Cobie Smulders Wants to Host Dinner for 27 at Her Canadian Family Cabin

"Growing up in the suburbs of Vancouver, actor Cobie Smulders always relished the chance to escape the city to explore the lush wilderness beyond it. "I had a lot of friends who had family cabins on the islands, or up in Whistler, and I would try to join their family vacations as much as possible," she recalls. One of her childhood best friends was also the daughter of an architect, Elizabeth MacKenzie, and Smulders was fascinated by her office, with its fabric swatches and miniature model homes."

"Fast-forward a few decades: Smulders starred in the hit show How I Met Your Mother, among many other projects, and found herself in the position of not only being able to build her own cabin in British Columbia, but hiring MacKenzie to design it. "She was my first call," Smulders says. Going from that initial meeting to an actual finished home required patience. Smulders, along with her husband, comedian Taran Killam, spent years hunting for the ideal plot of land until Killam came across a large, remote parcel situated on an expansive lake and framed by mountains on all sides."

"After purchasing the land, MacKenzie called in frequent partners Skladan Architecture and Ben Leavitt of PlaidFox Studio to collaborate with her on both the build and the design of the home. Leavitt and Smulders hit it off immediately. "She told me we were aligned in our love of whimsical vintage," Smulders says. "Immediately we just fell in love with each other-all of us, mutually, my husband, Ben, and all of his team.""

Cobie Smulders grew up near Vancouver and enjoyed escaping the city to explore wilderness areas. She admired her childhood friend Elizabeth MacKenzie’s architectural office and wanted MacKenzie to design her own home. Years later, Smulders and her husband Taran Killam searched for land for a cabin in British Columbia and found a remote parcel on a large lake surrounded by mountains. After purchasing the property, MacKenzie brought in Skladan Architecture and Ben Leavitt of PlaidFox Studio to collaborate on both design and build. Smulders and Leavitt connected quickly through shared tastes for whimsical vintage, leading to a collaborative process for a cabin suited to their needs.

Read at Architectural Digest