Ally Silberkleit, a woodworker, likes to keep her hands busy. “For most of my adult life, I would come home from work and if I was watching TV or relaxing, I would need to either be carving a spoon or a hairpin or knitting or doing something while I’m sitting there,” she says. This devotion to craft is at the heart of the home she built in northern Vermont, a 1,300-square-foot, gable-sided cabin that put her skills to the test and taught her many new ones, too. “I love making and learning, and the house is really designed around that,” she says.

For a long time, Ally dreamed of building her own home. Nearly seven years ago she finally took the leap. She spent two months in Japan learning traditional woodworking and carpentry skills. Then she attended Yestermorrow, a design/build school, where she earned a certificate in residential design and construction and began sketching a house. After finding what she describes as a “very calm and magical” tree-covered plot in rural Vermont in 2021, she commissioned Andy White, the instructor in her Yestermorrow course and founder of the studio Boreal Design, to turn her initial concept for a small home with a loft into a real building on a real site.

Earthen Endeavors finished the fireplace wall using Earthaus Sand Finish lime plaster and Andy White, of Boreal Design, made the timber stairs. The sheep fence railing is custom, by Flywheel Industrial Arts. Ally designed and made the coffee table and stools." layout="" credit="Add credit" photoUserId=""/>The backsplash was made by Sarah Gilbert of Lodestone Alternative Building. The solid white oak flooring is from Almanac Hardwood. The induction range and dish drawer are from Fisher & Paykel. The farmhouse sink is from Kohler. The Odin faucet is from Brizo’s Jason Wu collection. The ceramic sculpture above the stove is by Harry Kuttner. The small framed artwork is by Eileen Echikson and Patrick David." layout="" credit="Add credit" photoUserId=""/>

The three-bed, two-and-a-half-bath house is one big experiment and a testing ground for ideas Ally has wanted to try for herself or for clients. She conceived of the interior as a “giant piece of furniture” so that it expresses a unified experience. Built-ins abound, from the row of closets in the mudroom at the entry to the bookshelves in the open-plan, double-height living area to the Japanese-style soaking tub in the bathroom on the lower level. In the kitchen, she jigsawed plywood with walnut veneer to create a sculptural front that disguises her refrigerator and pantry. “There’s a lot of things that maybe aren’t conventional, but I’m trying it out,” she says. “Three years in—knock on wood—it’s been doing great.”

Tim Peters of Treehouse CNC-milled the pieces for Ally’s mosaic cabinet fronts. The French door refrigerator is from Fisher & Paykel. The walls were painted in Lime Wash Paint 107 from JH Wall Paints. The Strut dining table is from Blu Dot." layout="" credit="Add credit" photoUserId=""/>

Ally sited the house over a natural slope on the lot to accommodate its multilevel design and gave it a classic gable silhouette and two small front windows; she wanted it to look like a child had drawn it. She charred the knotty pine cladding herself using the yakisugi technique she learned in Japan. White, who is a certified Passive House consultant, emphasized a thermally tight building envelope for energy efficiency.

“The house can keep evolving as I make more things or continue to carve away at parts of it.”
—Ally Silberkleit, resident

Meoded Paint & Plaster so Ally doesn’t have to worry about tracking in dust or dirt. The floral arrangement is by West Lane Flowers." layout="" credit="Add credit" photoUserId=""/>

Evidence of Ally’s hand is everywhere in the house. She carved a scalloped texture into several features, including the stair stringers leading to the sleeping loft, cabinet and appliance pulls, and some of the baseboards. She also commissioned ceramic lighting from a friend, hired a local painter to adorn a door to the mechanical room downstairs, and asked a colleague of hers to build a custom cabinet. “It’s awesome to be surrounded by things that are handmade and all have a story,” Ally says. “A lot of this house is an ode to the trades and keeping that knowledge alive.”

SureCrete. She sought an indoor/outdoor feel in the space and Marvin’s Elevate casement windows, installed to open outward like French doors, achieve the effect. Rory Pots designed the pendants and wall sconce and Ally made the mirror." layout="" credit="Add credit" photoUserId=""/>

Project Credits:

Designer and Builder: Boreal Design and Construction

Lighting Design: Rory Pots

Interior Design, Cabinetry, and Millwork: Furlough Wood Co.

Lime Plaster: Earthen Endeavors

Railings: Flywheel Industrial Arts

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Corrections: The printed version of this article incorrectly attributed the construction of the fireplace wall to Earthen Endeavors. The company plastered the wall.

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This is the cover story for the September/October 2026 issue, which hits newsstands September 3. Read the new issue by subscribing to Dwell.