We updated our client's existing Center Hall Colonial home with two major renovations 10 years apart. The clients wanted us to recreate the contemporary living they enjoyed in their West Coast home. In 2007 we added a first floor mudroom and backyard entertaining porch in addition to completely redoing the entire first floor in a clean contemporary style. The clients enjoyed living in the house and neighborhood so much that they contacted us again in 2016-2017 to expand the home for their growing family with a complete second floor renovation with addition, an exterior entry portico and a facade redesign to match the contemporary style of the first floor.

Project Architect: Richard Basic

Builder: Gallo Builders

At Home Magazine's A-List "Historical Home Renovation" 2012.

Clarke Subzero/Wolfe winner.

Responsible Luxury means designing smaller homes that have flexible uses within a more open floor plan while using luxurious materials and details. And even better when one can renovate an existing structure and turn it into a new use for updated, contemporary living.

Our clients owned a property that had an old cow barn on the property that was begging for attention. They wanted to reuse the exterior volume of large river stone walls, thick bluestone sills, old barn doors and thick slate roofing and transform the interior into a chic custom guest house with great entertaining space. 

Being an old barn, windows and thus natural light were limited. We wanted more sunlight into our new space and carefully designed larger window openings and another second floor dormer to match the scale of the existing. State of the art heating, air conditioning, electrical systems  were built into a new tall crawl space below the building so everything was hidden from view. 

Taking our cue from the colors of the exterior, we chose our interior palette of light warm gray walls, walnut floors, light polished stone surfaces and dark brown espresso cabinetry.

Kitchen Design: Laura Kaehler Architects

Interior Decorator: Eric Roseff Design

Builder: Koushouris Construction

A small but detailed vacation home is a perfect candidate for Responsible Luxury. 
The home needed to maximize views to the water, be low maintenance with durable exterior and interior materials, have flexible and open spaces that could handle two people or the entire family and use interesting details.

We chose the volume of the house to be a simple box of stucco with a horizontal cedar stair volume and deck backdrop. We used large expanses of aluminum clad windows and doors facing the water views and smaller windows everywhere else. The flat roof allowed a roof deck to capitalize on the best views of the house. We used horizontal slats as a recurring detail at the interior stair and the exterior stair which created playful shadows.

Kitchen designed by: Homeowner

Photography by: Alex Miller