TH Making Waves

WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY KELLY KEGANS PHOTOGRAPHY BY WERNER STRAUBE

making waves

A TRADITIONAL LAKESIDE RETREAT GETS A SUNNY NEW ATTITUDE WITH SPLASHES OF WIT AND WOW March/April 2018 TH

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t’s not unusual to move historic homes from one location to another, but it’s not every day that the mode of transport is by way of a frozen lake. But this is Minnesota, and winters here often mean it’s the land of 10,000 frozen lakes. Such was the case 100 years ago, when the path of least resistance to relocate this home meant towing it across the bay on the iced-over waters of Lake Minnetonka.

The sweet story makes for some cool cabin lore, but what really sold the homeowners on the lake home was its short, 30-mile distance from their Minneapolis house and the desire to restore some coastal cottage charm to the house after years of uneven renovations. “The number one design challenge was the floorplan,” interior designer Linda Engler says. “It was the perfect storm of mish-mashed additions, outdoor-to-indoor conversions, and suspect remodeling.”

Although sited on a hill overlooking the lake, the home’s interiors virtually cut off that outdoor connection, with rooms without exterior views and oddly placed walls that were barriers to natural light. The resulting plan untangled the mess by converting some of the interior spaces back to exterior “rooms,” replacing windowless walls with a span of four sets of French doors that wrap around a corner, and flipping the kitchen from the other side of the house to face the lake with a wall of windows that rounds the sides of the kitchen. “We actually made the home’s footprint smaller,” architectural designer Gabriel Keller says of the new plan.

Today, upon entering the home, the lake is immediately visible across the living room. It’s the “wow” factor and lakeside connection the couple wanted when they spend weeks at a time here during the summer with their teenage sons.

PHOTOGRAPH: EXTERIOR, KAREN MELVIN

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BEFORE PHOTOS foyer, living room, bar area

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BEFORE PHOTOS dining room, kitchen, breakfast area

Caption directional Papa stuiate poris a rumpled strade tatures, corrum psund reriatur re, preast a tatiset m sie citior aesenim reperese voluptatem corre a seque. blund comnis dem irhem reprem pore a mir pide strum Ovid eas minctiore a sedy modit a maxi chaspie nimus. Musam ut ahicil et dit, abont ins doch ma excepuda verum thibus ad choet recae nam dem beritia ganzen tages mo te peron lup henih nn peligniet a magam tibus.

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Caption directional Papa stuiate poris a rumpled strade tatures, corrum psund reriatur re, preast a tatiset m sie citior seque. blund comnis dem irhem reprem a sedy modit a maxi chaspie nimus.

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Caption directional Papa stuiate poris a rumpled strade tatures, corrum psund reriatur re, preast a tatiset m sie citior aesenim reperese voluptatem corre a seque. blund comnis dem irhem reprem pore a mir pide strum Ovid eas minctiore a sedy modit a maxi chaspie nimus.

Musam ut ahicil et dit, abont ins doch ma excepuda verum thibus ad choet

SOME OF THE NICEST SPACES, WITH VAULTED CEILINGS AND ARCHES, WERE ORIGINALLY ANIMAL PENS.” —designer Person Name

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Having worked with the homeowners on renovating their Minneapolis home, Engler, Keller, and builder Bob Near were already a trusted team and empowered to present ideas that sometimes pulled the homeowners—just a bit—out of their comfort zone.

Engler kicked off the process asking the couple to jot down words that described what they wanted their getaway to embody. “Cottage. Contrast. Not all tan. Unexpected. Collected. Funky (a little)” were tacked up on a board in Engler’s office to guide the twoyear project. The team was also familiar with the couple’s sometimes at-odds style preferences: she likes spaces that are traditional and feminine, while her husband, she says, likes clean lines and modern style.

“The overarching concept was that the homeowners wanted this to feel like a getaway, not just a second version of their city house,” Engler says. “Their city house is classic and traditional with lots of open, negative space. The lake house is traditional at its core, but with more modern elements in the furnishings and in some of the bones, like the bar.”

Boundaries were pushed. Doubts were voiced. But ultimately, juxtapositions and having playful surprises here and there made everyone happy. Nowhere is the unexpected more pronounced as in the smile-inducing kitchen. In lieu of a center island, Engler designed a modern take on farmhouse style with an 11-foot-long table made with reclaimed timbers, then paired it with a splash of lacquered yellow Klismos chairs. “I love the tension,” Engler says. “I like traditional against modern, rough against smooth, old against new. Tension is what I rely on to make a space more interesting, and combining that chunky, beat-up wood table with the cleaned-up modern chairs with skinny metal legs is the kick in that room.”

Engler repeated the yellow elsewhere but kept it in check. Similar shades appear on fabric on the adjoining porch. And in the laundry room, zesty yellow cabinets smartly contrast with the dark floors, counters, and graphic black and white fabric. “It’s nice to have a little repetition without being too programmed,” she says.

Juxtapositions are also at play in the craftsmanship—whiteenameled shiplap walls on the main level are punched up with windows painted in dark charcoal “to give the appearance that it’s a metal frame,” Near says. “The look brings a European modern element to this Nantucket cottage-style architecture.” White oak floors and pine ceilings custom finished to resemble driftwood further convey a coastal vibe that has “an earthy, slightly distressed look, like you might have in a cabin,” Near says.

Whatever challenges the design team had in renovating the house gave way to “a-ha” moments about how to reconfigure and redefine rooms, like the narrow spaces tucked behind the pair of original wood-burning fireplaces that face each other in the living and dining rooms. On one side, a butler’s pantry provides additional storage just off the kitchen; on the other side is a brasstopped bar that opens to the porch. “No one would start from scratch and design this layout, but we ended up with results that we wouldn’t have arrived at otherwise,” Engler says. “It’s all part of the charm and history of the house.”

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Interior designer: Linda Engler Architectural designer: Gabriel Keller For more informaiton, see sources on page 000

Caption directional Papa stuiate poris a rumpled strade tatures, corrum psund reriatur re, preast a tatiset m sie citior aesenim reperese voluptatem corre a seque. blund comnis dem irhem reprem pore a mir pide strum Ovid verum thibus ad choet recae nam dem beritia ganzen tages mo te peron lup henih nn peligniet a magam tibus.

Musam ut ahicil et dit, abont ins doch ma excepud eas minctiore a sedy modit a maxi chaspie nimus.

BEFORE PHOTOS master bath, master bedroom

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