Gallery Residence

Burdifilek Inc.

Short description

A firm crafted the interior of a forever home steeped in serenity and artistry. The 25,000-square-foot contemporary house was imagined for a philanthropic family that hosts events, in support of various charities. Familiar with a traditional design style, the client sought to redefine their sensibilities toward a bolder contemporary expression.

One of the main challenges was to maintain a level of warmth and comfort with or without guests. When moving between rooms, fluidity is revealed through a harmonizing palette of natural woods, quarried stone, and soft textures. Understated tones are countered with dramatic sightlines that lead toward particular works of art, and custom finishes give each room its own mood and uniqueness.

The entryway features a minimalist fireplace clad in the same French limestone used on the hallway floors. The Base moulding is eye-catching, with a pregnant curve integrated into its profile. Fourteen-foot portal doorways lead to the great room where groupings of custom soft furnishings allow for small gatherings to feel intimate. Warmth is felt in the cashmere-covered walls and a silk-thread custom rug revealing a tonal shift from silver to deep charcoal at the edges. While the grand room is intended for sophisticated entertaining, any undue formality is loosened with such grounding touches as stacks of wooden logs beside the hearth and glass doors that open to groupings of casual outdoor living spaces.

A secondary entrance leads to a solarium where potted trees visually connect to a vine-covered wall beyond. Providing a seating area for arriving guests, this all-glass room is highly curated with limited-edition furnishings sharing space with 20th-century works of art. It is among the most artistically expressive rooms in the house and speaks to the trust the clients had in developing a new visual language. To inspire and deepen their understanding of contemporary design and art, the designer travelled with his clients to visit galleries and furniture showrooms specialized in functional art objects.

Adjacent to the solarium is a dining room with padded silk walls that help to dampen ambient sounds, and four custom china cabinets that are intended to visually recede into the room’s overall simplicity. Rather than a chandelier serving as the focal point, the designer chose to turn the gaze toward two adjacent features, one being a set of cast glass doors custom-made and which separate the dining room from the solarium. When closed at night, they create a lantern effect, and provide a theatrical moment.

The other feature visible from the dining room is a carved stone staircase that spirals between three floors. Its sinuous curves are countered by a cut-glass pendant light that hangs from the ceiling for 30 feet. The vision was realized in collaboration with an artisan who developed the light’s bijou presence by adopting a gemstone cutting technique customarily used by jewellers. The craftsmanship behind each piece of convex glass enables the fixture to cast dazzling patterns of refracted light.

With catering a common occurrence, the kitchen can accommodate plating up to 40 servings at once. Natural wood, black-stained Baltic pine and marble found in other areas of the home reappear here, in the cabinetry and on the walls. The entire kitchen is brought into visual harmony with a countertop made of translucent quartzite.

Private realms are found on each floor, including an indoor pool and a family room clad in brushed and black-stained Baltic pine panels. The principal bedroom, which faces onto a structured garden, is flanked by his and hers dressing rooms with a tiny cubby area carved out, for making a morning espresso without going to the kitchen.

Every room expresses the firm's commitment to detail, composition and beauty. The result is a powerful visual statement that is also highly functional.