The rustic lamp on the floor between the dining and living areas is meant for warming chickens. “Like the house, it’s not afraid to be what it is,” Thomas says.
The home sits at the end of a quiet, gravel road just 325-yards from the ocean. A board-formed concrete wall along the entry path hints at what is indoors.
The ceiling drops down significantly over the built-in bench in the living area to create a cozy nook. “Like the kitchen, it’s a space within a space,” Thomas says. The wooden boards are flush with the window frame, allowing the sun to wash down the wall.
Bookshelves, cupboards, log storage, and daybeds are carved into the walls. “These elements connect the exterior walls to the interior spaces,” the architect says.
A local welder crafted the house number which is mounted off the wall to cast a shadow. “It also looks like ‘god’ which means ‘good’ in Danish, so it’s also ‘the good house,’” Thomas says.
The wood planks run vertically on the walls to echo the direction that trees grow, while the board-formed concrete fireplace wall runs horizontally because that is how one pours the concrete. “It’s another play of contrasts,” Thomas points out. He bought the net from a local fisherman.
The studio’s dramatic ceiling is nearly 14-feet high. Thomas says that the yoga deck sits in the landscape “like a wooden lake.”
The board-formed concrete retaining wall holds firewood and is also a bench. Beyond, the garden lounge backs up against the studio and a retaining wall. “It’s a study in how little you can do to define a space,” Thomas says.
Getaway and studio plan.
“The structures create spaces that bridge the outside and inside, so it’s one continuous space,” Thomas says. Terraces act as a path that border the getaway and connect it to the garden lounge and studio. He added the round deck when his architecture partner told him he felt like the scheme needed a circle.
Thomas made the sliding door to the bedroom using wood left over from the concrete forms. The uneven edges of the log storage niche celebrate the process and its imperfections.
Thomas likens the humble, black wood structures (there are two, but he hopes to add a third) to the forts or treehouses one builds as a kid. “Having a cluster of little houses brings down the scale,” he notes. “They are suitable for one or two; not overwhelming, but intimate.”
Board-formed concrete defines the core of the house, where the bedroom and bath are located. “It is a house within a house, like Russian babushka dolls,” Thomas says. A niche in the concrete wall holds the architect’s stash of spirits and wine. The tableau served as his Skype backdrop during the pandemic.
A bed in the studio provides a place for guests to sleep. The plywood floor is painted white.
which sits at the end of a quiet, gravel road just 325 yards from the ocean,
The painted black wood facades vary. Some feature wide slats on a fixed board, others feature thin ones.
The getaway protrudes like a sculpture from the hillside.
The kitchen runs under the black block that descends from the ceiling. The countertop is concrete and the cabinet fronts are hardware store shelves mounted on an Ikea base. Dried beach kale branches hang in the corner. The dining table is a piece of plywood painted black atop a base from Hay. Thomas made the bench using wood left over from the forms used to cast the concrete wall boards.
Trees create beautiful shadows on the slatted courtyard fence.
Thomas used a rake to score the concrete path to the front door. Holes occurred when the rake caught a stone. “It’s a fabric of mistakes,” he says.
The studio serves as a place for Thomas to paint as well as a guest house. “The height and width are the same so it feels very spacious,” Thomas says of the 215-square foot structure. The couple stretch after runs on the circular deck in the foreground, and Louise practices yoga there.
Cobblestones reference the surroundings. “In winter, the frozen ground pushes out rocks that farmers collect in the spring to build walls,” Thomas says. “This is how they used the rocks on the farms back in the day.”
Local cabinetmaker Peter Pomerantz made the custom, white oak cabinetry and Flywheel Industrial Arts fabricated the steel hood. “It’s about lines and shadows; no hardware,” Herrmann says.
A ceramic vase by Anna Manako of Manako Design from the 1980s sits on a funky wooden table in the primary bedroom.
Olga Frandina Sprout Pot
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Alexandrine had the Costes chair by Philippe Starck sent from Ukraine. "I found it a few years ago in an Italian secondhand bookshop among the vintage art albums and couldn't leave without it,
Each family member worked remotely from the apartment. Alexandrine set up a study in a portion of the living area. Other work and study spots include the terraces, the dining and kitchen tables, and the desk in the second bedroom. They didn't settle into assigned spots, but rather moved around according to their mood.
Inspiration to use two different color fabrics for the curtains came from Alexandrine's experience designing a textile salon that carried Tricia Guild fabrics. "Color combinations are her favorite trick,
Alexandrine commissioned Ukrainian craftswoman Oksana Levchenya to create a monumental soft sculpture made of socks in totem compositions for the entry.
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