CONNECTED

Low Lines

The low horizontal line of the concrete and steel fireplace keeps the lounging area feeling intimate despite the 11-foot ceilings. The Bocci 73V glass pendants above the IZM dining table bring in a touch of the blue view beyond.

As they rode the ferry to make their first site visit to Cadboro Bay—a community on the southern tip of Vancouver Island named for the Hudson’s Bay Company brigantine that sailed in 1837—designers Chad Falkenberg and Kelly Reynolds of Falken Reynolds took a picture of the sea spray the vessel was making as it cut through the water. “It looks exactly like Verde Alpi marble,” says Falkenberg. “It’s that same deep, rich green colour, which you don’t really experience in the Georgia Strait unless you’re on a boat looking down.”

That serpentine marble, akin to a boat’s-eye view of the northern Pacific, is now one of many elements connecting the home to its oceanfront setting—and to its homeowners, an active couple with three sons. Having relocated to Victoria from Edmonton six years prior for their teenagers’ athletic pursuits, the clients wanted their new 5,400-square-foot, two-level primary residence— designed by architect Christian Floyd and built by Billy Thistle from Point Break Developments—to be an extension of the beach, albeit through a modern, minimalist lens. During the couple’s first meeting with the design duo, driftwood became a source of inspiration. So, concrete floors in the home feature a shade of grey that is a near-perfect match to the darker sands in the Pacific Northwest, while a continuous light-stained hemlock in the ceiling and soffits references the tone of a silvery, sun-bleached log as it softly warms up the bungalowstyle main living space and coaxes the eye out to the bay.

The sea view is clear from the back side of the house, where the kitchen flows seamlessly to the outside. Barbecuing is a family pastime, so the Caesarstone cooktop counter, Corian drawer faces and marble backsplash—all

West Coast-weather tolerant—continue through to the exterior side, bisected by sliding glass. On the interior thin, quarter-inch stainless-steel the island will patina with time, ocean’s smoothing and buffing the shoreline, while the streamlined steel pendant above illuminates work surface and the hemlock

Highly functional spaces maintain tionship to the outside too. In a lengthy skylight floods the space and a narrow vertical window glimpse of evergreen trees, while Fenix millwork conceals sports includes built-in dog dishes and the family Labrador. The lower-level which opens to the pool deck, big ocean view.

Connection to place extends beyond the home’s immediate coastal locale. The couple are ardent supporters of local art and design, and own an extensive collection that includes Western Canadian artists Takao Tanabe, Allen Sapp and William Perehudoff. Save for that oceanic Verde Alpi in the primary ensuite and sky-blue Bocci 73V pendants above the dining table, the art provides the only other presence of overt colour. “It’s also an evolving collection, so it was important for us to plan multiple spaces for different pieces of substantially sized art,” says Falkenberg. “Art shouldn’t feel like it’s part of the architecture—rather, a layer on top of it.” Lighting and low-profile furniture, such as the custom console in the dining area, were chosen to ensure that different

Function and Form

locations could accommodate various large-scale works.

Many of the furnishings and finishes also nod to the nearby, melding the clients’ prairie roots with their current coastal life. Bedside tables, dining chairs and a coffee table from Edmontonbased furniture designers IZM are the perfect match for the family’s original Iconoclast dining table from the same brand, refinished to complement the home’s millwork—which the client enthusiastically did herself. Sconces from Edmonton’s Tomnuk illuminate the primary bedroom, and Pebble sconces and a Pipeline floor lamp from Vancouver’s AndLight feature in the ensuite and living room, respectively. In the powder room, a stretched 87.3 series Bocci fixture hovers above a solid white marble sink, which was quarried up-island and custom machine-carved at Duncan’s Matrix Marble and Stone.

In describing the home’s warm minimalism, Falkenberg uses a word that all who weather the West Coast will be familiar with: layers. There is colour, used sparingly and expressed subtly and tonally. Then texture, ranging from the knit fabric on the Moroso Gentry sofa in the living area to the stainless-steel kitchen island, which was designed by Broadwell Metal and sandblasted to soften its reflectivity. Finally, there are transitions, as seen in delicate framing around larger structures, such as the thin black metal line that connects the living room fireplace with the white wall above. “It’s almost imperceptible,” he says, “But it feels more refined. Those little details—if we didn’t have them, it would feel cold.” Like that splash of Verde Alpi, it equates to the coolest kind of warmth.