Ivan Curic wanted the interior to have a lot of fancy details but also ensure that the interior appealed to everyone’s tastes. Curic added details such as faux silver leaf ceilings found in multiple rooms; custom wood panelling and a handcrafted, iridescent mosaic found on the floor in the master bath.
1329 WHITEOAKS AVE., MISSISSAUGA, ONT.
ASKING PRICE: $4,749,000
LOT SIZE: 100 by 271.25 feet
TAXES: Not yet assessed
AGENT: Loretta Phinney, salesperson, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd.
Ivan Curic is no stranger to building luxury, custom homes. For six years now, Mr. Curic, the owner of High Tower Homes, has been designing and building spec homes – but he says that 1329 Whiteoaks Ave. is his flagship build.
With good reason: The mansion, nestled in Lorne Park – one of Mississauga's wealthiest neighbourhoods – has 12 rooms, seven bathrooms and four fireplaces.
"[When I was planning this], I considered that it was going to be a house for sale so I decided we needed to do something that would stand out," he said.
The back story
The project began nearly two years ago, in late November, 2011. At the time, a much smaller, older house occupied the enormous lot.
Before his team broke ground, Mr. Curic had to size out exactly how big to build the new home. He worked with architect David Small and together they decided that the footprint of the new home had to be much bigger than the original – which Mr. Curic estimated was about 1,600 square feet – if it was going to hold its own on the massive lot with its equally massive mature trees. In the end, they settled on just under 6,400 square feet.
Mr. Curic knew that he wanted to build a French country-style house: something with a stone exterior, copper detailing and the sloping, natural slate roof that define the genre. But generally in true French country homes, the roofs shrink the grandeur of the upper floor rooms. To avoid this, Mr. Curic boxed out the upper floors to give all of the bedrooms – including the master suite – nine-foot ceilings.
To match the cottage-esque exterior, the interior of the home is a modern take on European traditional. Mr. Curic calls his style "transitional," but what really defines it are the details that are woven throughout.
"In a lot of larger condos, you see a lot of fancy details and I thought why don't homes of this size have some similar," he said. "So I tried to integrate that feel and bring that standard of building to this home."
These details include the faux silver leaf ceilings found in multiple rooms; custom wood panelling; a handcrafted, iridescent mosaic found on the floor in the master bath.
"When you build a home at this price, you have got to somehow accommodate to everybody's taste and styles since there is only so many people who will be in the market for it," Mr. Curic said.
Royal LePage salesperson Loretta Phinney is sure that Mr. Curic delivered on that front.
"This home is very traditional but has nice, clean lines," she said. "It's not overdone, it's elegant."
And it's generously spacious. For example, the back end of the main floor has a kitchen, breakfast area and family room that totals nearly 1,000 square feet. And just off of that space is a mudroom and laundry room that is bigger than most kitchens, points out Ms. Phinney.
Another luxuriously large space is the master suite. With its own foyer and sitting area, Mr. Curic estimates the two-tiered master is about 1,700 square feet., which is bigger than most condos in Toronto.
Favourite features
For Mr. Curic, though, his favourite room is actually a set of three: the wine cellars and tasting room. Found on the lower level, the two cellars (one for red, one for white) are built out of walnut and hold an estimated 7,000 bottles. Connecting them is the tasting room. With its exposed stone and a pendant light fixture that looks like it has been imported from an ancient chateau, the wine area certainly seals the European style of the home.
"I'm a big wine enthusiast so I try to do a nice wine cellar with every house," he said.
But the detail Mr. Curic is most proud of is found on the ceiling in the upper foyer on the second floor. Ms. Phinney's promotional material labels it an "ornate architectural floating ceiling," but it's really the crown jewel of the house.
Technically it's a dropped ceiling that has an intersecting circular cutout design placed over the skylight. At night, it casts a mesmerizing pattern onto the hallway, Mr. Curic says.
"That is a one of kind detail, but it was a challenge to get up," he said. "We cantilevered most of the wood frame into the walls and everything else was plywood laminated over top of each other."
"It took about a week to get up and about 40 sheets of plywood."
But all of the effort was worth it, said Mr. Curic, since it's an impressive, fitting detail for an opulent home.