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Chelsea designed a large garage for the ADU so her family could have room for a shop and to store their outdoor gear—not that they have to go far to enjoy nature. “You can just go out of the driveway and be right in the woods,” Chelsea says.

Chelsea’s father tiled her bathroom, which helped keep costs down. She chose Mediterranea’s Modern Slate tile for the shower and floor. The sink, faucet, and cabinet are Ikea; the wall sconce is from Dainolite; and the mirror is an Ebern Designs Seena surface-mount framed medicine cabinet.

Chelsea and her husband’s bedroom overlooks the living room. Instead of a solid wall, she installed a screen, which allows her to see the view through the living room windows. When she wants privacy, she’ll draw the curtain, which she bought from Quince. The metal side chair is vintage (by General Fireproofing), the nightstand is from Broyhill’s Brasilia line, and she made the wood sculpture and wall art when she was a student at Pratt.

Chelsea, who learned woodworking from her father, fabricated the doors throughout the ADU herself out of pine and birch plywood. “I couldn’t find doors I liked within budget and it was easier to build them myself,” she says. The hardware is from Kwikset. Chelsea made the side chair for her son’s room and the desk is the same one she used when she was a child. She bought the nightstand from the Salvation Army and restored it.

The bedrooms, bathrooms, and an office nook are upstairs. Chelsea used budget-friendly pre-engineered wood flooring from Stuga Astrid on this level.

Chelsea chose Ikea Sektion cabinets with Kungsbacka anthracite door panels for the kitchen. The 30-inch induction stove is from Samsung, the hood is by Hauslane, and the fridge and freezer are by Blomberg, which she bought from a local appliance store that does servicing. She made the dining table out of the same butcher block she used on the counters plus three-inch round legs from Semiexact. The sink and faucet are from Kraus.

“I was trying to simplify everything as much as possible, but still keep things interesting,” Chelsea says of her approach to architectural embellishment. Vertical pine boards around the stair, the upstairs guardrail, and sleeping loft serve practical purposes and become a striking detail, too.

To keep costs down, Chelsea and her husband furnished much of the ADU with pieces they already had. The sofa is by Burrow, the rug is from Target, the coffee table and wall lamp are both from her grandparents. The chair and credenza are vintage. She made the plant stand out of leftover parts from her dad’s workshop. A heat pump from Mitsubishi, plus a tightly insulated envelope, keep the ADU warm in the colder months.

The ADU is located on a half-acre lot behind a 100-year-old duplex, which Chelsea bought and moved into in 2016. While the house had character, it felt cramped because of its small rooms and Chelsea craved a more open, airy space. To that end, she created as much connection between the ADU’s interior and the neighborhood. Windows and doors by Andersen and skylights by Velux keep the ADU bathed in natural light. “In summertime, it feels like you’re outside because you've got the sunlight from the skylights and the breeze coming through the windows,” Chelsea says.

An office nook is located just past the entrance.

In Portland, Maine, architect Chelsea Lipham designed and built a 950-square-foot ADU where she, her husband, and five-year-old son live. By keeping the ADU’s design simple and choosing budget-friendly materials, she was able to complete the project for less than $206,000.

The facade is composed of solid pine boards coated in pine tar, a finish commonly used on houses and boats in Scandinavia. It is durable (it’s supposed to last 100 years, Chelsea says) and protects against rot and insects. Chelsea used Earth + Flax’s Authentic Black pine tar mixed 50/50 with Viking purified raw linseed oil. The sconce is the Breshawna model from Wade Logan.

The home is built into its grassy-dune landscape (icluding a day-lit lower level) yet still appears to float over its terrain.

The design takes advantage of the naturally rising and falling topography to fill its lower level, a kind of non-basement, with natural light.

Eliminating the deck and the small rooms off the terrace created a unified living space that extends between inside and out. For continuity throughout, the flooring is irregular slabs of marble with an antiqued finish. A linear drainage system was installed with the embedded track for the glass doors.

Seattle architecture firm Wittman Estes used its new modular prefab system to built a prototype on Whidbey Island in Washington for a family that loves the outdoors.