Drew Stuart and his ex-wife Kristin never wanted the ease of new construction. When they were searching for a place to raise their son in the Catskills years ago, they were committed to undertaking a renovation. It would be the more difficult route, of course, but considering that Drew is a founding partner of INC Architecture & Design, they were excited about the creative possibilities.

“Originally, we were looking for a ‘weird ’70s contemporary’ to renovate, but then we stumbled upon this midcentury cabin,” Drew recalls.

The two-bedroom hideaway was built in 1959, and Drew says that it was the “perfect size” at 1,000 square feet. The pair also liked that it was set on four acres of verdant land in a quiet valley, and Drew was especially excited that it all overlooked a stream. “I wanted to walk into my backyard to go fly fishing,” he says. Aside from a lackluster redesign of the bathroom and kitchen that took place some 40 years ago, the home was still stuck at the center of the 20th century.

$50,000 General Conditions	$8,000 Carpentry	$18,524 Windows
$10,000 Insulation	$20,000 Painting	$18,000 Kitchen
$3,000 Floor Refinishing	$4,007 Cork Flooring/Tile	$12,000 Electrical
$9,000 Mechanical/Plumbing	$9,000 Fixtures	$9,000 Masonry
Grand Total: $170,531

“It was built as a conventional home, but with none of the soaring, aspirational midcentury touches that architects covet,” Drew says. “It had flat, acoustical board ceilings throughout. The windows were very small, and the exterior doors were of the pre-hung, off-the-shelf variety. The interior doors were all hollow with gold hardware. And there was a mechanical and laundry room that took up 40 square feet.”

“Our son was much younger when we started the renovation, so although we wanted a traditional ladder, we knew it wouldn’t be a smart decision to have it as part of our day-to-day life,” Drew says. The wireframe staircase is a whimsical addition to the otherwise midcentury-focused design. " layout="bleed" credit="Add credit" photoUserId=""/>

Those were drawbacks, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed—and the potential of the land and the cozy footprint were too great to pass up. So, when the pair decided to purchase the cabin, they recast the renovation they initially envisioned. Instead, this would be a restoration.

“It had been owned by a professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who was an incredible steward of the land,” Drew says. “I was inspired by that, and wanted to continue the stewardship. The fireplace also really sealed the deal—it had been modified with a woodburning stove, but I knew that could be taken out and restored into a woodburning fireplace. You just can’t build masonry fireplaces like this anymore, at least not affordably.”

Drew shifted the oversized mechanical room into a primary bathroom, and incorporated space from the original bathroom to make a larger shower. The original bathroom now serves as a powder room, and the hall closet that once concealed the boiler now hosts a stacked washer and dryer. Since the boiler and hot water heater needed to be replaced, they upgraded the system and positioned everything in the attic. “In the course of this, we decided to build a loft over the bedrooms for our son, which made it easier to access the attic and new mechanical room,” Drew says.

“We knew we needed two bathrooms, so it was like a puzzle to figure out how to get them in a small space,” Drew says. He condensed the existing primary bathroom to turn it into a small powder room. Drew chose a Kohler sink that’s been in production since the 1950s. " layout="" credit="Add credit" photoUserId=""/>

He also knew that the existing windows had to go, since they didn’t let enough light or views into the home. “In order to minimize the impact of the new windows, we just lowered the sills in all of the bedrooms,” he says. “Even a few inches of extra glass can increase the light by 10 to 20 percent in a room.” Drew’s team also installed three large casement windows and one picture window in the sunroom, ensuring the area would always live up to its name.

Given all of these changes, it’s important to note that Drew was very intentional about what remained. Pulling up the carpets revealed wood floors underneath, and he painstakingly restored and stained them to have a warm gray tone. He kept the two archways that separate the kitchen and bedrooms from the main living area, and brought the fireplace back to its classic charm. As for the design, he chose a dark gray for the exterior to melt into the surrounding woods, and a bright white for the interiors as an invigorating contrast. The details received just as much attention, and Drew aimed to make them specific to the midcentury era.

“I used Kohler sinks that have been in production since the ’50s in the bathrooms, but I was challenged while changing the flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms,” he says. “While vinyl would have been appropriate at the time, I just couldn’t do it. We visited friends who have a home in the Hamptons, and their architect used cork floors in the kitchen—it was a ‘eureka’ moment. That was when I knew that cork for the flooring and countertops would be best. It also reminded me that Frank Lloyd Wright had entirely cork bathrooms in Fallingwater.”

He found solid-core doors with porcelain knobs produced by a British company, and relied on fixtures from Schoolhouse Electric that were made with casings from the 1920s and ’30s. For two decidedly modern features, Drew installed heat under all of the floors for a bit of comfort after a day outdoors, and designed a ladder-like loft staircase in a punchy shade of blue.

“Since it was built in 1959, I became obsessed with finding pieces that were made in that era to use in the renovation,” Drew says. Schoolhouse Electric fixtures, which were modeled from casings used in the 1920s and ’30s, can be found throughout the home. " layout="" credit="Add credit" photoUserId=""/>

“Architect Francesco Librizzi has done many similar fabrications, and I wanted to do something that had a sort of sculptural whimsy, since it’s clearly new and not part of the original house,” he says. “I have to give credit to Neil Shah in my office for helping me design this—he did all of the 3D modeling to work out the aspects in the space we had.”

The entire project was completed in February 2017 after about six months, and looking back, Drew has only a couple of regrets he can live with. The home doesn’t have a mudroom, since he was against an addition, but the family doesn’t mind hanging their jackets and shoes off the kitchen. And while they didn’t have the budget for air conditioning, if they open the windows, the breeze from the valley cools them off just fine. In the end, Drew is proud of the fact that they’re now the stewards he hoped they would be.

“I was pretty anxious at the time of construction and wondered, ‘Can we transform this odd, run-down house and make it feel special within its constraints?’” he says. “I love that we kept so much of its character, and made decisions that reflect the time when it was built. It’s easy to build something new that has an impact, but it was nice to learn that a restoration can also be impactful.”

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Project Details:

Architect of Record: INC Architecture & Design / @inc.nyc

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Budget Breakdown: An Architect Reimagines a Ramshackle Catskills Cabin for $170K