Colin & Justin's Long Beach Cottage Reno
If you love style and design, particularly interior design, you're no doubt fans of Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan, better known simply as Colin & Justin.
Two Scots with a knack for turning fixer-uppers into unbelievable living spaces, they got their start as interior decorators in Britain but now call Canada their home.
Never still for long, the celebrity couple pour their energies into interior design work, hit home-reno TV shows like Colin and Justin's Cabin Pressure, book authouring, style columns in newspapers and magazines - and just generally being all-round lifestyle gurus.
Escapology: Modern Cabins, Cottages and Retreats
To stay current with Colin and Justin's thinking about style, get in line for their latest book, Escapology: Modern Cabins, Cottages and Retreats, available now for preorder on Amazon.
Described as part style bible and part lifestyle manual, Escapology features a beautiful collection of classic and contemporary cottages and cabins, each accompanied by an informative design profile and beautifully photographed images. The shots of Grey Gardens, the elegant Haliburton cottage featured in the duo's Cabin Pressure TV show, display Casablanca Trident fans, supplied by The Fan Shoppe.
Official Ceiling-Fan Supplier
The Fan Shoppe is proud to be the official ceiling-fan supplier for Colin & Justin's high-profile home renovation projects, the latest of which is their current Halliburton reno, "Long Beach," so called because it occupies a strip of unbroken hard-packed sand on Drag, one of Haliburton’s most popular lakes.
Join us for a "ceiling fan" view of this sensational shanty upgrade, courtesy of images from instagram.com/colinandjustinslongbeach.
How better to begin than by showing you an establishing shot of the cottage and property prior to the start of the renovation.
In case you're wondering, here's the cottage beachfront. Now you know where the name Long Beach comes from!
Gloom before glory.
From left: Rick, Jane, Justin and Colin
The fans are here!
Fan Shoppe owner Rick Church and his wife, Jane, hand delivered the 10 Fanimation ceilings fans that Colin and Justin ordered for Long Beach.
Their order consisted of 7 TriAire Customs (a mix of 52- and 56-inch fan widths) for installation in the main building and 3 Hugh 44-inch fans for the adjacent guest house.
The TriAire Custom, as the name suggests, is a customizable ceiling fan. This high-quality twirler truly does fit perfectly into any room style or location, because Fanimation lets you mix and match the components to get the look and features you desire. Also, the TriAire is wet-rated, allowing you to install it either indoors or outdoors. And the variable-speed, reversible DC motor is both extremely energy efficient and whisper quiet, so it works just as well in a great room as a bedroom.
The Hugh is designed for more compact spaces, making it ideal for the typically more modest dimensions of a guest house or bunkie. But it's still a powerful ceiling fan with a reversible 3-speed AC motor. And it, too, is wet-rated, always a wise choice when you're installing a ceiling fan in a lakeside cottage due to the higher-than-average ambient humidity.
Both ceiling fan models are "smart" appliances that come with programmable Bluetooth remote controls. As well, they can be upgraded to include WiFi connectivity, which would allow you to control and program your ceiling fan from anywhere, anytime.
Now, let's take a look at these two high-tech ceiling fans in action.
The sleek, modern design of the TriAire is eye-grabbing from the jump, but the contrast between this distinctive contemporary look and the rustic, natural-wood cottage interior is something to behold. Notice how the TriAire's black finish matches the black finish of the window frames, side lamp and table legs.
Here's another view of the living room. Again, the TriAire's modern look and black finish is complemented beautifully by the style and finish of the door frame, wall lights and side tables.
Grub-time promises to be a social affair in this picture-perfect dining area, especially when friends are staying the night in the bunkie. The TriAire gazes down onto the long wooden table like the Lord of the manor.
The saying goes that if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. When temperatures rise in the Long Beach kitchen, the cooks can cool the air by turning on the ceiling fan in the adjoining dining room. And if things gets particularly hot, as will happen on a summer day with the oven turned high, simply take a break at the dining room table, crank up the fan to full speed and reset in the cooling breeze.
Colin and Justin are renowned for their cozy, comfortable bedroom designs, and this master bedroom is a great example of their work. With a slumber chamber like this, it would be easy to hit the hay early for a beauty rest and rise with the birds for full day of cottage activity.
Pro tip: In the summer months, you would normally operate your ceiling fan counter-clockwise to move air downward as this maximizes your exposure to the airflow, thereby enhancing the cooling effect. But some find that airflow directed towards them by an overhead fan while they are sleeping disturbs their slumber. In this event, a great solution is to reverse the fan direction to clockwise, which draws air up to the ceiling and disperses it evenly around the room. You'll still benefit from increased air circulation, but since the airflow isn't aimed directly at you, your sleep won't be disturbed.
In this exquisite view, the juxtaposition of the TriAire and a found piece of water-weathered wood with the lake in the background captures perfectly the contrasting modern and rustic design themes that define this superbly imagined Haliburton get-away.
And here's what the exterior looks like in spring 2020, after much hard work and attention to detail but prior to landscaping. Talk about a transformation - bravo Colin and Justin!