Tom Givone’s clients, Rose and Steve Smith, teach overseas and have owned their house for 26 years. They intended to fix it up slowly and retire there. As one problem led to another, they reached a point when they felt their only option, as Rose put it, was to “burn it down.”
A Kennebunk family needed their forever home, and the old farmhouse and barn that stood on their property wasn't going to cut it. The architects at Caleb Johnson Studio started the process by salvaging everything they could from the old buildings, including the timber roof structure, interior wood cladding, and interior doors. Additionally, the architects also claimed cabinetry and fixtures from a midcentury home that was being torn down in Weston, Massachusetts. By incorporating such materials into the new home's design, they were able to create a modern farmhouse with soul.
The house clearly displays its Sea Ranch–style touches.
Two hours north of New York City, an unusual barn emerges from a hill just off a country road. Its black siding and bright-red window frames hint at the imaginative playground inside. This space, with its rope-railed catwalk and indoor tent, is just one element of the multifaceted getaway architecture and design firm BarlisWedlick Architects designed for fund manager Ian Hague.
In 2011, clients Brent Habig and Ana Ecclesthe surveyed the property with architect Jim Cutler, planting stakes at a number of sites. Cutler drew up a different house for each, recalling from his youth the region’s vernacular—especially the crisp white barns nestled into lush green landscapes. They would inspire the form of the couple’s new 2,800-square-foot home. It is designed to capture natural light, but also to cool interiors on hot summer days, using tall, sliding shutters that can cover the two-story home’s windows from floor to ceiling.
This front porch is North facing, so is typically partially shaded throughout the day. An ideal spot for morning coffee and a book.
“The main volume presents a traditional front and is wrapped on the west and south by a deep porch,” says architect Erin Sterling Lewis. “Living and dining spaces access the porch.” A standing seam metal roof with a Kynar finish and HardiePlank Lap Siding cover the exterior of this 3,000-square-foot home.
In the living room and kitchen, soft-but-tough Expanko cork flooring provides comfort and stands up to dings and scuffs. While the kitchen was designed primarily with Surendra and a caregiver’s needs in mind, it also accommodates the five-foot-radius of a wheelchair.
The master bath incorporates custom cabinets by Bob Clausen, fixtures by Grohe, Hansgrohe, and Kohler, and a sink by Duravit. Plush Lisbon cork carpets the floor.
The wall in the den also received variegated cedar planks, as in the living room. Fieldwork redesigned the built-in unit with an open and closed system, fashioned from Hemlock and gray matte lacquer. A built-in sofa creates a seamlessly integrated lounge.
Flagstone flooring throughout is a nod to the home’s midcentury era. All of the windows had to be replaced, but many were kept in the same spot as the original.
The firm enlisted their Parisian carpenter to make the cabinets in the "Frey style and color"—stained maple topped with cream-colored quartz. Appliances are all Bertazzoni except for the refrigerator and freezer, which is a Frigidaire Professional. The brick wall would not have been original, but the firm kept it and hand-painted the surface in the style of Le Corbusier’s Parisian apartment.
A green laminate countertop by Abet Laminati is surrounded by Norman Foster’s Emeco 20-06 counter stools at the island in the kitchen, which has an integrated Frigidaire induction range, Faber Cylindra Isola range hood, Blomberg dishwasher, Fisher & Paykel fridge, and flat-grain fir plywood cabinets by Portland craftsman Doug Chamblin.
A look at the side of the home. The formal entryway, located around the corner along the front of the home, is now shielded from the road by a row of large trees.
Front Facade
House Proud: Sylvain Duquette in front of his award-winning home.
Connecticut-based D2 Interieurs recently finished a complete renovation of this 1950 home in Westport, CT for a local artist that kept the bones and integrity of the classic Mid Century home intact.
