Square footage isn't everything. Denis Liboiron and Brian Stonehocker held fast to this design doctrine during the five years it took to create, construct and decorate their mid-sized home, which presses from the edge of its Mill Creek neighbourhood into the treetops of the ravine.
About six years ago, they left their downtown loft for a leisurely walk along Mill Creek. Inspired by the area's natural landscape, they began pondering the possibility of ever living in a residential neighbourhood. But any home purchase, regardless of area, had to meet their strict, self-imposed regulations.
"I made a list," says Liboiron, an interior decorator and the owner of Doubletake Visuals. "It would have to be an end lot, no yard maintenance, close to downtown and modern." And two weeks later, just like magic, a lot on the edge of the ravine came up for sale. They jumped on the purchase and have never looked back.
Of course, the project wasn't without some tribulations. The double-wide lot needed to meet strict community and city requirements. So they joined forces with Chris Lemke, lead designer of Calgary-based Alloy Homes, to bring expertise to their imagination.
"By far, this was the most complicated site Alloy Homes has worked on," Lemke says. "But it is such an amazing lot. It's not just on the edge of the ravine - it's in the ravine. This made for big challenges, but the home is above and beyond anything we could have hoped for."
After the blueprints became bones and the bones became a home, the end result is a structure like nothing else in the city.
The back of the home employs a wall of glass that is not too dominant, but rather it works in relation to the the streetscape and forest on various levels. Simple and clean are the key phrases when describing the building's design. From its shape to its windows, to its boxy chrome faucets and its staircase railings - wrapped with sheets of metal pierced with minute rectangular holes - rectangles and simple lines are a recurring motif throughout the West Coast-modern home.
"Working with Denis and Brian was amazing," enthuses Lemke. "We were all on the same page, pulling out all the stops."
Liboiron's experience as an interior decorator combined with Stonehocker's enthusiasm for art, antiques and iconic furniture, which he enthusiastically collects, make for a home that is truly a work of art.
"Brian loves reading art history and design books and remembers the detailed traits of a piece and what makes it valuable. He has always wanted to be an antiques dealer," Liboiron says, sitting at his quartz kitchen island. "I have an inherent love for modern. We decided that these two could be meshed. We were striving for warm modern - it's not about jarring or clinical surfaces. This really is the hardest way to decorate because it involves unpacking our collections from the past eight years and then making it all gel."
The interior esthetic is pared-down and absent of mouldings, trim and ornate finishing. Instead, their original art and furniture collections form the mood.
If you're looking for details, they're under your feet, in limestone floors with imprints of fossils, shells and small creatures.
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