WL Home of the Year

The Big Reveal: Our 2025 Western Living Home of the Year!

X Architecture and Stae Interiors take home the reader's choice award for their stunning design on Cultus Lake

By Western Living /

After nearly a month of voting, it our readers have spoken:

View to a Thrill is your 2025 Western Living Home of the Year!

The architecturally stunning home is poised on the shores of Cultus Lake in the Fraser Valley, and designed by Steven Cross of X Architecture, with interiors from Alexis Callegari of Stae Interiors.

Photo by Andrew Latreille

The reader favourite was no doubt celebrated for a particularly striking part of the design: a floor that extends dramatically toward the water thanks to steel framing that achieves an ambitious 10-metre cantilever. “There’s a sense of wonder when you see a 10-metre cantilevered floor,” says Cross. “There’s a lot of engineering that we did to make that happen, I think very successfully.”

Photo: Andrew Latreille

And as striking as the home is on the outside, inside, Calligari’s design offers a serene palette of calm, neutral tones and gentle curves to offer a tranquil refuge. “It became this juxtaposition,” she says, “of big, bold, angular space being balanced with this soft, almost feminine interior.”

Read all about the home below – and once again, a huge congrats to X Architecture and Stae Interiors!

Inside a Coastal Modern Summer Home on the Shores of Cultus Lake

X Architecture and Stae Interiors find harmony between bold lines and a calming interior.

by Anjini Snape, Photos by Andrew Latreille

As a born and raised West Coaster, Steven Cross of X Architecture has dedicated much of his architectural practice to waterfront designs. So, when his client of nine years approached him in 2019 to design a summer home on the shores of Cultus Lake, he was more than ready.

The vision was for a space that was both compact and had uninterrupted views of the water. And while its primary function would be a home where the clients could visit to unwind, there were strict easements and a neighbour’s view corridors to protect. X Architecture had to get creative in order to make the most of the property.

The result is a sculptural response to the land, with a floor that extends dramatically toward the water thanks to steel framing that achieves an ambitious 10-metre cantilever. The effect of the sharp lines is striking. “There’s a sense of wonder when you see a 10-metre cantilevered floor,” says Cross. “There’s a lot of engineering that we did to make that happen, I think very successfully.”

The home pushes structural limits with its bold lines and an exterior that’s sharp, dramatic and commanding. Yet inside, the space transforms. Alexis Callegari of Stae Interiors designed a serene counterpoint to the building’s bold architecture, with calm, neutral tones, gentle curves and soft light to offer a tranquil refuge. “It became this juxtaposition,” she says, “of big, bold, angular space being balanced with this soft, almost feminine interior.”

Natural materials and Canadian makers played an important role in creating this, with a custom dining table from Vancouver’s Lock & Mortice, stools by Atelier Arking, and Canadian-made hardwood flooring from Mirage. Callegari decided not to include decorative lighting in her interior to avoid visual clutter. Instead, light sources are hidden, either recessed, backlit or diffused. “We almost wanted people to wonder how a room was lit,” she says. Callegari contributes the success of this to contractor Mike Lobe’s “keen spirit.” She says, “[his] desire to push boundaries in construction were what brought our concepts to reality.”

Built during the uncertainty of the pandemic, the project demanded flexibility and creative thinking. But for the clients, who were largely hands-off during construction, the final product was worth it: a summer getaway that is bold in concept yet calm in spirit.

Photo by Andrew Latreille. With glass windows that wrap around the room and no doors to break the flow into the ensuite, the primary bedroom feels open at every turn. As the hardwood flooring flows from their sleeping area into their sitting area, then into their ensuite, “you have that nice warm feeling on your feet as you walk,” Callegari says.
Photo by Andrew Latreille. The custom order chairs from Ontario-based Atelier Arking and the custom cabinets built by Arts Custom Woodcrafting, a local supplier in Abbotsford, B.C., incorporated the design team’s intent to include Canadian workmanship wherever possible. “[We] loved the natural ash wood mixed with their leather weave,” Callegari says.
Photo by Andrew Latreille. At the time of designing the interiors, the lake was high tide and left driftwood and stumps on the sand, which became the inspiration behind the use of wood elements throughout the space. “Like a natural birch log, that’s drifted in the sand and sat there for 10 years,” Callegari says. The custom Lock & Mortice dining table is one of a kind, Callegari says, “the split in the table was designed to really draw the eye into the fireplace and define the dining room.”
Photo by Andrew Latreille. The slat wall under the skylight creates shadows across the wall, a playful conceptual design by Callegari. The framed surfboards from RH Teen are “a nod to life on the water,” Callegari says.

More photos

Photo by Andrew Latreille.
Photo by Andrew Latreille.
Photo by Andrew Latreille.
Photo by Andrew Latreille.
Western Living

Western Living

The editorial team at Western Living loves nothing more than a perfectly designed space, place or thing: and we’re here to tell you about it. Email us your pitches at [email protected].