Discovering Marshall
A home reimagined around what made it special.
STEP INSIDE — explore Marshall through photography
STEP INSIDE Explore Marshall through photography.
A house in need of significant work, on a property that made us want to take it on.
The views, farmland, wildlife, and quiet openness that shaped the redesign.
Turning the house toward its largest yard and making the landscape part of everyday life.
How the architecture, expansive glass and even the direction of the beams were designed around the western view.
Moving the kitchen to the centre of the home, with the western landscape always in view.
Making a modest footprint feel complete, considered and quietly luxurious.
Giving the hardworking parts of country living just as much consideration as the rest of the home.
Traditional and relaxed. Warm and cool. Refined and imperfect. How contrast became part of the character of Marshall.
Three outdoor spaces, each offering a different relationship to the sun, the views and the surrounding landscape.
Returning to the deck once the lumber had seasoned, and using colour to strengthen the connection between the house and the landscape.
A moodier counterpart to the great room, where the landscape recedes and the room turns inward.
Connecting traditional brick and a more relaxed cedar addition without asking either one to imitate the other.
Using light in layers — and deciding when a fixture should make a statement and when it should almost disappear.
The problem-solving, craftsmanship and unseen work behind bringing the design to life.
A home more connected to its landscape, ready for whoever becomes part of its story next.
As we found it
Marshall was a home in need of significant work, on a property that immediately gave us a reason to look closer.
Over time, the house had fallen into disrepair. Beyond its dated finishes were underlying issues that needed attention.
For all the beauty of the landscape, Marshall made surprisingly little of it, both inside and out. But from the first time we saw it, we knew there was something here worth discovering.
If we could address what wasn’t working and make better use of what surrounded it, Marshall could become a home that truly belonged to its setting.
Rethinking the layout
The original floor plan wasn’t making the most of its setting.
The bedrooms occupied the home’s largest yard side, while the kitchen and dining areas sat along the narrower northern edge of the property. At the centre of the home, the living room offered a glimpse of the western view, but had little connection to the landscape beyond it.
The overall concept became clear very quickly. Refining the floor plan took time.
We knew the largest yard side needed to play a much bigger role in everyday life.
Relocating the primary bedroom allowed us to bring the kitchen into a more central position. This, in turn, made it possible to orient the main living spaces toward the western landscape and introduce the great room addition, creating an entirely new relationship between the house and yard.
The new arrangement also gave us the opportunity to rethink the home’s supporting spaces, bringing laundry to the main floor and making room for a dedicated pantry, den and powder room.
Framing the landscape
The architecture of the great room was designed around the western view.
The expansive glass opened the home toward the landscape, while the beams overhead gave the ceiling definition and reinforced that connection.
We repeated the beam language in the home’s 12-foot vaulted entry, creating a subtle connection between the original architecture and the new addition.
The beams themselves were built from Douglas fir, boxed to achieve the scale and proportion we wanted without the weight of solid wood beams. Once assembled, I worked each edge by hand with a drawknife, softening the milled boards until the seams became difficult to see and the beams began to feel authentic.
My father taught me to use a drawknife when I was a child, helping him peel logs for our family home. Years later, he gave me that same drawknife for my birthday. It’s the one I used on the beams at Marshall.
The finished beams bring warmth and character to the great room, connecting the craftsmanship of the space with the landscape beyond.
Reorienting the heart of the home
The kitchen is the centre of everyday life, and so its place in the home needed to reflect that.
The original kitchen sat along the northern side of the house. Moving it to the centre changed much more than its location. The kitchen now connects the original home to the new great room, with the western landscape beyond.
From the kitchen sink, the view carries straight through the great room to the fields. It brings one of the property’s best features into the rhythms of everyday life.
The pantry extends the kitchen toward the larger southern side of the property. We added a south-facing window over its sink, bringing natural light into the space and opening it toward a part of the yard the original layout had largely overlooked.
The former kitchen and dining area became the new primary suite.
Designing for rest
A primary suite doesn’t need to be oversized to give you everything you need.
The footprint of the new primary suite was largely predetermined. The existing stairs established one boundary, and extending that wing didn’t make sense when we could make the space we had work so well.
The quieter northwestern side suited the bedroom, positioning it away from the road and toward the view. Northern light is naturally softer, while the western exposure brings evening light and sunsets into the room. On the opposite side of the suite, morning light filters into the bathroom from the east — a lovely way to begin the day.
Within the former kitchen wing, we created a complete primary suite with a walk-in closet and private bathroom.
The original deck took on a new role. We reduced it significantly and removed the stairs, creating a more intimate extension of the primary suite.
The rest of the home is where life happens. The bedroom has a quieter purpose. What mattered wasn’t how much space we could give it, but how it would feel to be there. A sense of quiet. A little luxury in the everyday. Everything considered, without anything feeling excessive.
