Growing up in the suburbs of Vancouver, actor Cobie Smulders always relished the chance to escape the city to explore the lush wilderness beyond it. “I had a lot of friends who had family cabins on the islands, or up in Whistler, and I would try to join their family vacations as much as possible,” she recalls. One of her childhood best friends was also the daughter of an architect, Elizabeth MacKenzie, and Smulders was fascinated by her office, with its fabric swatches and miniature model homes. “I always said to myself, if I ever get lucky enough to be able to build my own home, I want her to be my architect,” she tells AD.
Smulders on the home’s aged steel staircase in the foyer, which was designed by local maker Metal Mart. The chairs beneath it are from Restoration Hardware and upholstered with Kravet fabric. The chess table is custom and made by local carpenter Mike Simchuck.
ART: Glitchtextiles for PlaidFox Studios
Fast-forward a few decades: Smulders starred in the hit show How I Met Your Mother, among many other projects, and found herself in the position of not only being able to build her own cabin in British Columbia, but hiring MacKenzie to design it. “She was my first call,” Smulders says.
Going from that initial meeting to an actual finished home required patience. Smulders, along with her husband, comedian Taran Killam, spent years hunting for the ideal plot of land until Killam came across a large, remote parcel situated on an expansive lake and framed by mountains on all sides. “When we arrived, we just felt like it was right,” she says.
The dining table is large enough to accommodate a full house of guests. It’s a custom, smoked white oak piece from Lock & Mortice and is surrounded by chairs from Midj, curtains made from a Zimmer-Rohde fabric, and a custom rug made in India. The custom chandelier is by Allied Maker.
