Design creates sense of arrival
Elegant house located within upscale area
When visitors open the front door of a house, the first design element they experience is the foyer.
In the case of estate homes, the foyer often provides a dynamic sense of arrival — and a suggestion as to the style of the rest of the home.
Prominent Homes Ltd. has taken the time and effort to put some thought into the design of the foyer that introduces visitors to its 3,074-square-foot Monroe show home in the upscale community of West Grove Estates.
The community was created by Bri-Mor Developments on the west side of Calgary.
“There is a sense of arrival with this home,” says area manager Angelo Gentili. “Visitors like the open concept feel of it, the casual elegance, the brightness and the large rooms that allow family member to have their own space when they want it.”
The model was created for West Grove Estates and there are five versions of the Monroe either under construction or planned within the neighbourhood, says Gentili.
Finished with a porcelain tile floor and large enough for a pair of cushioned benches that flank a corner table, the view from the foyer offers hints of the open-concept main living area of the home.
But it takes a full tour of this two-storey house to get a real appreciation of its elegance and everything it has to offer.
A matching set of curved, open-riser stairs lead to the unfinished basement and to the private area of the home’s upper floor.
To the right of the foyer, a handscraped maple floor passes a study that sits behind a pair of barn-style doors. The flooring also goes past a powder room on its way to a mud room with locker-style storage.
The entry from the frontdrive garage opens onto the mud room and continues into a walk-through butler’s pantry to the kitchen.
The butler’s pantry deserves a look because of the amount of open shelves offered, along with a quartz-topped cabinet with sink — and the fact that double doors open onto the formal dining room, which has a coffered ceiling and subtle indirect ceiling lighting.
The kitchen is a strong blend of casual good looks, usability and sociability. It’s large enough for gobs of cabinetry, with some doors highlighted with smoked glass inserts.
The kitchen has built-in stainless steel appliances and a chimney-style hood fan, along with mosaic tile backsplashes and quartz countertops.
The central island, which measures about 10 feet by four feet, has plenty of doors and drawers and provides more than enough space for food preparation while chatting with family or guests. One end of the island has seating for three people.
The adjacent casual dining nook area has two large win- dows and a door leading to the rear deck that has aluminum rails and glass panels.
The handscraped maple floor continues from the kitchen into the great room, where the focal point is a tile-faced fireplace flanked by built-in open shelves all tied together with a black-stained mantel.
The curved stairways are carpeted and finished with metal and wood banisters. At the top landing is a large bonus room with a vaulted ceiling and an open-to-below area that leads to a pair of smaller bedrooms, each with its own walk-in closet and ensuite.
But off the bonus room, a pair of solid french doors opens to the master bedroom with a vaulted ceiling. Just inside the entry is a large, carpeted walk-in closet/dressing room.
The master bedroom is carpeted and it includes a large window looking into a grove of aspen trees, not to mention a long horizontal slit window over the bed.
The stylish and spacious ensuite has a heated floor made of porcelain tile. It shares space with mosaic tile highlights partway up the walls and inside a glassed-in stall shower that stands next to a free-standing bath tub.
His-and-hers vanities finished with quartz countertops are separated by a floor-toceiling storage tower.