Design Showcase Archives - David Small Designs

Site Integration

July 22, 2020/in Design Showcase /by Rebecca Muise

We pride ourselves on site integration, on designing homes that connect with the land. The way the home is properly positioned on the property. The way it flows with the natural grade. The way the sightlines are integrated with room positioning and space planning. Here are a few of our custom home designs that showcase site integration at its best.

This Modern Landscape presented an interesting design challenge, inspiring a home that blends seamlessly with the unique property. A sloping landscape called for a smooth transition to match the topography of the land, evolving from a two-storey front façade to a three-storey rear. Balanced massing and thoughtful landscape design, including tiered built-in planters and integrated landscape walls, give the home a sense of harmony with the property.

Winning a Mississauga Urban Design Award for Site Integration, this home shows how a vertically challenged lot can be used to its full potential. Positioning the garage below the basement level maximized the amount of functional living space. This transitional design incorporates natural materials of stone and wood to tie the home to the natural environment.

Located on a heavily-wooded ravine lot, this home had to be positioned in the rear corner of the property for maximum tree preservation. The design takes advantage of its gorgeous surroundings at every opportunity. Multiple floor-to-ceiling windows engulf a section of the home, creating a two-storey glass corner that offers beautiful views of the property.

This Mississauga cottage in the city blends into its forested surroundings, embracing the key features of the property. Anchored by a three-storey stone chimney, the home’s side elevation resembles a classic Muskoka retreat, featuring large glass gables and board and batten siding. A timber-framed front porch and copper-roofed corner are standout features of the façade.

To view more of our home designs, click here to view our portfolio.

Traditional Design

July 14, 2020/in Design Showcase /by Rebecca Muise

Traditional Design. Its familiar, elegant, and timeless. We typically use “traditional” to describe any style of architecture that lacks modern details. From Georgian to French Chateau to English Country, traditional design is about detail and symmetry. Here are some of our favourite traditional homes and interpretations of this architectural style.

Balancing an elegant appeal with a warm and welcoming presence is Old Oakville. The cottage-like exterior blends rustic stone with refined details. The second storey is enveloped by the cedar shingled roof, giving the home a cozy and intimate feel. The copper eaves and downspouts add character and maturity. The double column entry creates formality and the double chimney design adds strength.

The prominent characteristic of Georgian architecture is symmetry. The proportion, balance, and simplicity of the symmetrical massing make it a timeless architectural style. This Toronto home is a true Georgian Classic. The use of copper detailing, double hung windows, and the traditional use of red brick further emphasize the purity of this style.

We designed the Ravine Estate House over 15 years ago, and today, it still acts as a source of inspiration for many of our clients. Constructed on a wooded ravine lot, this sprawling bungalow produces spectacular views to the valley below. The rustic stone and warm, earthy colour palette enhance the home’s continuity with the natural environment. The wide lot allows the house to be extended laterally, producing its understated grandeur, while the resulting shallow depth offers maximum natural light to all interior spaces. Together, all elements work together to create a truly timeless design.

Our project, The Curved Lot, is a great example of a traditional home forming a harmonious relationship with its property. The location of the property is unique, tucked into the intersection of a busy major road and a winding side street. As a result, the positioning of the home was equally unique, with a direct focus on the best attribute of the property: a curved side yard lined with beautifully matured trees. Great care was taken to ensure the home didn’t feel like it was dominating the land with its sheer size. Large gables and a steeply pitched roof help conceal the second floor, giving the home an overall grounded, yet formal appearance.

French Chateau, a style known for its grandeur. Over the past several years, we’ve seen this style reinterpreted across the GTA, often with more modern detailing. We kept it classic with this design, using intricate yet subtle detail in the dormers, cast iron accents and rooflines to capture the architectural style. The combination of exterior materials – heavy masonry, brick and stucco – all in a neutral colour palette, emphasize the stately nature of the home.

To see more of our traditional homes, click here to view our portfolio.

The Architectural Toolbox

July 10, 2020/in Design Showcase /by Rebecca Muise

A well-designed home means all the pieces were put together just right. You can’t put your finger on what makes it great, because it isn’t just one thing. Its many decisions, thoughtfully made, that result in a cohesive vision. When the architectural tools of materials, colours, scale and proportion are properly deployed, the result is a beautiful home, regardless of style.

