At Van Dolder’s Custom Exteriors, enhancing your home’s curb appeal is what makes us tick. Harmonizing personal taste with the beauty of local surroundings is a craft— one that we’ve spent over 50 years refining.
In early 2018, Van Dolder’s Custom Exteriors met with a family who had just recently started the process of building their dream home in the Cobble Beach neighbourhood. With many months of hard work now behind us and countless people to thank, we’re proud to show you this gorgeous home’s exterior. Let’s take a closer look!
The Ask
When designing the exterior of a custom home, the home’s surrounding environment and the family’s personal preferences play a big role in product choice, colour selection and final design. For this Cobble Beach home, we were tasked with merging the coastal ambiance of Georgian Bay as well as the surrounding forested areas with the family’s liking for contemporary style. The family also loved their previous home’s wood siding and wanted to maintain the warmth and richness of wood in their new home’s exterior—without the exhausting maintenance of traditional wood siding.
The Solution
Starting with the siding and knowing the family’s fondness for wood, we chose Maibec’s Genuine Wood Channel Siding. Maibec’s Genuine Wood Siding has a textured finish and follows strict quality standards throughout its entire manufacturing process. This offered the homeowners the beauty of wood siding that they were looking for, but with increased protection from the damaging effects of the sun, wind, heat and rain that are all too common along the coast of Georgian Bay. To complete the home’s exterior and compliment the genuine wood channel siding, we also selected matching Maibec Genuine wood shingles and trim boards.
One of the most significant advantages to Maibec’s products is their extensive selection of colours and their ability to match custom colour choices as well. In this case, the homeowners worked with Interior Designer, Wendy Bye, to select a Benjamin Moore colour for their siding. They simply provided a colour sample, and Maibec was able to match it perfectly— giving the homeowners a high-quality factory stained shade that seamlessly fit the colouring of the surroundings.
When we think about this home and what sets it apart from others, we think of the gorgeous view. To appreciate the beauty of the forested areas and the Georgian Bay coastline the architect’s plans called for a set of magnificent, one-of-a-kind, 16-foot curved windows along the eastern side of the home. For these very special windows, we called upon our friends at Bigfoot windows to craft and supply the unique size and shape that were needed.
Once we had this feature window crafted, we enlisted Ostaco’s Enersense windows for the remainder of the home. Ostaco’s Enersense windows require very little maintenance, provide a secure seal and have achieved the highest ENERGY STAR® rating for energy efficiency. And for this family, energy efficiency was a top priority.
As you can see, we also chose black colouring for the windows to achieve the family’s desired contemporary look. Black windows are very much on-trend right now and continue to be a clean, simple way to achieve several looks. Pulling from the home’s surroundings, we also like how the black colouring resembles the depths of Georgian Bay.
A front door says a lot about a home. It’s the first thing to welcome guests into your home and influence their initial impression. And for this home, we knew ordinary simply wouldn’t suffice. This is why we worked with Bigfoot once again to create a one-of-a-kind entry door that reflects the uniqueness of the rest of the home. For the rest of the home’s doors, we used Ostaco’s black painted doors for a bold, yet elegant appearance. Many of these doors were outfitted with built-in retractable screens from Phantom Screens to allow the family to take advantage of the natural coastal ventilation. These screens were an easy choice for many reasons. On top of providing natural ventilation, they also offer protection from harmful UV rays and can accommodate single, double and even oversized door openings.
Cobble Beach is known for its exquisite coastal views and surrounding scenery. So as with any home with a view, we knew the outdoor living space needed to provide the family with space to enjoy the views as well as the company of family and friends. This led us to build the deck using decking from AZEK’s Vintage Collection. This gave us the appearance of real wood that the family wanted, but with superior durability and much less maintenance— meaning the deck will be there for many gatherings. To complement the home’s contemporary style, we selected the Azek decking in the mahogany colouring. This gave it a rich, timeless appearance, while its dramatic streaking and variations from board-to-board, captured the beauty of real wood.
The view from the deck is awesome and to preserve an unobstructed view from the deck we used our very own clear glass railing system. Each railing system is custom-made to our client’s specifications and provides spindle-free views on all sides.
And last but not least are the soffit and fascia. Many don’t realize, but soffit and fascia play an integral role in the structural integrity of a home. Properly installed soffit provides ventilation that’s essential to good air circulation, which reduces excess moisture that can cause rotting and decay of a roof’s structure— not to mention they can make or break the look of your home’s exterior. On the front porch, we used material from Maibec in Muskoka brown, which has natural wood tones that complimented the real wood siding perfectly. And for the rest of the house, we used Gentek’s Canadian-made black vented aluminum soffit and smooth fascia.
Product Breakdown
Siding
- Maibec Resistech Engineered Lap Siding in Nautilia on the north, south and west side
- Maibec Genuine Wood Channel Siding with a textured finish in sun-kissed beige on the east side.
Shingles & Trim Boards
- Maibec Real Wood shingles and trim boards in custom Benjamin Moore colour.
Windows
- Bigfoot 16’ x 14’ curved window in black.
- Ostaco Enersense windows in black for the remainder of the home.
Entry Doors
- One-of-a-kind Bigfoot front entry door with thumbprint sign-in.
- Ostaco black painted doors around the rest of the home— many of which are outfitted with built-in Phantom screens.
Patio Door
- Ostaco sliding door in black.
Decking
- AZEK Vintage Collection decking in Mahogany.
Railings and Columns
- Van Dolder’s complete aluminum railing system. All glass, no posts.
Soffit, Fascia and Eaves
- Front porch used Maibec Muskoka Brown soffit and black fascia boards.
- The rest of the house used Gentek’s vented soffit and smooth fascia in black aluminum.
There are many decisions to be made when it comes to deciding a home’s exterior. Not only colours but the material and features too. For most people, it can be an extremely intimidating and stressful task, but with the help of the Home Team and our 50+ years of experience crafting custom home exteriors, we can help make that task a lot easier.
We want to extend a special thanks to Interior Designer, Wendy Bye, for her influence throughout this project as well as to all the men and women who helped in bringing this family’s coastal retreat to life. If you have any questions regarding any of the products in this article or are ready to get started on your home improvement project, don’t forget to Ask The Home Team. We’d be more than happy to answer any questions you might have.