Touch of Spain takes root in Watermark
Luxurious show home priced at $4.5 million in Bearspaw area has Spanish-tuscan feel
When a chinook blows over the foothills, people living in a new home in Watermark at Bearspaw could be forgiven for imagining it’s a warm Mediterranean wind.
The new Wolf Custom Homes show home, which opens today, features Spanish revival architecture, including arches, porticos, rough stone and fine details.
In designing the $4.5-million house, Wolf Custom Homes fed a desire to create something really different architecturally for the Calgary area.
A slab of crushed Italian beach glass the colour of the Mediterranean was the nugget of inspiration for the lavish in- terior. “It has a Spanish-Tuscan feel to it,” says Miles Dowie, general manager for Wolf Custom Homes.
“It’s not like any other home people have seen in Calgary. We wanted to create something new and unique. This style hasn’t been done here.”
Like so many beautiful creations, the interior of this one started at a baker’s table.
Interior designer Deborah Harrison’s vision for the inside of the home evolved from the turquoise glass anchoring the bakers table in the home’s kitchen.
You can imagine spreading chocolate on this to shave curls from, she says, running her fingers over its cool surface.
I wanted you to come into this villa and feel like you’ve gone away somewhere special. DEBORAH HARRISON
Harrison’s concepts often start in the kitchen, having worked as a chef in her first career.
“There is a thread of turquoise throughout this house,” she says.
“It started right from the Mediterranean. I wanted you to come into this villa and feel like you’ve gone away somewhere special.
“It started with the green glass. It was the first thing I created my palette around.”
Around that slab, the rest of the interior grew to complement the Mediterranean look and feel of the architecture. It mixed stone and brick, hand-trowelled plaster and little windows up high to bring in shafts of light.
The villa is 5,812 square feet on the main and upper floors, and 2,832 square feet on the lower level for a total of 8,644 square feet of developed space.
With its varied exterior elevations, the home holds many surprises, such as the The wine room has its own bar, left. soaring tower above the entrance foyer. “This tower from the outside looks less grand,” says Harrison. “It’s hidden away in all the roof pitches and lines.”
The home creates a strong sense of movement by alternating wall surfaces from hand-trowelled plaster, to fine wallpaper to bringing the exterior rough stone walls indoors, giving a feeling of passages in a castle.
Finely set smooth brick, found on the arches between rooms, ties the elements together.
Hand-carved natural walnut floors, terracotta tile, and wool carpet alternate hard and soft finishes underfoot. Luxurious details in the home include beaten copper sinks, bronzefinished fixtures and archways.
While the home has strong masculine lines, luxurious curtains at various doorways soften the edges.
The Wolf Custom Homes show home is the fourth in the parade to open. The others are by Homes by Us, Trickle Creek Homes and Astoria Homes — and Albi Homes plans to open its show home next year, likely in the late summer.
At build out, Watermark at Bearspaw will have 469 singlefamily estate homes and 101 luxury duplex villas. The lots are expansive — ranging from 0.1 to 0.4 hectares with frontages of 80 to 150 feet — and include full services.
Lots in the current phase are about 75 per cent sold. The community is starting to take shape, with the first residents having moved in earlier this fall.
“We think it’s really going to capture people’s attention,” says Matthew Jones, associate vicepresident of sales and marketing for MacDonald Development Corp., which is the company behind the Watermark project.
“From a community point of view, it lets people realize that it really is a neighbourhood where you can build any type of home you want as long as they meet our architectural guidelines — which are that the house has to look fantastic. There are all sorts of styles in our community.”
The house by Wolf Custom Homes has already caught buyers’ imaginations, says Jones, adding a similar home is being built elsewhere in the neighbourhood.
Welcoming visitors to the Wolf show home is a gargoyle set above the archway into the gatehouse.
Straight through the open-air breezeway are the front doors — an ornate iron and glass set of double doors from Hubard Iron Doors of California — with lighting set above. These open into the main entrance foyer, with views through arches in three directions.
To the left — through the vestibule with its built-in coat closets — is an intimate den to one side, with the entrance to the great room to the other.
Three large windows frame the view of the Rockies, with a rocking chair placed near a corner of the room for quiet contemplation of the scenery.
The vaulted ceiling is detailed with fir beams. To the right, one end of the room is anchored by a stunning cast stone, wood-burning fireplace made from crushed cream travertine limestone.
Flanking the fireplace are two Juliet balconies, some arches with railings, and views through to the floor below.
To the left, two smooth brick arches delineate the dining room from the great room on one side and the kitchen on the far side.
At one end is a built-in dry bar with a glass and wood cabinet built-in, glittering with wine glasses.
To the left of the bar are stairs to the lower level and to the right is the passage to the butler’s pantry and the mud room.
