Having travelled the world, the owners settled on building their vacation home on a unique dune ridge lot overlooking a south facing beach and the ocean beyond. The lot came with community design guidelines that set a distinct style that the owners liked, but at the same time they wanted something “unique, but not different”. Additionally, the owners posed a challenge to build a home that would be as energy efficient and sustainable as possible.

We were intrigued by these requirements, and created a house that captured their travels, seaside location, and independent thinking in the form of a boat with bow and stern, sweeping decks and three gable end dormers representing three sails. The interiors summon the aesthetics of old wooden boats: cherry flooring with maple pinstripes, deep curving white wall ribs below deck (first floor foyer & bedrooms) with detailed white beams supporting clear finished Cyprus ceiling panels, and shiny chrome hardware and light fixtures. On the upper living level, the vaulted ceilings of the three gable dormers or “sails”, define the Living Room, Dining Room and Master Bedroom. A series of glass doors extend the living activities out to the expansive wood deck. Screened porches in the fore and aft offer bug free outdoor enjoyment. Throughout the house, antique furniture and posters represent items collected on the ship’s “journey”.

At the time, LEED for Homes had not yet gone into effect, so we had to create our own initiative for energy efficiency and sustainability. Care was taken to make the building as environmentally responsible as possible.  As many of the materials as possible were either sustainably harvested (ex: cherry floors), recycled or recyclable (ex: recycled glass tile, concrete countertops), used little to no pollutants (ex: low VOC paints), and had as small a carbon footprint as possible (grown/manufactured on the east coast of USA). We took this concept through the interiors, using antique furniture (recycled), green furniture (sustainable materials), and local rugs/furniture (small carbon footprint).   Overall, this house is unique in so many beautiful and sustainable ways!