Canadian Artist Creates a Spanish Courtyard Inside Her Monolithic Dome Home
The 1650 square foot Monolithic Dome home in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, is a 40-foot diameter hemisphere with two barrel-shaped entries — front and back.
CTV News recently featured a Monolithic Dome home in Saskatchewan, Canada. Tonia Vermette constructed the home 18 years ago, and it’s a wonderful place to live, but as an artist, she never seemed to be finished with the house. Over the years, she’s painted murals, vines, and textures on the walls, turning the home into a living artwork.
Stacey Hein visited Vermette in October in a video interview discussing the home and its unique decoration.
Inspired by her travels, Vermette decided to base the design off a Spanish courtyard. The artist painted texture on the walls to look like old stone and added two murals, one of roses and one of a window.
“As an artist, I’ve started painting the walls, so not just creating the outside but changing the inside all of the time. I’m always adding new things,” she said.
The artist homeowner painted the interior walls to give them a Spanish courtyard appearance complete with vines.
They also discussed the 40-foot diameter Monolithic Dome and the space it creates.
“We really liked the open space because you get this great big open span that you don’t normally get without having to put lots of posts or beams up and so it’s a compressive structure,” she said.
“You can build really large buildings with the dome and you don’t have to have any supports on the inside.”
Over the winter, Tonia Vermette added an open window mural complete with flowers and curtains blowing in the breeze.
And the benefits of this particular design.
The round structure has a sky light and multiple windows with the light reflecting off the curved walls, making the concrete home very bright.
“In Saskatchewan, we have so many months of winter and snow and so it’s nice to get up in the morning and have your coffee in what feels like you’re outside in a sunny spot,” homeowner Tonia Vermette said.
Watch Step inside this artist’s monolithic dome home below or on the CTV News website or read ‘Feels like you’re outside in a sunny spot’: Sask. artist living in dome home.