For designer Maria De Cotiis, there’s magic in collaboration
Homebuilder Marco De Cotiis needed a fresh start for himself and his three daughters, so he decided to try something different with his latest home. “I typically build Craftsman-style duplexes, but I wanted to venture off into a modern blend, like Norwegian style, but adding a touch of the neoclassical,” he says.
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Briefs don’t come more niche, but interior designer Maria De Cotiis — his sister — got it right away. After years of collaborating professionally, the duo had developed a shorthand.
“His old space was quite traditional, so we wanted to add elements of that design, but in a fresh new way,” she says. Designed in the aftermath of a divorce, the 1,850-square-foot, four-bedroom East Vancouver home melds Old World and modern to create a neoclassical look that’s a bit unexpected in a newly built duplex. But it was exactly what he wanted.
However, she did manage to pleasantly surprise him with a few clever design touches. For instance: tucking millwork into roof slopes to find extra storage space. But the whole home feels larger than it is, he says, leading him to nickname it his “mini mansion.” “It has all the attributes of a larger home, but in a smaller scale,” he says. “The layout is very practical. There’s no wasted space.”
On the home’s bright main floor, herringbone floors, decorative moulding and ceiling flourishes evoke a fin-de-siècle Parisian apartment, while stately modern touches, such as flat-profile cabinet doors, juxtapose contemporary lines.
Sculptural-looking counter stools, with spherical elements balanced in space, make a natural focal point, while blending into a soft neutral palette. “If we had done something dark, it would have taken away from that calming, monochromatic feel that we were after,” Maria says.
Since the kitchen occupies most of the main-floor footprint, the goal was to make it functional, but not visually dominating, Maria says. “We didn’t want it to feel too ‘kitcheny.’ We wanted it to be a showstopper.”
With this in mind, millwork runs the full length and width of the back wall, painted to match decorative moulding. “It feels very soft, and that’s also why we did one tone throughout for the walls and the cabinets and the crown moulding,” she says. A reeded panel adds subtle texture, while concealing the hood fan from view, over a Calacatta marble enclave housing the range.
In the living room, opposite, a curved sofa and chair pick up the neutral palette, while here black accents punctuate, giving the space a set-off feel of its own. A Samsung Frame TV poses as a painting when not in use, over a custom black marble mantle.
And speaking of dark marble: the primary bathroom is a study in the stuff. To achieve Marco’s deep and moody vision for the space, Maria layered black marble in several formats: slab counters, plus three shapes and sizes of tile.
Between that and art deco-inspired mirrors and sconces, the overall feel is that of a luxury hotel bathroom, regal and traditionally masculine. “He has three daughters, so I felt like he deserved a masculine space,” Maria says.
For the girls’ shared bathroom, she layered marble again, but in shades of dove grey and lavender, starting with a petal-shaped tile selected for the shower, then adding large-format checkerboard floor tile, rectangular mosaic tile and marble countertops. It’s a combination that might have clashed in lesser hands, but here, it all plays nicely. Metals are also intentionally mixed: polished nickel faucets with gold mirrors and fixtures. “We wanted a feminine bathroom, but not super feminine,” Maria says. “It’s something that they can grow up in.”
“In an ideal world, you would never be able to see your bathroom from your kitchen or your living space, but when the space is this small, you usually don’t have a choice,” she says. “And if that’s the case, then we better make it beautiful.”
Similarly, if you want a space to last, you’d better make it timeless, a descriptor that comes up frequently as she talks about the home and her design choices.
“It’s probably one of my favourite projects to date,” she says. “It just has such a great feeling to it. It’s about blending the best of both worlds: modern and traditional. It’s a space that’s going to endure.”
Construction: Marco De Cotiis