Selection and application of materials are a crucial part of accentuating and enhancing the desired architectural style. Materials work in tandem with other components to create interest and draw attention to detail. The juxtaposition of crisp details with textured finishes adds complexity and interest to the façade.

In this Natural Modern home, a mix of smooth, refined materials, like metal panel and glass, are contrasted with rugged stone and natural wood.

Exterior colour selection can make or break the design. Colour can be used to emphasize an architectural style, call out a detail, channel the homeowner’s personality, or evoke a certain mood. It’s not just about what colours are chosen, it’s about how they are applied. For this home, colour was used to emphasize the Arts & Crafts architectural style. The contrasting sage green serves as the key background colour, allowing the details to be accentuated in white.

A clean but dramatic colour scheme creates interest and an Arts & Crafts appeal in our project, The Window Box.

Site integration is all about connecting building with land. Elements such as views, topography and sun orientation are critical factors in the design exercise. A key part of the home design process is creating a home that is unique and custom to the land. For this Seattle design, it became apparent that the topography of the land would dictate the narrative of the home. Three storeys were required to accommodate the living space, featuring a glass office on stilts, and an above grade basement leading to a back walkout.

Our Sloped in Seattle design allowed for unique aspects of the property to be showcased.

Scale and proportion. The balance of thoughtful, functional space with aesthetic appeal. Scale is about size and its relationship with the human form, while proportion is about balance and the relationship between all the components. Both are crucial in great architecture. The best example of this is a renovation, where the design should be seamless, unclear where the existing home ends and the new addition begins. The goal of this Mississauga renovation was challenging: to add a second storey without overpowering the property and surrounding neighbourhood. The success in scale is seen with the embedded gables, a staple of the arts & crafts architectural style.

This Mineola Makeover conveys a sense of coziness and approachability using a split level second floor hidden in the tiered roofline.

To view more of our home designs, click here to view our portfolio.

Natural Modern: The Definition

July 8, 2020/in Design Showcase /by Rebecca Muise

Natural Modern. We use this term to describe a modern home that exemplifies the ideals of comfort and family living. The Natural Modern aesthetic combines the simplicity of modern design with the warmth and elegance of traditional architecture.

A key example of the Natural Modern style, David’s House is a functional, welcoming family home that espouses the very best of contemporary design.

Our Natural Modern design philosophy is rooted in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style architecture. A key characteristic of Prairie Style is horizontality; it’s an architectural tool that ties a home to the landscape, grounding the home to the property. We use horizontal lines in the Natural Modern style to bridge a contemporary building with the natural landscape. Horizontality can be seen in all elements of the design, from the extreme roofline, to the window orientation, to the linear nature of the stone and siding.

Our Modern Landscape design takes advantage of every opportunity to reinforce horizontality.

Materials. The Natural Modern aesthetic is a mix of opposites: rustic stone juxtaposed against smooth, refined elements. These familiar materials not only create interest and complexity, but they connect a modern home with its (typically) traditional neighbours.

Aptly named Natural Modern, this home uses materials to accentuate the architectural style and draw attention to detail.

Large overhangs. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style architecture is celebrated for its integration with the natural environment. A characteristic of Prairie Style is the exaggerated eave overhangs, which reinforce the linear quality of the design. Large overhangs help to ground the home and create a sense of approachability.

The home’s overhang is further emphasized by applying the same wood siding from the façade to the extended soffit.

The floating roof. A consistent architectural element of the Natural Modern style is that stone or wood siding never connects with the roofline. By only having window or dark metal panel touch the soffit, it creates the illusion that the roof “floats” above the home.

The Glass Room articulates the floating roof perfectly, with glass separating the roof from the walls.

To see more of our Natural Modern designs, click here to view our portfolio.

Design Showcase: Custom Homes in Toronto

December 19, 2017/in Design Showcase /by Jack Shepherd

Out of all of the areas where we’ve designed homes over the years, the six boroughs of Toronto offer some of the more challenging properties. But with great challenge, comes incredible opportunity, resulting in some truly noteworthy custom homes.

