The shores of Lake Michigan have long been meaningful to Jill and Toby Gebben. The couple had their first date here, and when Toby was growing up, his family had a vacation home along its north shore. For years, the couple dreamed of having a lakeside cottage of their own to enjoy with their daughters, Ella and Audrey, now 22 and 19, and extended family and friends.

In the late 2000s, when real estate prices fell, Jill and Toby took the opportunity to make that dream come true. They bought a dilapidated midcentury cottage located along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan near Grand Haven (only 45 minutes from their house in Grand Rapids) beside a massive sand dune. The cottage was being sold as a teardown—“It was boarded up, hadn't been occupied in five years, and the roof was caving in,” Toby recalls—but the setting was magical: wooded and beachside all at once.

Once a charmer, the cottage was designed by a University of Michigan architecture student for his family, who built it themselves. For Toby and Jill, its best feature was the upstairs living area that took in lake views. They ended up making necessary repairs and kept it for 10 years, but eventually a major crack was discovered in its foundation. And because the original structure was built closer to a sand-covered bluff than would have been allowed by zoning codes and environmental regulations in place today, what could be done to expand or alter the house was extremely limited. So they decided to start fresh.

Their new 2,406-square-foot cottage, known as the Rosy Mound Retreat, was by necessity set further back from the water than its predecessor. But it took inspiration from it, for sentimental and functional reasons. “If we’d put the living spaces at grade, you would have only been able to see this thin sliver of the water, way out at the horizon, miles out into the lake. That’s what generated the discussions of inverting the traditional stacking of spaces,” says principal Eric De Witt of Lucid Architecture, the firm behind the new design.

The visually striking structure comprises two main volumes. A two-story, shoebox-shaped main portion faces west with a large cantilevering canopy extending over its outdoor deck. The second volume, a living room wrapped in windows, juts off the second level perpendicular to the primary one. It’s supported by a brick column that also serves as a chimney for a fireplace, framing a view of the lake as you come down the drive.

Entering the cottage, a broader view reveals itself as one moves upstairs into the glass-enclosed living area. Beyond the covered deck are dunes and tall trees, while to the left—similar to the vignette at the drive—is a clear view of the beach and lake. “Everything starts modestly, pretty low and tight, and then all of a sudden it just opens up as you walk up the steps,” Jill says.

More pragmatically, the living room was a way to increase the amount of social space while limiting the home’s size. “We worked really hard to keep this design a cottage and not a house,” says De Witt. “That was very deliberate and came up early and often in a lot of the discussions.”

Additionally, the Gebbens didn’t want the views to come at the expense of surrounding trees. They kept as many as possible, even if some along the dune partially obstructed sightlines out to the water. Besides, they had another great perspective on the opposite side. “One of my favorite views is standing in the living room and looking out toward the back of the property, away from the lake,” says Jill. “It’s just a pretty wooded view and I like it almost as much some days. Even though we’re really pretty close to neighbors, you can’t really see them.”

The trees also provide shading to the home. “We’re basically facing due west right here. Late in the afternoon as the sun gets down lower to the horizon, as it’s bouncing off the water, the heat can be really intense,” De Witt says. “But by leaving the trees up there, it really leaves the house in quite a bit of shade.”

The living area connects to an open kitchen and dining space that’s divided by a large kitchen island and spills onto the deck facing the water. Oak floors and birch cabinets and wall panels treated with a light wash combine with white quartz countertops for a space that’s naturally lit by sun coming through the glass.

The living and dining rooms are furnished with Herman Miller, including the sofa, walnut dining table, and its Eames kitchen chairs. The company is headquartered in nearby Zeeland, Michigan, and has a combined outlet-company store that regularly offers substantial discounts. “Jill and I would go out to that store constantly, whenever we had a free couple hours, just hoping that we’d find a piece that would be perfect for our cottage,” Toby remembers. They found the vintage Eames lounge chair used on Craigslist, but still in its original box, from one of many retired former Herman Miller employees living in the area.

Upstairs at the rear of the house are two bedrooms opposite the kitchen from the stairwell. The larger space is a bunk room with two beds, where Ella and Audrey’s friends can stay. The bunk room was also designed to be divided in two for a total of three rooms upstairs, or it can be turned into the primary suite, depending on the family’s needs later on.

For now, though, Jill and Toby like staying in a small downstairs bedroom tucked near the dune, beneath the outdoor deck. “Originally this was going to be a guest room,” Toby says. “But when we saw the finished space, we were like, ‘Nope, we're going to take this.’ You get a little glimpse of the lake out of there, and when we have a lot of people running around upstairs, that bedroom is a little bit quieter. The girls can be up late at night with their friends and we can get some sleep.”

Between the cottage’s two intersecting volumes, the Gebbens are enjoying a balance of sociability and solitude. “Curling up with a book feels really good,” Jill says, “but it’s also a super comfortable place to entertain—we’ve had all the neighbors over.” But its location, she adds, is also a launching point for Lake Michigan and its surrounding natural wonders, paddle-boarding, and beach walks to bike rides cross-country skiing. “It’s just a good home base for getting outside.”

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Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Lucid Architecture / @lucidarchitecture

Builder: Berghuis Construction

Structural Engineer: Engineered Structures

Landscape Design: Landscape Design Services

Cabinetry: Van Enk Wood Crafters

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