David Small Designs has become one of the GTA‘s dominant luxury custom home design firms. Projects now adorn multiple cities including Mississauga, Oakville and Burlington with more being planned each consecutive year. I’ve started profiling successful design firms to help bring attention to key players who are setting the standard for high end home construction in our neighbourhoods. David Small Designs is right there in the top tier.
Design
Starting from humble beginnings, David Small completed his design education and then jumped right into building homes. Over the years a great team has been formed and a collaboration of various design entities was implemented. Lets begin by looking at what is a perfect fusion of traditional and modern design. The image here shows my favourite David Small Designs home exterior. As you can tell it features stone façades and sloped roofs, but with character and a unique shape which flows naturally.
This David Small Designs home is located in a very exclusive part of the Platinum Belt in Oakville. Its exterior design blends perfectly into the surrounding vegetation and offers a serene setting. However beautiful the exterior is, the true beauty lies in the transition within the interior. This is the key to why I enjoy this firm’s work. Immediately upon setting foot within this spectacular estate the transformation takes place. No longer do you feel the traditional appointments from outside. Instead there is a clean utilization of zebra wood, stone and iterations of a pure contemporary layout. David Small Designs blends these values with certain traditional details, like the arched windows and colour hues that reflect the exterior tones. It really is a marvelous piece of work and I tip my hat to the designers and clients for having such an appealing vision. For the full image portfolio you can head here.
David Small Designs has recently moved into a slightly more contemporary style which echoes inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright. Over the years David Small Designs have really honed their craft and churned out purely original, tasteful results. I suppose it’s partly due to an overall change in taste among people who are in the market for such endeavors. An evolution of an architecture era, the great designers will adjust and follow suite whereas those who are not as fluid in their creative applications will simply be left behind. David Small Designs realized this and put out a project that sealed their membership in the contemporary community.
Process
A home builder of David Small Designs‘ stature needs a respectable abode to call their own residence. David does not disappoint. Fueled by the growing business and success he set out to build something for his family. What’s unique is the entire development was documented and then presented as a sort of “case study”. Usually there’s total privacy and an air of secrecy surrounding these luxury home builds, but David decided to provide full access to the story. People like me get excited about this. The home is very reminiscent of the Fallingwater design and is a prime example of organic architecture. The use of wood, stone and concrete is spectacular and creates something that is completely unique for Mississauga. These are the types of designs which need to become more prevalent in our neighbourhoods. The multi tiered flooring gives depth and accentuation to the whole layout. It provides flavour and emphasizes great lot use. Another sad trend which is becoming terribly common is an unbalanced home to lot size ratio. This David Small Designs home shows what a perfect home/lot ratio looks like.
As you can see from the pictures, the home is simply beautiful. It has sparked inspired clients who now have a visual, physical representation of what David Small Designshas to offer. Very smart move on their part by nailing several goals with a single build. For the full set of images and the design story, head over to the David Small Designs page. The image depicting the home under construction is located in the Platinum Belt and is selling for close to $7,000,000 just to give you an idea of the price ranges we’re looking at.
Transformative
Flipping back to a more traditional project which really shows a drastic difference in styles, we’ll observe a recently sold approximately $4,000,000 project in Lorne Park. The surrounding homes all have similar styles with one having been built by David Small Designs across the street. Therefore the exterior walls and overall atmosphere needed to be cohesive for the intersection. The interior is a whole different story! Just compare the kitchen shot to the outdoor view. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the Copper House by David Small Designs has really shown that two drastically different design palettes can be successfully integrated.
To wrap things up I want to point out a giant estate which was finished recently for a client who wanted a “European inspired” home. The size is approximately 13,000 square feet. The location is up in the Burlington Bluffs, a hidden neighbourhood of exclusive, high-end luxury homes nestled upon Mt Nemo. It is David Small Designs‘ largest construction project and oozes of ostentatious luxury. For full details and David’s personal success story, go ahead and visit the David Small Designs website.
