Home Design RENOVATION

A fire pit off the connecting porch encourages togetherness and is perfect for entertaining.

BY NANCY A. RUHLING

PHOTOGRAPHS BY AMBER JANE BARRICMAN

A HISTORIC FARMHOUSE ANCHORS THIS FULLY RENOVATED GENERATIONAL RETREAT.

The new kitchen blends contemporary features like floating shelves and highend appliances with farmhouse accents. Below: An expansive family room resides in the connecting porch.

ohn and Anne Cogswell have visited the Cape ever since they were children. When they came upon a historic property near the beach, they knew they wanted to transform it into a destination where three generations of their growing, close-knit family could make new memories.

The property, set on three-quarters of an acre in Dennis Village, boasted a c. 1825 farmhouse as well as a cottage and attached barn that were added over the centuries. “It needed a lot of attention,” says John, “and we knew we’d have to renovate to meet our needs.”

The Cogswells commissioned McPhee Associates, a custom design-build firm in Dennis, to transform it into a compound for themselves, their two married sons, and their five lively young grandchildren. Because the home is in the Old King’s Highway Regional Historic District, the owners wanted the renovation to not only satisfy preservation rules but also do the past proud.

“It’s a very unusual property because of the configuration of the structures,” says Kendra Seifert, architectural designer for McPhee Associates. “The middle section, or so-called barn, didn’t fit the Cape aesthetic. After working through the design, we realized that rebuilding this area from the ground up was necessary.”

Rebuilding within the same footprint allowed McPhee Associates to meet code requirements and add electricity, heat, and plumbing systems more efficiently. “We gave the connecting porch a historic look that’s cohesive with the farmhouse and cottage,” Seifert says.

She adds that the Cogswells had “great vision and forethought about how to pull the property together to make it work for their family.”

The renovation created three distinct yet connected living spaces. The extended farmhouse includes two bedroom suites, each with a sitting area, full bath, and fireplace; bunk room; and kitchen/dining room combination. Meanwhile, the family room resides in the connecting porch and the cottage was transformed into a primary suite complete with kitchenette and laundry room.

“We wanted a place where everyone could be comfortable together,” Anne says, “but we also wanted space where we could spend time alone.”

The Cogswells were intimately acquainted with the property because they lived there off and on while the work, which was done in phases, progressed. They started out in the cottage and then transferred to the farmhouse when its renovation was complete.

“Although it is unusual to work directly with the client on the job site, often making changes on the fly, it proved to be a recipe for success,” says McPhee Field Supervisor Wyman Brooks. “Taking close to three years, the project became a unique collaboration.”

Besides razing and reimagining the barn portion, additional architectural changes included enlarging the farmhouse windows and extending its footprint to the rear. In the front, a new gravel courtyard accommodates visiting cars and a patio with fire pit nestles against the connecting porch.

The homage to the past begins with the structures’ façades, where Hardie siding mimics vintage clapboards. Along the back, cedar shakes resemble the originals.

In keeping with their commitment to the property’s historic roots, the Cogswells made salvaged materials a key part of the project. Wood salvaged from the barn reappears in the fireplace mantels and in several accent walls throughout the house. The farmhouse’s original quarter-moon windows were transformed into interior transoms.

To complement what they reclaimed from their own property, the homeowners selected additional materials that nod to the past. For flooring, they chose wide-plank oak, sourced from a New Hampshire mill, for the ground levels and 20-inch-wide pine for the farmhouse’s second story. Using the ancient Chinese technique of shou sugi ban, the pine was charred to mimic the look of driftwood.

The original farmstead’s aesthetic is evoked in the sliding cross-timber barn door on the front of the cottage. A second sliding barn door graces the family room; the cross-timber motif is expressed subtly in the kitchen island’s cabinets as well. More playful coastal accents include a mermaid rendered in stained glass in the primary suite and decorative fish in the bunk room.

Noting that clients don’t normally take such a hands-on approach, Seifert says that “this project was a labor of love for John and Anne. The renovation is perfect for them.”

The Cogswells couldn’t agree more.

“We poured our heart and soul into this home,” says Anne, who doesn’t have a favorite part of the compound. “I love everything about it,” she adds. In John’s opinion, the best feature is that it brings their family together.

A new screened porch sits on the footprint of what used to be a patio and provides comfortable indooroutdoor living with views galore.

