Retreat—it’s both the name of this three-bedroom house and the desire of its owners to trade the city for a more serene locale. After living in a Toronto condo for years, sports broadcaster Shawn McKenzie and his wife, Sydney Hoffman, a content creator, craved a deeper connection to nature. They found the potential to plant long-term roots in a forested and graded 1.5-acre property near Caledon, just a 45-minute drive from downtown Toronto. The next step: hire an architect who could deliver on their nature-forward vision.

The couple’s search led them to Trevor Wallace, the principal and owner of Reflect Architecture, a Toronto-based firm with 10 years of multidisciplinary work to its credit. “They found us on Instagram, as some of our clients do these days, and said, ‘We live in a shoebox condo, but neither of us need to work in an office,” Wallace says. “They wanted a special place where they could feel connected to the rural landscape and that’s cozy both summer and winter.”

The clients’ budget was fixed, so the plan for a 1,600-square-foot-dwelling needed to be concise and strategic. Reflect’s process began with asking McKenzie and Hoffman to produce what Wallace calls “a tone page,” a collection of 20 or so images that have nothing to do with architecture or design. The couple came back with photos of travel (most notably Italy’s rolling hills and vineyards) and tranquility. “This investigation helps guide us for design-related decisions. It also insures we are not reusing  things we’ve seen or used before,” he says. “Their tone page led us to think about the yin and yang of introvert and extrovert, and the juxtaposition of energy and entertaining versus the need for privacy and serenity.”

The next steps were more concrete, diving into the clients’ lifestyle needs, including privacy, guest accommodations, and an open kitchen. With those factors decided, Reflect contemplated where to locate the home to take best advantage of the approach to the house and the sun’s angles throughout the day.

The images of rolling hills and rock walls from the clients’ tone page inspired the romantically winding road into the property, where a glimpse of the house’s eastern wing is revealed through a thicket, yet it’s impossible to see inside. The home’s unique C shape was also configured for light, views of the Niagara Escarpment, and sustainability. “We sort of cranked the house in such a way that the sun would come into the primary bedroom in the morning and set on the fireplace wall in the evening,” Wallace explains. “We manipulated the architecture with the responsibility of grabbing those rays of light as it wraps around the building.” This was also an environmentally responsible choice—facing the largest windows north meant less need for air conditioning in warmer months. Retreat is also designed for future conversion to solar energy.

Speaking of those large north-facing windows and doors, Wallace notes that the horizontal mullions are tucked up above the ceiling and 12 inches below the floor, which allows for ventilation without bulkheads or diffusers. “We deployed a fair amount of resources to execute, but we wanted the floor to appear as if it’s sliding off seamlessly into the landscape,” Wallace says. “Like a good waiter, it’s one of those things most people wouldn’t notice, but it definitively enhances the experience.” When the central kitchen doors are open in the summer, the feeling defines indoor-outdoor living.

The concept for the interiors was “of the earth,” and the clients were keen on natural grey, brown, and green tones. The flooring is white oak, which was one of the couple’s splurges along with the windows and lighting. The stone hearth in the living room is made from Muskoka granite. “We wanted it to seem like the earth had produced this architecture and the fireplace was found stone,” Wallace says. The trapezoid-shaped kitchen island, which was designed to mimic the angling of the house at the intersection of the kitchen and living room, is made from veined natural stone.

Special consideration was given to the primary suite. At the end of the hallway running through the home’s private wing, a glazed door frames the entrance to a small courtyard—a quiet zone where the owners can start or end their day away from the open living spaces. “She wanted to wake up, put on her slippers, and meander out to that little area for a private coffee or yoga, especially when guests were over,” Wallace says of Hoffman’s request.

The couple’s stunning ensuite with free-standing tub has two full glass walls: “like a corner office,” the architect quips. Its openness makes the concept of “forest bathing” quite literal. Even so, the bathroom is incredibly private. “We planned the layout so that if guests are arriving up the driveway, they can sense the energy and see the view of the roaring fire but not see someone who might be stuck in the shower because they’re running late,” he says.

In the home’s eastern wing are two guest rooms and a shared bathroom, which offer flexibility for the future and comfortable places for city friends to stay in the meantime. Though the property and the single-storey house on it aren’t expansive, you’d never know it. “We worked to ensure Shawn and Sydney feel like they had hundreds of acres around them.”

Photography by Doublespace.

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