom extension meant that we needed to make some minor adjustments to the existing home to make sure the transition between the two styles was done tastefully. This resulted in a full repaint of the exterior of the existing home from a light grey to black. This helped unify the style mashup via colour, while maintaining an intentional contrast with the material type and texture.