Expansive Meets Cozy in Shingle-Style Home

While many people dream of walking through the doors of their perfect homes, rarely do they awaken with house plans in hand and the motivation to break ground on cloud nine. Such was the case for a Massachusetts couple, who had a vision of an expansive yet cozy Shingle-style home, but no architect to build it.

Formerly residents of Newton, a suburb of Boston, the couple sought the surrounding area for Shingle-style homes. What they found was an abundance of colonials, some with grandiose interiors, but most with minimal property space in the heavily settled neighborhoods. They were quickly bored with the selection and wondered if a spacious plot of land — let alone their dream home — existed in the area.

"We didn't want a huge home, we wanted an interesting home," they explain. After two years of searching, they realized only an architect could make their vision a reality. And, not just any architect, but one who specialized in Shingle-style house plans.

"We had worked a long time on a floor plan. We knew what we wanted, but we're not architects," the couple says. They imagined a house that would look timeless; not attached to any one decade. They wanted it to possess a cottage-like feel, but be open and angular at the same time. "We wanted something that looked intriguing, like you wanted to look inside and explore it," the wife says. Then, completely by accident, they came across a house designed by architect Thomas Carey. Immediately they saw it and thought, "This guy knows!"

Thomas Carey has been known for designing and constructing buildings ranging from single-family homes to large-scale urban offices. In Boston, he has focused on custom residences, some of which were indicative of the Shingle style. This made him the perfect candidate to create a custom-designed home for the disenchanted couple.

"There's no pure style here," says Carey. The house borrows its shingled walls, multi-peaked dormers, and dynamic asymmetry from Shingle-style architecture, while its low-slung roofline is reminiscent of the Arts and Crafts tradition. "What I'm trying to do is create a sort of romantic feeling, of being tucked in under the eaves, and roofs that are tucked under roofs," says Carey. The roofline wraps down over spaces and anchors the house at both ends. This gives it a much more sculptural feel as opposed to a boxy house with a roof that sits on top, he adds.

The front of the house has a concave, embracing feel. The owners call it, "a curve that comes out to you almost like a hug." It is 4,200 square feet and sits in a hundred-year flood plain; property that could only be found moving further west from the city. The terraced effect was in part determined by the grade of the flood plain.

Another unique feature of the exterior is the degree of difference from the front to the back. The front presents a more private, formal impression of the home. Conversely, the back is much glassier and open with an expansive view to the wetlands and sunlight. "When I look at the back, that whole cozy feeling disappears. I look at these big windows and think, 'My God! Do I live there?'" the wife says.

The back of the house is where most of the living takes place. It's a less formal, more open space. The openness was achieved with a 22' by 16' wall of glass that overlooks the wetlands. The honey hue of natural fir warms the beams and ceiling, keeping the over-scaled room down to earth. The fieldstone fireplace adds to the sense of being in a Vermont chalet. The couple says the family room is a favorite spot for them and their two children. "I wanted a family room almost like I was living outdoors. I wanted to live almost like I was in a terrarium," the wife says. "Guests get overwhelmed by how they feel like they're living in the weather without getting wet."

The homeowners are outdoors people, and it was essential that they have easy access to outside from any point in the house, according to Carey. The house has a series of decks, including a patio off the family room and a wrapping screened porch that is more recently being renovated into an office/library. These outdoor extensions act as a space between the landscape and the rooms. "When the weather is nice you can just spill out onto the porch and it becomes an exterior dining room, extending the living space," Carey says regarding the porch off the dining room.

Filling the interiors with natural light was also key to a light and airy environment, suggestive of the outdoors. It is often difficult to diffuse sunlight in single-story homes, according to Carey. But here, the high spaces in the family room allowed him to tie together upper and lower areas while letting light deeply into the house. He even punctured one wall at the back of the house with a small opening to bring light into a hallway. "You want light coming into a house from unexpected directions," he says. Sunlight is uniquely captured in the master bedroom through square windows set high up on the walls in a walk-in closet. A partial wall was built between the closet and the bedroom, allowing the light to penetrate the room from this space as well as the nearby patio doors.

The master bedroom is self-contained from the rest of the house, complete with a master bath, balcony overlooking the wetlands, and a walk-in closet with 27 feet of hanging space. It was intentionally zoned off from the children's living area to give the parents their own realm. A transitional element is a passageway that runs along the balcony above the family room.

With the many distinct spaces and unending layers to this home, everything still revolves around the kitchen. "The kitchen nowadays is where a lot of the living goes on; it's the heart of the whole house," says Carey. A lot of thinking for the kitchen design was the homeowners': the flow into the dining room, placement of the refrigerator, and accessibility to the deck and nearby office/playroom. It's also a place for people to hang out. To make it a more social area, the counters were raised and stools were added so someone can cook and entertain at the same time.

The combination of colors and materials in the kitchen suggests an Old World look. Granite countertops play off weathered Italian floor tiles. The large-scale terracotta has an earth tone that works with the raised-panel wood cabinets. Carey says, "I like a primitive feeling in the kitchen, where you have this primary type of function. I like the naturalness."

Overall, the house possesses a sense of mystery that the owners could not find in other homes. "When you drive down the driveway…the house seems to almost open different doors, different faces to you," the wife says. Carey agrees that the house has many surprises woven through it. He describes it as a mystery that "gradually reveals itself," much like walking through a house in a dream.

Credits

Text: Robyn Lorusso

Photography: Eric Roth

Architect: Thomas Carey