At the start of 2023, my partner and I were looking to purchase a home in Calgary. We had visited a few open houses but hadn’t fallen in love with anything. We even reached out to custom homebuilders but quickly realized that was out of our budget for the neighbourhood we wanted. Then we saw a rendering for a future spec home on a corner property in the area. Modern yet inviting, the three-storey house was to be 3,300 sq. ft., with construction starting soon. Intrigued, we met with the builder.
Naturally, as a professional interior designer, the first thing I asked was if I could redesign everything. I wanted to change the proposed floorplans and reselect all the builder-grade finishes and fixtures. To our surprise, the builder agreed, with the caveat that I stay within their budget and schedule and utilize their preferred trades and vendors. Up for the challenge, we purchased the un-built home and began its redesign.
First, a few upgrades
Wanting to add future value to the home, we negotiated upgrades upfront that were included in the final cost of the house. We added air conditioning, tankless hot water and smart thermostats. We added a wine fridge to the kitchen. The builder had budgeted engineered hardwood for the main and second floors only, but we had them run the hardwood up to the third level as well.
Some noticeable flaws — and changes
One of the first things I noticed on the builder’s original plans was the kitchen design — it just wasn’t functional. With any kitchen layout, you want to consider the proximity of your main work centres to each other. These are typically the fridge, sink and cooktop (or range). You should be able to move around your kitchen with ease between these three areas without having to travel too far, but at the same time, you don’t want them too close. As a general rule of thumb, we space each of these appliances four to nine ft. apart from one another. This is known as the kitchen work triangle or “golden triangle”. In the builder’s plans, the fridge and range were more than 15-ft. apart and located on opposite ends of the kitchen, so I moved them around to be closer together.
Next, I enlarged the pantry to include more storage and decided to change the length of the kitchen island, which was originally set to be 12-ft. long. Typically, quartz slabs are only 10-ft. long and I didn’t want a seam in the middle of the counter, so I shortened the island and added a waterfall edge.
In addition to the new plans, I provided the builder with a millwork package that included a reconfigured, more functional laundry room. We reimagined the primary bedroom walk-in closet to include shelves for shoes and some drawers and we looked at the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry to make sure we maximized storage.
The finishes
Once the functionality of the various spaces was sorted, I moved on to the finishes. Like I do for every design project, I created a look-and-feel mood board to capture the design aesthetic we wanted for the space. I also built a 3-D model to work through the design.
We met with the builder’s preferred vendors and chose the best finishes from their in-stock inventory. For the flooring, we went with a brushed European white oak, engineered hardwood in a warm medium tone. I chose a thinner five-inch-wide plank instead of the much wider plank you often see in spec homes.
I opted for white oak wood cabinetry with a warm glaze finish throughout the house and contrasting black and white quartz for the kitchen. For the hardware, I mixed the metal finishes to add visual interest to the space.
Budget buster
One of the biggest constraints we faced was the decorative lighting; we were only given a $5,000 allowance from a lighting vendor we didn’t love. After countless hours of looking through their inventory, we finalized our selection. We did choose to pay out of pocket for a few additional light fixtures from other suppliers to elevate the design, but this was the only thing we did that went beyond the builder’s budget.
Final touches
The final step was selecting new furniture and accessories to integrate with the pieces we already owned.
While this corner property was intended to be a basic builder’s-grade spec house, we reconsidered the entire space and transformed it into a custom-designed home in just a matter of months. We started the process in Feb. 2023 and moved in at the end of December. The final result? A space we love that we can truly call our own.