The butler’s pantry is a wellthought-out storage space that includes a hideaway for large, big-box items.
The mud room includes builtin lockers and it has access to the four-car garage.
At the other end of the dining room, through another arch, is the hearth room, a more intimate living room with couches and chairs.
The kitchen creates an orbit of its own. The heart of a home, this one has ample space for working as well as visiting.
The dark wood cabinets reference kitchens of old, which had stand-alone pieces of furniture such as hoosier cabinets serving as storage units. As a result, the brick backsplash makes an appearance up the wall in one corner of the room.
The beautiful copper hood fan is set off by hand-painted black tiles set on end with a bright central pattern of colourful tiles centred below the fan.
Two large granite-topped islands provide plenty of work space. The table-style baking table holds a stunning turquoise crushed Italian beach glass and a shell-shaped copper vessel sink with hidden plumbing.
The larger island holds a large copper undermount sink and has an extended eating bar on two sides for maximum visiting space.
The kitchen opens onto the outdoor living room, a covered outdoor space complete with outdoor kitchen. In turn, this opens out onto the open-air patio.
Down a short set of stairs from the kitchen is the conservatory. A baby grand piano takes centre stage under a blue-sky ceiling and walls of windows.
A wrought iron double-door leads out on to the patio and a staircase to the back yard.
Following in the growing interest of indoor/outdoor living space, this home offers a variety of interpretations.
Through the arch to the right of the front entrance, a spiral staircase leads down into an open space two-storeys tall.
The stairs wrap around the exterior of a cylindrical wine cellar built with hand-trowelled brick, with a tile roof and curved built-ins inside.
The wood and terracotta tile stairs — with details including tile insets on the risers — lead to a lounge area that feels like an open air bar.
Juliet balconies look down into the lounge area from the great room above. A curved bar with seating for two attached to the exterior of the wine cellar is anchored and lit by a lamp post.
The lounge also offers access to the outdoors, with an intimate covered patio with three bistro tables that conjures the feeling of a streetside restaurant. Arches between the supports frame a view of the mountains.
The bar area includes wine fridges, a sink and dishwasher.
Next to the bar is the rec room. Two short sets of stairs flanking the fireplace lead down into the room.
Couches are set up for relaxing in front of the fire and a poker table anchors the back of the room. French doors lead out to the large covered outdoor living room.
Off in the left corner under the stairs to the main level, is a child-sized retreat, with a curtain that provides just the right amount of cover for spying, undiscovered, on the goings on in the rec room. “I really think there should be spaces for kids, too. This house is big enough that I’m sure there will be children here,” says Harrison.
Next to the stairs is the entrance to the home theatre with a projection TV. The movies are no doubt glamorous and that glamour has rubbed off in this room.
Thick, leopard skin-patterned carpet sets the atmosphere in the barrel-ceiling room. Couches twinkle with gold flecks in the fabric.
“I wanted it to feel like an old Italian theatre,” says Harrison.
“I felt that the couches were a little more refined. This is an intimate theatre.”
Through the large arch at the back of the rec room, two guest bedrooms with ensuites and walk-in closet are found to the left and the right.
Straight ahead and down some steps, the rough stone walls return, with alcoves holding suspended lights. The softness of the light is reminiscent of torch lighting.
The passageway leads to the billiards room, with built-in ledges on one side of the room for drinks and contemplating the perfect shot.
Outside this room is the covered outdoor fire pit area.
Through the billiards room is a short hallway with a change room and aromatherapy steam shower, a black enamel wall water fountain trimmed with painted tiles, and a cork-floored yoga room filled with natural light from a wall of deep windows.
The upper floor holds the bedrooms. The master bedroom is a relaxing retreat with a beautiful view of the mountains; it includes a corner fireplace.
The ensuite offers dual vanities and water closets. The view through the arches of the walkthrough double shower frames an intimate alcove that holds a copper soaker tub.
From the ensuite, there is access to the double-roomed, walk-through closets into the laundry room.
Next to the laundry room is a secondary bedroom with an ensuite.
The third bedroom on the upper level is across the hall from the main bath, as well as the stairs to the main level and the great room.
Not to be forgotten on the tour is the carriage house. It’s a separate suite, with double wooden doors located to the far right of the home when viewing from the front.
It also has a separate, smaller door into the main room, which holds a small kitchen and living space. It has elegant touches, such as a beaten copper sink and bar-sized refrigerator.
Down a set of stairs is the bedroom with an ensuite. The floorto-ceiling, plantationstyle doors on the closet delineate the height of the room and tie back to the features in the main house.
The beauty of this home is its livability. While it has a generous footprint, the rooms are large enough to be luxurious, but small enough to remain intimate, says Dowie.