A common quality of properties in and around Toronto is smaller, narrower lot sizes. Being in such close proximity with neighbours, maximizing living space and privacy therefore become top design priorities. This modern home near Bloor West Village utilizes an open concept floor plan to achieve nearly 3,500 square feet of living space on its narrow city property. Windows are strategically placed at the front and rear of the home, and kept minimal at the sides to appease both the desire for privacy and certain building code requirements.

A key exception, however, to the more compact nature of Toronto properties are corner lots. While these lots typically enjoy more space than their neighbours, they can have more restrictive setback requirements and often share a property line with major streets. Home designs therefore need to adapt to the unique requirements of these properties. In the case of this traditional home in Etobicoke, the lot was tucked into the intersection of a busy major road and a winding side street. The positioning of the home was therefore oriented to block out the negative noise and views and direct focus to the best attribute of the property: a curved side yard lined with beautifully matured trees.

Regardless of shape and size, a common factor of many Toronto properties is their belonging to older, established neighbourhoods that are keen to preserve their heritage and character. Proposed infill designs must therefore be very respectful of nearby homes. This custom home in Etobicoke embraces the design conventions of a traditional family home, aligning it with the mature character of its neighbours, while also touting a timeless appeal through a unique blend of materials and more contemporary windows.

Visit our portfolio for more custom home designs in Toronto.

Coming to America: Our U.S. Home Designs

November 13, 2017/in Design Showcase /by Jack Shepherd

When we say we work anywhere in the world, we mean it. On top of countless projects across Canada, our boundless geographical reach has afforded us several opportunities to work with clients across the United States, resulting in custom home designs in Castle Rock, Boulder, Chagrin Falls, Ann Arbor, Long Island, Austin, and San Jose.

A project in the U.S. starts the same way as one five minutes from our office: with a thorough understanding of both the client’s wishes and the unique attributes of their property and neighbourhood. Before picking up a pencil, our design team meets the client, often in person, and travels to the property to gain a full appreciation of its environment. This sets us up to design a home that will ultimately be respectful of not only the client’s wants and needs, but also of the property and surrounding area.

Our U.S. clients also enjoy the benefit of a different, original perspective on their home design. While an architectural designer in California or Texas may have extensive knowledge and experience in their localities, our 20+ years of experience designing custom homes for clients all over Canada and the U.S. have equipped us with a unique style and sensibility that result in homes that not only fit in with their properties and neighbourhoods, but also maintain a nuance and character unlike anything else in the area.

Visit our portfolio for custom home designs in New York, Michigan, and Colorado.

This proposed home design in San Jose, CA is just 10 minutes away from Apple headquarters.

Everything’s bigger in Texas, including the views from this proposed hillside home design in Austin.

The Power of Custom: Purchasing Floor Plans vs. Custom Home Design

October 10, 2017/in Design Showcase /by Jack Shepherd

Every now and again, we’re asked if the floor plans of our existing homes are for sale. At David Small Designs, all of our home designs are completely custom. While we love when someone is inspired by one of our designs, we’re happy to work that inspiration into their own custom design. Here are a few key reasons why we always recommend custom home design over buying floor plans:

All properties have particular zoning and setbacks. In other words, there can sometimes be substantial restrictions to a home design’s height or ground floor area, which an existing floor plan simply may not be compatible with. A custom home design constantly keeps these boundaries front of mind, resulting in a home that works harmoniously with its zoning rather than clashing with it.

Every property also has its own unique aesthetic, which is the culmination of everything from its natural elements (views, topography, sun orientation) to the look and feel of the surrounding neighbourhood. Our custom home designs are highly influenced by this aesthetic, the objective being to design a home that feels like it has always belonged on the property. We call it “organic architecture”: letting the characteristics of the land naturally guide the home design. Purchasing a floor plan, however, flips this idea on its head, resulting in a home that often needs to retrofit the property and can be at odds with its neighbours.

Most importantly, a custom home design is a reflection of the unique needs, lifestyle, and design style of the future homeowner. Floor plans intended for sale, on the other hand, are often generic and won’t satisfy all of your wants and needs like custom design would. If your goal is to design your dream home, our goal is to weave your passions and personality into the architecture, resulting in a home that is truly and uniquely you.

