Inside Cobie Smulders' British Columbia Retreat

May 15

The actress's newly revealed Canadian cabin, featured in Architectural Digest, is a study in material restraint, convivial design, and getting the architect call exactly right.

Full feature and photography by Ema Peter available at Architectural Digest.

When Cobie Smulders and her husband Taran Killam finally found their lakeside parcel in British Columbia — mountain-framed, remote, and lake-adjacent — the first thing Smulders did was call architect Elizabeth MacKenzie, her childhood best friend's mother. "I always said to myself, if I ever get lucky enough to build my own home, I want her to be my architect," she told AD. MacKenzie, working alongside Skladan Architecture and interior designer Ben Leavitt of PlaidFox Studio, delivered something worth the wait.

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"It was heaven. All I think about is going back. I look at pictures of my own house and go, 'I can't believe I live there.'"

ArchetecturalDigest.com

The architecture makes a deliberate choice to recede. Olive-green wood-panel siding and a patinated Corten-steel roof absorb into the forested backdrop rather than competing with it. The brief was clear from the start: big enough to host the many friends and family who live nearby in Vancouver, but visually a hideaway. "We wanted it to feel like a hideaway, but whimsical and character-driven," says Leavitt. Extensive glazing and high ceilings ensure the landscape is always present once you're inside — an aged-steel staircase anchors the dramatic double-height foyer, drawing the eye up and outward.

Leavitt's shorthand for the interior concept — modern mountain chalet meets a grandma's farmhouse in England — plays out across every surface. Bold color, sculptural furniture shapes, and layered fabric textures and prints give the home its personality. Cole & Son equestrian-inspired wallpaper lines one powder room. The primary bedroom features a custom jacquard-upholstered bed. Tlupana Blue marble and black soapstone appear throughout kitchens and baths.

The statement piece is a handmade tapestry by artist Phillip David Stearns, hung on the wall behind the stairs. It depicts both of the family's homes — California and British Columbia — with a small portrait of Smulders, Killam, and their children woven into the upper left corner. It's personal in the best way: art that doubles as autobiography.

Every design decision here was made with gathering in mind. The smoked white-oak dining table seats 27. A six-bed bunk room meant that 18 friends and family members could stay at once last summer — the first full season the family spent at the property. Days on the pier, nights around the long table. The kitchen is fitted with KitchenAid appliances and a pantry stocked with Fable tableware, built for actual, sustained use.

"It was heaven," Smulders says. "All I think about is going back. I look at pictures of my own house and go, 'I can't believe I live there.' That's probably why I'm inviting everyone I know to come and visit."