Disney on Ice determine skating stars create a dream residence in Calgary

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For determine skating stars Alexandra Younger Palin and Eric Palin designing well-thought-out, fantastically crafted houses is second nature. The couple not too long ago created their dream residence in Calgary’s Rutland Park, renovating and re-imagining a 1,400-square-foot, mid-century bungalow to create a four-bedroom, light-filled family-friendly residence with hovering 16-foot ceilings and an interesting Scandinavian fashionable esthetic.

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The 2 skilled star determine skaters met in 2014, whereas on contract for Disney on Ice’s World of Fantasy. The couple circled the globe performing to worldwide audiences. In Toy Story 3, Alexandra performed the function of Barbie and was paired with — you guessed it — Eric, who performed Ken.

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“Little did we all know after we first met that we’d fall head over heels in love,” says Alexandra.

“Much more, we had no concept that we’d ultimately get married and begin constructing dream houses of our personal,” says Eric, realtor at Re/Max Home of Actual Property. 

The duo transitioned from their contract with Disney on Ice to working as determine skating stars on cruise ships and whereas doing so additionally started planning for his or her subsequent profession transfer, one that may permit them some stability and the power to reside nearer to household in Alberta.

The couple knew that they needed to parlay their love of design into their subsequent enterprise. That they had travelled to greater than 33 international locations with Disney on Ice and developed an appreciation for the ethos of design sensibilities worldwide.

Alexandra centered on finding out inside design, whereas Eric took his actual property course. Then in 2020, their contracts up and their new lives about to start, they moved to Calgary, the place Eric began an actual property profession and Alexandra dug into the design world. Collectively, they based Tano Studio, which Alexandra says “occurred very organically,” and started reimagining houses inside Calgary’s inner-city, all the time with the considered discovering their dream residence to recreate and put their private contact on.

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In July 2021, the proper residence revealed itself. Drawn in by the mid-century structure, the handy location and group skating rink, the couple fell in love with Rutland Park in Calgary’s inner-southwest core and put in a proposal on a mid-century bungalow, solely to lose it in a heated bidding conflict. However they didn’t quit; they started knocking on doorways and introducing themselves to the neighbours and placing out feelers for potential sellers.

“Alexandra identified a flat-roofed inexperienced bungalow. We knocked on the door and talked about that we needed to purchase the home and reimagine it. The proprietor stated: ‘Let me cease you proper there. We’d like to promote.’ ”

It took every week and a half to barter the deal. The couple signed on the dotted line, whereas sipping lemonade within the yard of their soon-to-be new residence. They took possession two months later in September 2021 and started renovations in January 2022.

Alexandra needed to retain the flavour of the Nineteen Fifties bungalow and quite than being constrained by the unique structure, she re-envisioned it, holding the unique footprint, exterior partitions, concrete basis and ground joists and bumping out two parts of the ground plan on the west aspect and south aspect of the unique residence, including one other 600 sq. toes. She reconfigured the connected single-car entrance storage turning it into the house’s workplace and powder room. She constructed hovering 16-foot vaulted ceilings, a feat that required the usage of a 53-foot-long steel structural supporting beam that spans your complete size of the house from entrance to again.

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“What began as a obligatory structural component shortly revealed itself to be a surprising design function in its personal proper. Reasonably than cowl it up, we knew the beam needed to be celebrated and showcased as an integral a part of the house’s character,” says Alexandra. She then utilized the leftover portion of the beam (it got here in a size of 63 toes) so as to add construction and esthetic embellishment to different parts of the house, just like the leathered granite floating kitchen island — the beam holds up one aspect, including a textural distinction to the area.

The design and supplies within the residence actually mirror the couple’s appreciation for European and Asian design — Alexandra named the couple’s design studio Tano, which interprets to emphasis in Japanese.

Performance inside the residence was high of thoughts, as was incorporating loads of pure mild. Lots of the areas are multi-functional — the primary ground workplace is usually a workspace or a bed room. The outsized home windows on this room have been painstakingly designed and constructed to completely body a stand of 30-year-old spruce timber.

“We actually took a lot time to rigorously curate the sizes and angles of the entire home windows. It’s an inner-city property, however from each angle within the residence, you’re looking at timber,” says Alexandra, whose favorite second within the house is in the lounge. “The pure mild simply bleeds by.”

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Within the kitchen, alongside the rear wall overlooking the deck and yard, a nine-foot-long window extends from the countertop to the ceiling and folds utterly open, creating an indoor-outdoor area for warm-weather entertaining and pleasure, whereas additionally offering beautiful tree-views year-round.

The house’s feeling is Zen-like, with free-flowing moments, very like a musical rating.

“We knew that the beam was going to create this unbelievable feeling within the residence with the vaulted ceilings, however that it was additionally going to be very dramatic, so I added some softer components, some texture and wooden grain, leathered granite, actually mixing the supplies and having a softer color on the partitions, as an alternative of a stark white, so it pulls all the pieces collectively,” says Alexandra.

The outside of the house is clad in wooden, preserved utilizing “shou sugi ban,” a course of that chars the floor creating a fantastic charcoal black color. The placing materials can also be mirrored on the floor-to-ceiling lounge fire encompass. The couple was first launched to this design course of in Norway and instantly resonated with the look.

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“I draw quite a lot of inspiration from the issues that we now have skilled and the locations that we now have been; it has all been so inspiring,” says Alexandra.

The couple and their two fur-babies, Boston Terriers named Jo and Lula, moved into the house a 12 months in the past. After solely six months of settling in and in a situation that echoed the reimagined residence’s origins, a neighbour who lived throughout the road knocked on their door and made the couple a proposal — it was one which they couldn’t refuse.

Though unhappy to let the house go, the previous determine skating duo is now within the means of reimaging their subsequent dream residence in West Hillhurst.

“It’s a unique vibe, however that’s a part of my design ethos: to take heed to the texture of the unique residence and take cues from that. It simply makes it a lot extra particular if you shine the sunshine on the attractive moments {that a} home already has,” says Alexandra.

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