Click here to learn more about our custom home design process.

A nearby creek greatly restricted the building area of this Mineola property, dictating the size and shape of the custom home design.

The natural beauty of the property influenced everything in this custom home design from its height to its style to its colour + materials.

What is Universal Design?

September 12, 2017/in Design Showcase /by Jack Shepherd

With an aging North American population, we’ve noticed an upward trend of clients looking to design homes that will accommodate their needs as they grow older. We’ve seen this referred to as “accessible design,” or an element of “aging-in-place,” but it’s most commonly known as universal design.

In a broad sense, universal design is just as it sounds: designing something — be it a consumer product, public service, or an environment — so it can be accessed and used by anyone, regardless of their age or abilities. It has its roots in the “7 Principles of Universal Design,” which were first coined in 1997 by a team of architects, product designers, and engineers at North Carolina State University. You can read more about each principle in detail here, but in sum, these principles aim to make any design as accommodating and easy-to-use to as many people as possible.

In custom home design, the principles of universal design can manifest themselves in countless ways, but some common ones include:

A bungalow structure to minimize the need to frequently go up and down stairs. Many older families have embraced a “bungaloft” design (bungalow + loft), keeping their living space on the ground floor, and reserving the upstairs loft exclusively for guests or caretakers.
Incorporating elevators in home designs that have more than one storey, allowing for easy movement between floors. For younger or middle-aged families who want their home to grow and age with them, we often allocate space in the floor plan for an elevator to be installed in the future, with the designated area on each floor acting as a closet in the meantime.
Accessibility ramps for wheelchairs, walkers, etc.
Flush entries: entryways in the home that have no height difference on either side, eliminating the need to step up or down when doing everyday activities, like moving from room to room, or using the shower.
Beach-entry swimming pools, which replace stairs and ladders with a gradual ramp into the water, as if you were at the beach!

Click here to learn more about our custom home design process and how it aims to meet the unique needs of any homeowner!

In the master bathroom of this Mineola West custom home, a flush entry makes entering and exiting the shower safe and step-free.

An elevator in this Mississauga custom home carries passengers between three floors.

Recently Completed: The Craftsman Reno

August 20, 2015/in Design Showcase /by Jack Shepherd

This before picture is all too familiar. When driving through suburban neighbourhoods across the GTA you are guaranteed to see a version of this 1970s 2-storey home. With craftsman architecture as the inspiration, this home was given a complete overhaul.

Visit our Additions & Renovations portfolio for more before and after images of The Craftsman Reno.

Modern Oasis – OHBA Awards of Distinction 2015 Finalist

August 18, 2015/in Design Showcase /by Jack Shepherd

We are thrilled to share that our Modern Oasis design is a finalist for Most Outstanding Custom Home over 5000 sq.ft. at this year’s Ontario Home Builders’ Association Awards of Distinction. Covington Estates was the builder for this project and Barb Poce the Interior Designer.

Winners will be announced on September 28th at the OHBA 2015 Conference. Wish us luck

A Tribute

February 20, 2015/in Design Showcase /by Jack Shepherd

This week we celebrated the life of Bill Small, David’s father and mentor who passed on February 12th, 2015. Bill personified the phrase “live life to the fullest”. His multitude of accomplishments in his professional life (President of the CHBA & BILD, Chairman of the National Home Show) and personal life (licensed pilot, Director of the Royal Canadian Flying Clubs’ Association), are outdone by his accomplishments in his family life: a devoted husband of 65 years to Betty Lou Small, a proud father of 3 daughters and 1 son, and an adoring grandfather and great grandfather to 11.

As family members recounted their precious memories of Bill at the funeral, words like mentor, inspirational, and “super hero” were used to describe him and the lasting impression he made on their lives. It is clear that his wisdom, ambition and adventurous spirit will carry on through the memories of his loved ones.

Race for Humanity 2014

July 16, 2014/in Design Showcase /by Jack Shepherd

We had so much fun last year we had to do it again! On July 9th, Team DSD (aka Custom Homies) laced up our running shoes and hit the streets of Toronto for BILD’s 5th annual Race for Humanity. The ‘Amazing Race’-style challenge proved to be a bit harder than last year: 12 challenges, 4 hours, traveling on foot back-and-forth from Distillery District to Harbourfront Centre. In the end we raised a ton of money for Habitat for Humanity and had a blast! Bonus: we placed 2nd!!