Designing for real life
Laundry and mudrooms are often given the least consideration, despite how much we ask of them.
In any home — but especially a country home — there is a lot to account for: laundry, mud and snow, boots, pets, outdoor gear and all of the things that come in and out of the house with you.
At Marshall, the former secondary bedroom gave us the space to do this room properly. We created plenty of counter space for sorting and folding, a large closet with room for the ironing board, hanging delicates and overflow, as well as dedicated storage for dirty laundry and pet supplies.
We also included a dog wash — equally useful for washing window screens, rinsing muddy boots and watering plants.
We didn’t see a reason to hide the room behind a door. Before, the sightline from the entry ended at a wall. We opened that wall, allowing the eye to travel through the laundry room and out toward the southern yard. The machines were far enough from the main living spaces that noise wasn’t a concern, so there was little reason to close it off. Instead, the room contributes light, depth and another connection to the property.
Natural light, warm finishes and organic textures made the room feel relaxed and quietly refined.
A room that deals with the messiest parts of daily life doesn’t have to feel like an afterthought.
Some of what makes the room feel luxurious only reveals itself in use. The floor is heated underfoot, as is the shower bench, because a beautiful place to sit isn’t particularly luxurious when it’s cold. The four-foot freestanding tub began as a response to the space available, but became something we appreciated for another reason: its smaller size feels cocooning, allowing you to settle more deeply into the water while using less of it.
The luxury isn’t any one of those things. It’s the feeling they create together.
The glossy herringbone meets a much quieter shower floor, cut from just two pieces to minimize grout lines.
The cream-and-taupe quartz vanity tops carry both sides of the palette, tying warmer and cooler tones together. Colours and undertones repeat between materials, while brass carries warmth throughout the room. Even the soldier-course brickwork on the exterior finds an echo in the soldier-course rows framing the herringbone shower.
The glossy herringbone meets a much quieter shower floor, cut from just two pieces to minimize grout lines.
The cream-and-taupe quartz vanity tops carry both sides of the palette, tying warmer and cooler tones together. Colours and undertones repeat between materials, while brass carries warmth throughout the room. Even the soldier-course brickwork on the exterior finds an echo in the soldier-course rows framing the herringbone shower.
Some of what makes the room feel luxurious only reveals itself in use. The floor is heated underfoot, as is the shower bench, because a beautiful place to sit isn’t particularly luxurious when it’s cold. The four-foot freestanding tub began as a response to the space available, but became something we appreciated for another reason: its smaller size feels cocooning, allowing you to settle more deeply into the water while using less of it.
The luxury isn’t any one of those things. It’s the feeling they create together.
The original arched window was something we wanted to preserve. Its symmetry helped shape the room around it, with separate oak vanities on either side and the tub centred between them. Because these windows face the road side of the property, we needed privacy without losing the natural light. Blinds handle that practically, while pinch-pleated drapery adds softness and another layer of coverage. Recessing the drapery into drywall surrounds tempers the formality.
Contrast gives the room interest, while repetition keeps it cohesive. Scale shifts from 24″ × 48″ floor tile to small 2″ × 6″ herringbone in the shower. Warm oak and brass are balanced by cooler taupes, while the natural grain of the vanities brings texture against the smoother surfaces around them. Hard surfaces are softened by fabric.
The primary bathroom brings these ideas together in a more intimate setting. It combines materials, styles and scales that might otherwise compete, but together create a room that feels considered rather than busy.
Finding balance
The pleasure of this home isn’t in any one feature. It’s in how everything feels together.
Throughout Marshall, we kept returning to the same balance: traditional architecture alongside the more relaxed character of its country setting.
That balance carries through the materials as well. There is character, but also restraint. Natural wood sits alongside painted finishes. Fieldstone, brick and wood bring texture and variation, while quieter surfaces give those materials room to be noticed. Warm tones are balanced by cooler ones, and more refined details are often paired with something simpler or more tactile.
In the great room, Douglas fir ceiling planking and beams bring warmth, texture and a more relaxed character overhead. The fieldstone fireplace introduces something rougher and more organic, contrasted with the cleaner lines of the painted mantel and surrounding millwork. Oak flooring carries the natural material palette across the room, while painted walls and millwork quiet the composition rather than competing with the landscape beyond.
Living with the landscape
Living with
the landscape
Outdoor living doesn’t have to happen in one place. Different parts of the property offer their own ways to enjoy it.
The new great room and deck were conceived together. The deck wraps the addition in an L, with the larger portion facing south toward the expansive yard and a narrower section running along the western window wall.
