American Classic
A New England clapboard home blends the best of the 18th and 21st centuries.
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ShareJune 1, 2008
2001, when Robert Lewis and his wife, Stacey, began looking for a summer home, they set their sights on Long Island Sound. They changed course, however, when they happened upon a historic home on the Connecticut River. "We said yes to the broker before we even looked inside," recalls Lewis of the moment he first saw the gambrel-roof, clapboard home. The two-story house, which was built in 1790, had not been restored since 1959, so Lewis called in his cousin, Donald Rattner, cofounder and principal of Studio for Civil Architecture in New York, to evaluate the property. "The nucleus of the home was very attractive," says Rattner, "but the accretions that had happened over time were not."The accretions he speaks of—the south and north wings added in 1964 and 1981, respectively—did not integrate gracefully with the home’s historic core, resulting in disjointed spaces and an awkward traffic pattern. The only way to access the pool from the inside, for instance, was by winding through several rooms, including the master bedroom. To create a more harmonious flow, Rattner proposed rebuilding the additions from scratch. He also suggested restoring the historic aspects of the home.
After a three-year renovation, the 4,000-square-foot house now has new wings that extend seamlessly from the center block. The south wing features a modern kitchen, a dining room, a mudroom, and a capacious great room, while the north wing has a new master bedroom with private his-and-hers dressing rooms, a spacious bathroom, and a home office. Because 18th-century visitors arrived by boat, the home’s original front entrance and parlor faced east toward the water. The parlor had been combined with a bedroom by a previous owner to form a larger living room, which Rattner retained. But he relocated the main entry to the opposite end of the home—where the kitchen once stood—so that it would face the driveway. Here, behind a steep staircase, a fireplace with its original beehive oven and large firebox serves as a reminder of the space’s past function.
"We took the year 1790 as our cue and tried to extend that character throughout the house," says Rattner. "But we also tried to introduce a more contemporary ambiance without making it look like something that didn’t belong." To that end, Rattner used reclaimed wood in the new additions so they would match the home’s original floors. In choosing the stone, lighting, and finishes, Rattner collaborated with interior designer Linda Chase, owner of Linda Chase Associates in Montecito, California. In the great room, Chase selected a bush-hammered stone that echoes the color and texture of those used in other traditional river homes in the area.
"I knew I had to keep the old Connecticut feel of the house," says Chase, who also owns a house in the area. "But I didn’t want to use overly sweet floral patterns and bright fabrics." Instead, she used neutral hues and augmented them with blocks of bold color to complement the traditional architecture and detailing without resorting to the typical dusty rose, Williamsburg blue, and colonial pineapple motifs. Light and airy, the sun-filled great room, which the couple calls the "conservatory," occupies the space of the former master bedroom and has a soaring 13-foot beamed ceiling and a stone fireplace. The room, located within steps of the newly built swimming pool and patio, is furnished with a modular sofa upholstered in water-resistant fabric so that the homeowners and their guests can lounge carefree in their wet swimsuits.
Chase not only used color to define the spaces—such as the
study, whose walls are painted a deep cocoa brown with violet undertones that
bring out the richness of the ceiling’s exposed wood beams—but also, in concert
with Rattner, cleverly blended materials to create smooth transitions from one
room to the next. Although the master suite has hardwood floors, the Lewises
wanted primarily stone tile in the connecting master bathroom. To tie the two
spaces together, the team placed a few wood panels in the center of the bathroom
floor, directly in front of the vanity area. And upstairs, a sitting room’s
small landscape mural—believed to have been painted by an itinerant artist in
the 1800s in exchange for food and lodging—is referenced in an adjoining, newly
built guest room, whose wooden furnishings are painted with figurative designs
in similar colors. "They kept the period feel so beautifully," says Lewis of
Rattner and Chase, "and it shows."
Donald M. Rattner, Studio for Civil Architecture, 212.625.3336,
www.thecivilstudio.com
Linda Chase Associates, 805.969.2895