What is Arts & Crafts?

July 3, 2014/in Design Showcase /by Jack Shepherd

And no, we’re not talking about the weekend activity you do with your kids. Rather, we’re referring to the architectural design style. Used interchangeably with ‘craftsman’, ‘arts & crafts’ was a design movement of the late 1800s-early 1900s. It was essentially a revival of the decorative arts; an appreciation for traditional craftsmanship and an anti-industrial movement; handwork vs. mass production. It focused on the simple form with applications of romantic or folk style decoration.

Frank Lloyd Wright, an American Architect known for his contributions to craftsman style, believed that a building should be intimately tied to its surroundings and appear as though it naturally grew from its site. ‘Arts & crafts’ is driven by these same ideals.

‘Arts & crafts’ is characterized by low-pitch roof lines on a gabled roof, exaggerated eave overhangs, exposed rafters, tapered columns, multipane windows, decorative brackets, and a predominant front porch. Materials are natural: wood, stone, slate. Colours are earth tone. All of these elements, working together, help to connect the building to the ground and natural environment.

We’ve designed many ‘arts & crafts’ style homes. Here is a small selection of our craftsman designs with explanations as to what identifies these homes as distinctively ‘arts & crafts’.

This is our aptly titled The Craftsman House. The ‘arts & crafts’ elements of this home are the predominant front porch, columns with stone bases and the mix of natural materials.

The Window Box highlights how an earth tone exterior blends a home with its natural surroundings. This connection with the natural environment is emphasized even more by the natural stone on the base of the home, making the home appear as though it naturally grew from its site. Multipane windows, knee braces and, of course, the window box, reinforce the ‘arts & crafts’ style.

Everything about this home identifies it as ‘arts & crafts’: a low-pitched, gabled roofline, tapered columns, the mix of natural materials, the earth tone colour scheme and the notable front porch. Nestled among the mature trees that surround the property, this home went from a basic bungalow to prime example of ‘arts & crafts’. Click here to see the before pictures of Mineola Makeover.

Bracket details, tapered stone columns and a mix of natural colours and materials define this home as ‘arts & crafts’. Click here to see the before images of The Road House.

A Home With Soul

February 22, 2014/in Design Showcase /by Jack Shepherd

In a meeting the other day, David described the process of designing a custom home as “creating a home with soul”.

We receive calls every week from potential clients who have been searching for a home, preferably a turn-key home, with the aesthetics that appeal to their design style and the layout the suits their lifestyle. They end up calling us once they realize that their ideal home isn’t easy to find.

There is obviously a convenience to buying a turn-key home versus a custom build, such as an earlier move in date and no permit process to deal with. In the end, the result can be a beautiful home, but it’s not a home that was designed with your lifestyle, design style and family in mind.

To embark on the custom home design process, patience is a requirement, but so is a sense of adventure. The process of designing your family home is exciting. From creating your wish list to seeing the first design concept to stepping into a home your ideas and inspirations created. With the right team in place, a team focused on creating a home that is a true reflection of you and your family, the result is a home with soul.

Below we’ve highlighted features of David Small designed homes that helped create the “soul” of the home.

Open concept living that is modern, while still being cozy and inviting
From the project The Coffee House.

Open concept kitchen with two islands, sinks and refrigerators. Ideal for a family who loves to entertain.
From the project The House Next Door.

A cozy basement with lots of natural light creates the ultimate family rec room.
From the project David’s House.

A double fireplace greets guest to create a warm welcome.
From the project Old Oakville.

A piano room designed to put a family heirloom on display.
From the project David’s House.

David’s House on Freshome

January 28, 2014/in Design Showcase /by Jack Shepherd

A “modern home that attracts and even converts traditionalists” is how Freshome, an international design blog, introduced David’s House to their readers. Freshome featured David’s natural modern home on their wildly popular design page at the start of this week. Click here to check out the feature.

www.freshome.com

Design Matters