The two sides serve the house differently. The larger south deck gives the great room an outdoor gathering space and catches the morning sun. It was also the practical place for the barbecue, easily accessed from the kitchen through the great room, with the fireplace gas line extended outside to serve it. Around the corner, the narrower western deck offers a quieter place to sit, shaded in the morning and warming as the afternoon sun comes around.
The primary suite deck offers something different again. Shaded through much of the day, it feels private, catching the sun later as it moves west. It’s a place for morning coffee or a quiet moment outside. It feels like a natural extension of the retreat within.
One extends the life of the great room outdoors. The other extends the quiet of the primary suite.
THE DECK
Coming back to the plan
When I first photographed Marshall, the deck was still unfinished pressure-treated lumber.
We had already chosen the stain and intended to finish it, but weather and timing caught up with us before the house was brought to market.
There was an advantage in waiting. New pressure-treated lumber holds a considerable amount of moisture from the treatment process, and allowing it to season gave the wood time to dry so that, after thorough preparation, the stain could penetrate rather than simply sitting near the surface.
The decision was about more than changing the colour of the deck. In its unfinished state, the new lumber drew more attention to itself than we intended. The warmer stain now softens that contrast, creating a more natural connection between the original brick, the cedar, and the new addition. Rather than reading as another element added onto the house, the deck now helps visually connect the original and new sections.
Creating another place to gather
The great room was designed to feel expansive, bright and connected to the landscape. In the lower level, we could create its counterpart: somewhere more intimate, a little moodier and naturally suited to movie afternoons, winter evenings, or simply giving family and guests another place to gather.
Building beneath the new great room created the space for a dedicated media room at the western end of the lower level, with a games or flex space in the centre. Two large west-facing windows keep the landscape present and prevent the media room from feeling too closed in, while the deck overhead shades and diffuses the light. The same western exposure that fills the great room above feels softer and more sheltered here.
Here, the fireplace could become the feature. Upstairs, we kept the fireplace deliberately quiet so it wouldn’t compete with the view. Downstairs, we did the opposite. The lower level needed a focal point of its own, so we allowed the fireplace wall to carry much more visual weight. Its symmetry gave us the freedom to introduce stronger colour, texture and pattern without the room feeling overwhelmed by them.
The brick itself came from Marshall. When we opened the original exterior wall between the kitchen and the new addition, we carefully saved it rather than throwing it away. Jamie cut each brick into veneer, and Liam relaid it across the fireplace wall, carrying a piece of the original house into a space that hadn’t existed before.
The details around it were designed for how the room would actually be used. Recessed shelving frames the fireplace symmetrically, while concealed conduit carries television cables into the cabinetry below. Metal mesh fronts allowed us to hide the media equipment without interfering with its signal. Against the brick, metal, flooring and deeper tones, the rug adds another layer of pattern, warmth and softness.
We leaned into the lower level’s naturally quieter light. Stoneware carries across the walls and ceiling, creating a warmer, more enveloping feeling, while a brighter off-white through the naturally darker center of the basement keeps those spaces connected without making them identical.
Upstairs, the landscape is the feature. Downstairs, we let the room turn inward.
Letting old and new belong together
The addition could be different without feeling disconnected.
Marshall had a strong architectural foundation: traditional brick, a simple roofline, symmetrical openings and details worth respecting. But its distinctly suburban exterior felt somewhat removed from the openness and rural character of its setting.
We kept the original house in brick and introduced cedar shake on the new great-room addition, bringing a more relaxed quality to the architecture.
Before construction began, we unified the existing brick with a custom blend of Farrow & Ball’s Mahogany and Singed Red masonry paint. The deeper, earthy red softened the contrasting quoining and gave the original house a quieter, more cohesive appearance while respecting its traditional architecture.
The brick and cedar gave Marshall two distinct architectural personalities. Rather than making one imitate the other, we looked for ways to connect them.
We restored the original eave returns that had been covered over and repeated that detail on the new west gable. The cedar was finished in a custom transparent stain that relates to the cream tones we chose for the original house, while coordinating exterior finishes helped bring the two materials together.
At the rear, the addition could be freer. Large sliding doors and windows on three sides open the great room toward the landscape, allowing the architecture to respond more directly to its setting.
The landscaping was equally considered. New trees and plantings were carefully positioned to create a greater sense of enclosure as they mature, while preserving the countryside views that made the property special in the first place.
There is still one connection we would make if Marshall were ours to continue. A timber-framed front entry could carry some of the warmth of the rear addition and the Douglas fir detailing inside to the front of the home. An additional layer of roof at the entrance would give the front door greater architectural presence and weather protection, while helping balance the garage, which projects forward of the main house.
Perhaps that will become part of Marshall’s next chapter.
The goal was never to make the new look old, or the old look new. It was to find enough common ground between them that the house could feel at ease in its setting.