IN LOVE WITH THE LOCATION, BUT NOT THE HOUSE, A FAMILY TURNS TO A3 ARCHITECTS FOR A RESPECTFUL REFRESH OF A DATED COLONIAL.

BY JANICE RANDALL ROHLF PHOTOGRAPHY BY GRATTAN IMAGING

he Brewster Flats are an awe-inspiring sight that merits a place on your bucket list. The daily ebb and flow of the tides causes the water in the bay to go from high tide to dead low tide in the span of just six hours, leaving behind a vast stretch of sandbars and tide pools teeming with sea life. It’s as much fun to gaze at this natural phenomenon from a distance as it is to walk right out on the flats to explore.

“Once you get a taste of the way the tide goes out, you’re hooked,” says homeowner Suzanne. She inherited a deep appreciation for this magical Lower Cape spot from her seaside-loving Portuguese grandfather, who started renting here in 1958. After decades of family vacations, Suzanne and her husband decided to look for a house to buy five years ago. The Brewster Flats was the only area that really interested Suzanne, while her husband was adamant that the house be perched high on the lot.

In the end, both got their wish. The bayside bluffs location checked all the boxes, and the Colonial style of the house agreed with them too; until, that is, they walked inside. The layout of the rooms, especially on the first floor, took little advantage of the extraordinary panoramas. Furthermore, the rooms themselves— chopped up and oddly scaled—were not conducive to comfortable 21st-century living.

“There were all these boxy rooms, and almost no sign that the house had water views,” observes architect Alison Alessi, who headed up the gut renovation with her team at A3 Architects in Dennis. “We spent a lot of time working on the inside—changing the floor plan, opening up everything, contemplating which rooms got a view, which rooms faced the street.”

For a few reasons, the original footprint of the house was maintained. “We knew we couldn’t expand it to the back because of the coastal bank and conservation restrictions,” says Alessi. At about 3,500 square feet, with four bedrooms upstairs, the house, she adds “didn’t require more space, but we needed to remedy how poorly the first floor was laid out.”

First they tore down interior walls, which allowed them to incorporate the previously choppy, long and narrow rooms into one unified space for casual family living. Originally facing the street, the kitchen was relocated to the back, ocean-facing side. “It’s not a huge kitchen, but it’s very functional and has a lot of windows facing the water,” says Alessi. The front-to-back living room has exposure on all sides.

Upstairs, all the bedrooms were renovated to some degree, but it’s the primary bedroom, originally with a seven-foot ceiling, that underwent the most profound transformation. “We vaulted the ceiling, added shiplap, and exposed the beams,” explains Alessi. “I really feel like there’s a dramatic difference in how that space feels now.”

The only brand-new space in the house is the screened porch, which sits on the footprint of what used to be a patio. “We used the porch to reduce the volume and break up the boxiness of the house from the back,” says Alessi, adding that they “spent a long time thinking about how to keep the porch from blocking the views from the living room, dining room, and kitchen.” On top of the screened porch, which is located behind the garage, there is a sundeck that opens up off a new second-floor loft space. The views from here are stunning, especially at sunset.

There were all these boxy rooms, and almost no sign that the house had water views. We spent a lot of time working on the inside— changing the floor plan, opening up everything, contemplating which rooms got a view, which rooms faced the street.

Post-renovation, the primary bedroom boasts a vaulted ceiling with shiplap and exposed beams. Opposite: Washashore Home broke up the long front-to-back living room with comfortable seating areas.

Much of the interior material and décor selections were inspired by the view of the bay. A3 collaborated with Cape-based interior design firm Washashore Home with the goal of playing off the colors in nature—for example, gray-veined granite in the kitchen; sand-toned walls, rugs, and upholstery; and a kitchen island, bathroom vanity, and sliding barn door in the laundry room that echo the blues of the ocean.

“Everything we did within the house speaks to what you see outside,” says Peyton Lambton, co-owner of Washashore. They also used highperformance fabrics that facilitate unfussy living. “We wanted to make sure Suzanne didn’t have to spend her day policing the house.”

On the exterior, everything—cladding, shingles, and windows—is new. While most of the front windows are in their existing, very traditional places, in the back, notes Alessi, “we were a little more playful with the windows, a little bit more modern.” Solar panels were installed on the front of the house because the sunlight and warmth are there on the south-facing street side.

