It used to be a “farmhouse” was simply a house built on agricultural land. Not any more.
White, clapboard-sided farmhouse-style homes are popping up more frequently in Victoria’s residential neighbourhoods, proving the style, dating back to pioneer days, has a wide and timeless appeal.
The main difference between an older country farmhouse and a modern city farmhouse is that the latter is likely to have a grand interior that includes features such as lots of large windows to let in as much natural light as possible, open-concept floor plans and gourmet kitchens with luxury finishes, such as granite or quartz countertops.
Since starting his Victoria construction business 10 years ago, Sunny Kahlon of Kahlon Developments has seen many trends come and go, but says the farmhouse style has stuck around.
“It’s one of those looks that for some reason people love,” he says.
It’s also the style he recommended to his best friend when Kahlon built a custom home in Victoria for him and his family in late 2019 and early 2020 — a house that won Kahlon three top prizes the first time he ever submitted an entry to the Victoria Residential Builders Association CARE (Construction Achievements and Renovations of Excellence) awards, announced in November.
The farmhouse he built won gold in the category of best single-detached custom home under $1 million, and two silvers for best kitchen and best powder room for a detached custom home under $1 million.
“The homeowners wanted to make something fabulous and brought their ideas to me and I brought my ideas. We did it together,” says Kahlon, who began the project by finding the perfect neighbourhood for the couple to build their dream home.
That turned out to be on a quiet street in Fairfield, within walking distance of Gonzales Beach.
The 3,300-square-foot house replaced a 1940s rancher with only 1,200 square feet of living space. Although the new house is considerably larger than the original one, the homeowners didn’t want their custom home to stick out in the neighbourhood of mostly Arts and Crafts bungalows and small ranchers.
The result is a home that seamlessly blends modern with tradition and highlights “farmhouse” elements such as rustic wood and exposed beams.
“We wanted to build something that fits into the neighbourhood. We didn’t want to go super-modern. We wanted new but for it to blend in,” says the homeowner. “Our concept was essentially for how our family lives. Open-concept was essential for our family, but we also like having an area that is separate for the kids.”
The home also has indoor-outdoor flow, he says, with the backyard accessible from the great room via accordion sliding doors.
The couple’s two preschool-aged children each have their own large bedrooms and lots of room in the house to play. There’s a second seating area/television room off the main entryway, along with the great room adjacent to the kitchen, with built-in cabinetry that can hide some of their toys and open shelves to display decorative items.
The second floor has a separate laundry room and four bedrooms, with one being used as an office.
The master bedroom is the largest of the bedrooms, with vaulted ceilings that further add to a sense of spaciousness. There’s also a walk-through closet, concealed behind the room’s main feature wall, and an ensuite with heated floors, soaker tub and shower with two rain heads. The white porcelain tile, laid in a herringbone pattern, goes from floor to ceiling.
“This was a unique build. We didn’t want a cookie-cutter house, so we custom-designed the plan,” says the homeowner.
His wife adds that it was easy to communicate with Kahlon to ensure many of their own ideas were incorporated into the design, like building a hidden pantry behind one of the cupboard doors in the kitchen.
“We’d seen through Pinterest and Instagram things that we liked and a hidden pantry is a new thing. I love having a hidden pantry where I can put all my [smaller] appliances,” she says. “I like having bare countertops.”
A request for plenty of floor-to-ceiling cabinetry resulted in so much storage space, “I can’t even fill all the cabinets,” she says.
The kitchen also has a double fridge, Wolf gas range, wine fridge, a huge kitchen island with a sink and enough room to seat four.
Two gold pendant lights over the kitchen island make a striking design impact in the open-concept kitchen/dining/living space. And while this grand room, done in a neutral colour palette, stands out, the boldest design choices are in the smallest room in the house, the award-winning powder room on the main floor.
Here, a 136-kilogram (300-pound) solid granite sink was installed into the walls so that it “floats” above the white floor tiles. Steel beams had to be specially manufactured for the sink to be supported in the wall.
The power-room walls also make a statement, with one wall fully tiled in black hexagon-shaped tiles and the other walls painted black, which helps keep the focus on the white floating sink. Originally, the room was painted off-white, but the couple switched to black to make a bolder statement.
One must-have request from the couple was a full-height, two-bedroom basement suite that didn’t feel like a basement in case an extended family member, like a parent, ever needs to live with them.
The suite’s ceiling is nine feet high, just slightly under the main floor’s 10-foot ceilings.
That suite ceiling height was one of the biggest challenges of the build, since it required having to dig 12 feet below ground and remove 60 truckloads of dirt, says Kahlon.
“It was a narrow lot, so it was super-tight and one of the trickier parts of the job. But we wanted a comfortable space if a family member was ever to live there.”
Although the property was purchased in May of 2019, they weren’t able to get the demolition permit until September of that year. But after that, the build went quickly, with the foundation and dig happening in October and drywallers working by December.
“It speaks to his organization,” says the homeowner of Kahlon. “His team of people just delivered.”
By March 2020, just when COVID hit and British Columbians were being asked to stay home, the house was completed and the young family was able to move in, six months after the first shovel hit the ground.
kpemberton@shaw.ca