Knowing when
light should speak
Knowing when light should speak
Lighting can shape a room without becoming the thing you notice first.
We thought about light in layers: what was needed for a task, what could create atmosphere, and when a fixture itself should say something.
In the great room, a statement chandelier would have competed with the very thing the space was designed around: the landscape. Instead, recessed lighting sits quietly within the architecture, illuminating the room without interrupting the view.
The kitchen pendants needed a different approach. Slender brass rods give them presence over the island, while compact opal glass shades preserve the view beyond. They bring a little traditional refinement without demanding too much attention.
At the range, a custom diffused LED strip was built directly into the tiled hood, washing the cooking surface with light while keeping its source almost invisible.
Elsewhere, decorative lighting adds personality. In the laundry, glass-shaded candelabras bring visual presence against the cabinetry, while in the primary bedroom, traditional and contemporary fixtures sit comfortably together.
Dimmers allow each room to change with the time of day and how it’s being used. Bright task lighting can soften into a quieter, more atmospheric glow.
At night, light settles into the house in layers, creating warmth and enough shadow for the rooms to feel restorative as the day ends.
Building Marshall
Bringing Marshall to life meant more than executing the design.
It meant solving problems, working through difficult details together, and putting time into work that would never be seen once the house was finished.
Some challenges were evident from the beginning; others revealed themselves as we got further into the house. Outdated electrical work, smoke damage, inadequate insulation and ventilation, and drainage problems all needed attention before the more visible transformation could take shape.
We upgraded the electrical service, corrected underlying deficiencies and carefully treated the existing surfaces and ductwork to address the smoke exposure. Much of this work would never be seen in the finished home, but it was no less important than the transformation everyone could see.
Other challenges emerged during construction.
On Christmas Eve, I climbed onto the newly framed addition and realized the intersection of the new and existing roof planes would create a problem for water drainage.
With the roofing crew waiting to continue, Jamie and I worked through the roof geometry with our framer. We extended a new roof plane over the adjoining portion of the original house, creating one continuous plane.
Some of our favourite parts of Marshall required a different kind of attention.
The herringbone shower demanded patience and precision, while the curved shower wall downstairs presented its own challenges. The tiled range hood, with its mitred edges and integrated lighting, required design and installation to be considered together.
The custom mantel began with a drawing, but we worked out the build-up detail at full scale, refining it until it felt right. Once finished, it was protected while the stone was carefully installed around it.
We used manufactured cabinetry in the larger spaces and had the bathroom vanities custom built where we wanted more soul. We installed the cabinetry ourselves, adapting details where needed. In the media room, two supplied base cabinets became the starting point for a built-in we fabricated around the fireplace.
We each have areas where one of us naturally takes the lead, and others where our skills overlap. Our sons, Liam and Harry, were part of the build too, taking on more as their skills grew.
Jamie cut the salvaged brick from the original exterior wall into veneer, and Liam laid it around the lower-level fireplace.
Harry showed a patience for detailed work that we hadn’t expected. He took on finishing the new stair treads and risers as we refinished the existing staircase, along with other details that required just as much care.
Throughout it all, we worked together—designing, building and problem-solving as the house took shape. We began with a carefully considered plan, but renovation inevitably reveals things that drawings cannot fully anticipate. Being involved in both the design and the build meant we could respond to those moments without losing sight of what we were trying to achieve.
Marshall was shaped by both the plan and the decisions made in bringing it to life.
The Result
A home that belongs here.
The plan turns toward the landscape.
The great room opens to it.
The windows frame it.
The decks extend life into it.
The primary bedroom wakes to the western view.
Marshall has changed considerably. The house is more open, more connected to the landscape and better suited to the way people live within it. But the things that first drew us here — the land, the light, the views, and the quiet character of the setting — were here long before we arrived.
And some of the property’s connections run much deeper than ours.
Across the road live John and Anne. John is related to Marshall’s previous owner and grew up playing in the creek behind the house and farming the land nearby. He has known this place his whole life.
As the renovation unfolded, they became a familiar part of our days here. John kept an eye on the property when we were away and helped clear snow in the winter. He and Anne brought grapes from their backyard for the kids, and there were plenty of conversations and waves across the road. They joked that watching Marshall change had become their daily entertainment.
John told us how glad he was to see the house being cared for. Knowing how far back his connection to the property reached, that meant a great deal to us.
Marshall has been part of this landscape much longer than we’ve been part of its story.
We came here because we saw something worth celebrating and we made the changes we believed would help the house live more fully within its setting. Now, with our chapter complete, Marshall is ready for someone else to discover what makes it special.
Could Marshall be your home?
Marshall is currently on the market. View the Realtor.ca listing
STEP INSIDE — explore Marshall through photography
STEP INSIDE Explore Marshall through photography.