You know what you love. You just can’t seem to shape it into something you can actually build from.
You’ve been collecting inspiration for months. Maybe years.
Whatever stage you’re at, the feeling underneath it is the same. You’re about to spend more money than you’ve ever spent. And you’re the only one who has to get it right. And live in it forever.
You’re not supposed to know how to do this. I do.
Or you’re further along. Floor plans approved, builder signed, decisions coming fast. And something feels off. Not wrong enough to name. Just off.
Every house we built for ourselves, and we built seven, I walked through with a running script in my head.
I have never lived in a house I didn’t want to change. Until now.
Add built-ins here. That light is in the wrong spot, maybe it should have been a sconce. Swap the console vanity for a cabinet in the powder room. Add more drawers in the kitchen. A longer vanity. The laundry room should have been 6″ wider.
The houses were beautiful. Some of them I was so proud of I could hardly believe they were ours. It didn’t matter. The script never stopped.
Three years ago we moved into our forever home. And the script stopped.
Not because it’s perfect. Because it fits. Every room I walk into makes me happy. Every single day. And I used to think that feeling came from beautiful finishes. It doesn’t. It comes from asking different questions, before anything is drawn. Not what should this room look like. How do we actually live?
That’s the lesson 26 years and 100+ client homes taught me. And it’s the one I built Chez Jilaire to teach.
The clarity of a builder, the intuition of a designer, and the discernment of someone who’s walked this path hundreds of times.
I’m Jilaire Soucy Wagner, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Maison Design + Build.
For 26 years I was both the designer and the builder. I’ve led the design and construction of more than $120M in award-winning custom homes. I’ve guided 100+ families through one of the most emotional and expensive decisions of their lives. And I’ve earned multiple Avid Diamond Awards, the highest client satisfaction rating in Canada.
That’s what I bring.
And it’s what no single professional you’ve already hired can offer. Your architect won’t be there when the plans become walls. Your contractor won’t be there when the walls become your life. I’ve watched that happen, and lived inside it, seven times.
Most forever homes are designed around what looks good. I design around the life you'll actually live inside it.
At Maison Design + Build, I designed and built homes for clients. I asked the right questions because I was in the room, reviewing plans, catching the decisions that would cost them later, making sure the home being built was the one they actually wanted to live in.
Most women building forever homes don’t have that. They have an architect who draws. A contractor who builds. An interior designer who selects. And nobody sitting on their side of the table asking: does this reflect how you want to live?
That gap is where homes go wrong. Not because the professionals failed. Because nobody’s job was to ask the questions that should lead everything else.
Chez Jilaire is that job. For women building forever homes, wherever you’re building, no build contract required.
I help women building forever homes decide what should lead, before permanent decisions shape the life they’ll live inside them.
I’m not your designer here. I’m not your builder. I’m the one who makes sure you walk into every meeting with your architect, your interior designer, and your contractor already knowing what matters, so the decisions that get made are yours.
Simplicity at Heart
Purposeful Creativity
Authenticity First
Design Vision
WHAT I STAND FOR
™
Nationally and locally recognized for excellence
designed and built on my own dream home
creator of the Thoughtful luxury Method
But what the work has always been about is the moment a client walks into a finished home and says, “This is exactly us.”
Not because I gave them what they asked for. Because I gave them what they didn’t know how to ask for yet.
That’s what I’m here to do for you.