Aesthetics are important, but the longevity of a house so close to the ocean involves more than what meets the eye. “Going down to the studs gave us an opportunity to reinsulate the house and tighten it up,” says Alessi. “Before, the house was really exposed; when the wind blew, the whole house shook. Now, it’s much more resilient to storms.”

Suzanne and her family are thrilled to have the bright, comfortable, and easy house they hoped for, a place where the kids feel comfortable bringing friends and one that will welcome future grandchildren. The remarkable view of the Brewster Flats is a gift from Mother Nature.

I focus on pieces that will be conversation starters. I want to know: How are you going to live with this?

How is it going to work for your family? And I try to incorporate those elements.

ARTIST SCOTT FEEN

FINDS NEW BEAUTY IN OLD MATERIALS.

BY PATRICK FLANARY

only build one of anything,” says Scott Feen from his Orleans workshop where his newest commission—a table resembling a shipwreck—awaits its destination, now finally complete.

When an Orleans family wanted something specially crafted to capture their love of the sea, Feen stepped in with a blowtorch. He charred reclaimed cedar beams using an ancient Japanese preservation method and cut hundreds of pieces of bronze from a boat’s bimini top to highlight the table’s centerpiece: a salvaged bronze porthole.

“I focus on pieces that will be conversation starters,” Feen says. “I want to know: How are you going to live with this? How is it going to work for your family? And I try to incorporate those elements.”

Feen is an artist who never studied art. “It really was in me from the beginning,” he says. As a kid growing up in western Massachusetts and West Yarmouth, he tinkered with bicycles and go-karts and was immersed in his grandparents’ shop, which dealt in paintings and sculpture.

Feen didn’t get around to creating his own art until much later. His professional path took him from hospitality school to sales in Silicon Valley and later aboard a yacht as a captain. It was San Francisco’s vibrant art scene that eventually sent him, freshly inspired, back home to Cape Cod. He’d decided, as a new father, he wanted out of the corporate world.

Thirteen years ago, Feen stood outside his first gallery in Chatham watching trucks haul loads of wood and glass debris from construction sites. It hit him: Why not rescue and repurpose some of that waste for art? That thought led Feen to start junk hunting. He scoured beaches, lumberyards, and Craigslist, eventually cramming his two-floor warehouse with everything from old bolts to rail cars.

“I had it down,” he says. “I could walk through an estate sale really quickly and identify things I needed for projects that I knew were on the horizon.”

Those projects started small, like refurbishing a chair for the occasional client. Commissions began rolling in around the time Feen launched Atlantic Workshop on Chatham’s Main Street while moonlighting as a bartender. He met a lot of builders and eager homeowners; before long the junk he sought began finding him.

Today, Feen operates out of a studio in Orleans, where he retools aged furnishings and fixtures into one-of-a-kind family heirlooms. In his workshop, a lobster boat is reborn as an outdoor table and driftwood is fashioned into a chandelier and shaped into a showpiece mantel.

The artisan has expanded Atlantic Workshop into an educational opportunity, opening the barn to summer interns pursuing degrees in architecture and design. He teaches them the value of collecting raw materials directly from the community—and then giving them back.

HOW TO ACHIEVE TIMELESS SEASIDE STYLE.

BY JENNIFER SPERRY

nterior designer Donna Elle knows a thing or two about life by the coast. “The sea and all that it represents has always called to me,” says Elle, who grew up summering on Rhode Island’s shore. She established her design career—and raised a family—on Nantucket after falling in love with the island on spring break during her freshman year of college. For over 40 years, she and her island home enjoyed a symbiotic relationship.

With an impressive portfolio of luxurious seasonal retreats and yearround homes, many of them on or near the water, Elle is intimately familiar with seaside spaces. “I followed my intuition and built a thriving business founded on what I call coastal style,” she explains. “For me, this style is a sensibility and an awareness. It’s being tuned into the nuances of island life, of the ocean, the wildlife, the quality of light, the air. It’s something you carry with you even if you move far from the sea.”

Having watched coastal-themed furnishings and textiles evolve from not even being recognized as a design category during the ’80s, to simple facsimiles of seashells during the ’90s, to white-washed furniture and pickled paints in the 2000s, Elle says it’s now a thriving segment of the market. “It’s captured people’s attention for sure,” she says, adding that today’s iteration is a far more sophisticated mix of woven textiles, quality home goods, and customized pigments.

To Elle, coastal isn’t just a look—it’s a lifestyle. Here are her tips for letting seaside speak in your home.