Inside a Canadiana-Themed Island Cottage

Every Victoria Day long weekend, when the ice has finally melted, Jeff and Chris Fettes hop in their boats and head for their island cottage in Kenora, Ontario. Getting there requires navigating the sprawling Lake of the Woods, an expanse dotted with tens of thousands of islands that stretches from Ontario to Minnesota. But the effort is part of the fun: “Even a mundane task, like going to the grocery store by boat, is an excursion,” says Chris.

Like the lake, Jeff and Chris’s love affair crosses borders. They met 28 years ago at a Gold’s Gym in Orlando, Florida, where Jeff, originally from Regina, was studying audio recording and engineering, while Chris, a vocal performance student, was working as a dancer at Disney. The couple wanted to live closer to Jeff’s family so, in 2009, they moved to Winnipeg, where they now work as tech entrepreneurs. Seven years later, on a whim one weekend, they drove almost three hours east to Lake of the Woods to visit a new cottage that Jeff’s brother had recently bought.

“We saw the Whiteshell Provincial Park with its tall pine trees, rocky cliffs and ledges,” says Chris. “It was this pristine area of Canada—we fell in love.” An octagonal log cabin on the private Shragges Island caught their eye. Inside, the hand-peeled logs of the home fit together with the precision of medieval joinery. “Jeff and I are not cottage people; we’ve never had experience with them,” says Chris. “But if we were going to have one, then that cabin was for us.” The following Monday they submitted an offer. Four days later, they bought a boat, moved into the two-bedroom cabin and kickstarted renovations.

Chris and Jeff wanted the space to be deeply rooted in Canadiana—an homage to Lake of the Woods and its history in mining, fishing, camping and the railroad. To help install historical touchstones, they recruited Toronto-based interior designer Meredith Heron. An upside-down vintage canoe dangles from the ceiling—their version of a chandelier. There’s a hefty, deep-carved soapstone sink in the powder room, while the granite countertop slabs were quarried from the defunct Sultana gold mine on Lake of the Woods. The walls are bedecked with vintage life preservers, hand-painted paddles, nautical knot artwork and Chris and Jeff’s monogrammed sailing flags (and semaphore flags), along with camping and travel badges, meant to fake a life’s worth of cottaging.

The pair also enlisted B.C.-based Pioneer Log Homes to build a bunkie on the property to serve as guest quarters for their family and friends. The guesthouse was constructed out west, each log carefully numbered before the entire structure was disassembled, loaded onto semi-trucks, driven across the country and boated to the island. Once it arrived, it was rebuilt in a single day.

The Fettes also wanted to create an outdoor entertainment zone. Today, the island features an outdoor movie theatre, a whisky bar, a fire pit and several private beaches. As a landmark, Jeff and Chris installed a working 30-foot-tall lighthouse. When visitors pull up to the cottage, they see a large wooden arch from the Vancouver Winter Olympics—repurposed as the estate’s gateway.

If passing under the arch feels like you’re entering a restorative summer camp, it’s not by happenstance. “Like Disney, there’s a storyline. Everything matches, from the log structures to the focus on natural design,” says Chris. This past Canada Day weekend, the pair welcomed a group of “campers” (family and friends) from Winnipeg, Florida and Las Vegas. They hosted multiple movie nights (Top Gun: Maverick was the favourite) and did cookouts, boat cruises, fishing and piano recitals. Their nephew Jarret visited from Florida. “As a rite of passage, he took his first plunge in the lake with some promises from me that it wasn’t ‘that cold.’ He begged to differ,” says Chris, ever the camp counsellor.