This fir-laden Whistler guest house feels like an extension of the forest

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Once a woodworker, always a woodworker. Marc Bricault may be an accomplished interior and architectural designer, but he started out as an artisan, and his work is still grounded in timber.

For a custom guest house in Whistler, he layered Douglas fir inside and out.

“We used fir because I really like the warmth of it and how it ages, and it’s a Pacific Northwest material,” says Bricault, who began his career as owner of Granville Island Woodworks and is now principal of Vancouver’s Bricault Design. “A lot of time spent up here is going to be in the winter. We just really wanted it to feel like a warm little cabin where, after a day outside on the slopes, you come and just feel cosy.”

When the homeowner, a longtime client, asked Bricault to add a guest house to her Whistler property, she wanted it to feel connected to the main house without blocking views. He and his team dovetailed the 1,268-square-foot structure into the landscape so deftly that it’s nearly camouflaged among conifers and shrubs.

He had a small section of rock blasted away so the narrow, two-storey structure could notch into the cliffside on one side of the property. The placement also preserves wildlife corridors used by local bears.

Angling upper walls away from the main home’s view lines, he extended the landscape over a series of walkways with tiered green roofs.

“I kind of grabbed the backyard and pulled it on top of the carport,” says Bricault. “We terraced along the way to have a really generously protected walkway from the carport to the little house, because of Whistler snow loads and so that you aren’t shovelling your walk every time you go to the guest house.”

Landscaping softens the rest of the edges. Working with High Country Landscape, Bricault used hardy, low-maintenance vegetation on the green roofs, then added trees to frame specific views: a paperbark maple outside the dining room, a red-leafed Japanese maple at the end of a walkway. A raised mound planted with perennials screens a neighbouring property.

Material choices help the structure blend in further. Black slate shakes give the exterior a “toothlike” form, “like a big rock,” says Bricault, reminiscent of Black Tusk, the jagged volcanic peak in nearby Garibaldi Provincial Park. Copper downpipes and fascia, still bright in places, will darken as they weather.

Under canopies and soffits, edge-grain fir adds warmth, running inside and onto interior walls and ceilings. Bricault’s woodworking roots show here and throughout the home, especially where cabinetry does more than one job — storage, room divider, design feature — and custom pieces blur the line between built-ins and furniture.

Take the entry, where a compact mud room turns the space into a functional landing spot. Fir millwork provides storage while creating separation from the dining area, and a built-in bench flows into open shelving.

A corner window looks toward a cliff face laced with green foliage. “We planted that whole back area with ferns, so it’s kind of a nice spot to sit and take off your boots,” says Bricault. The team also widened natural fissures in the rock to plant moss, he adds: “It’s starting to populate the side of that cliff because it’s in shade a lot of the time. It’s quite lovely when it’s wet.”

A powder room off the entry brings the exterior palette inside, with fir, copper, forest-green tile, soft green quartzite counters and a custom floating mirror edged in bent wood. A second wide window frames the mossy rock outside.

In the kitchen, green quartzite counters top fir cabinetry with copper-plated hardware, while glossy green ceramic tile runs along the backsplash and adjoining walls.

For the dining room, Bricault designed a custom white-oak table with an expandable top and fluting on the apron and legs. Project millworker and Bricault’s longtime collaborator Ted Belch produced the piece locally. A striped pendant overhead adds a playful touch.

Around the corner, a petite living room centres on a fir-lined bay window and glazed-tile fireplace. A concrete hearth extends to the foot of a staircase with cantilevered steps of FSC-certified arbutus. Slim vertical steel bars help support the treads and frame open shelving, continuing upstairs, where they become a guardrail in the sleeping quarters.

There, copper panels etched with a Japanese floral motif flank the bed above arbutus-burl side tables. Built-in drawers opposite make use of the depth created by the angled exterior walls. Motorized blinds disappear into recessed ceiling pockets.

The ensuite continues the home’s earthy palette with brown-green Italian porcelain tile, arbutus flooring and a custom fir vanity perched on fluted legs that feels like furniture. A free-standing tub sits beside a window framing mountain views, while millwork adds storage and separates the bathroom from the bedroom.

For Bricault, the guest house shows how much a small footprint can hold. “I think we managed to fit quite a bit into a very small stand-alone house,” he says. “It feels quite luxurious to me, and cosy and warm and very functional for the size of it.”

Architectural and interior design:Bricault Design