Windy Point Cottage
A new cottage on a windy point, built around a room in the trees.
The owners had spent years renting around Muskoka before committing to a place of their own. Before the original cottage came down, we drew the plans for the new build, and then recommended Blaine Umphrey of Allwood Building Company, whose team built it.
The cottage was the cover story of Our Homes Muskoka’s Mid-Summer 2026 issue.
The site
Open to the weather.
The site is an exposed point on Lake Muskoka, open to the wind and the storms coming across the water. A windy point doesn’t offer much flat ground, so the cottage takes its cues from the rock instead of fighting it.
The plan
Room for five children.
The brief was room for the owners’ five children: a three-bedroom, three-bathroom main cottage, plus a boathouse with guest quarters above the slip for when the whole family is home.
The key move
The tree fort.
A sitting room projects out over the front door and into the trees, wrapped in windows. The family calls it the tree fort. It’s where you watch the storms roll in.
Materials
Deep lake blue.
The exterior is painted a deep lake blue, and the boathouse matches. Inside, wood ceilings and warm timber sit against white walls and the green of the trees outside every window.
Details
The lookout
Windows on every side, so the room feels like it’s floating in the canopy.
The stair
The L-shaped stair that once ran along the outside of the original cottage was rebuilt as an interior feature.
Built on the rock
On the main floor, the bed bases were built over the exposed bedrock rather than blasting it out.
In the press
Our Homes Muskoka, Mid-Summer 2026.
Windy Point Cottage led the cover as the “Modern Treehouse Retreat,” with a ten-page feature inside.
