Home Sweet Hygge Home

LOCATION

TRAVERSE CITY

CONTRACTOR

G. MOTT BUILDERS GMOTTBUILDERS.COM

home sweet hygge home

A YOUNG COUPLE FINDS HAPPINESS (AND SOME UNEXPECTED LUXURIES!) IN A KICKED-UP MODERN VERSION OF A KIT HOME.

Text by Elizabeth Edwards // Photos by Trap-Studio

Tommy and Lauren Greene had been searching for a home in Traverse City for several months when Sean Karcher hired their company, Trap-Studio (Tommy is a photographer and graphic designer, and Lauren is a branding expert), to do creative work for his company, Hygge Supply. Karcher’s Leelanau-based company sells modern, minimalist kit homes. Made from SIP panels, they are also highly energy efficient. After learning more about the company, Lauren says: “We realized this was the direction we wanted to go, so we changed our search from a home to property.”

Not long after, the couple settled on a wooded piece of land off Keystone Road just outside of Traverse City. From blueprint to lighting, the Hygge process is streamlined, offering clients a list of pre-selected choices, all of which have a modern, Scandinavian look and are often made from eco-friendly, recycled materials. “If you want to build a minimalist home but don’t have the time and energy to focus on it, it’s a great way to go,” says Lauren.

The Hygge kit comes with all the parts and pieces, but it still needs to be built from the ground up. For that job, the Greenes hired Gary Mott of G. Mott Builders. “We met with him and immediately clicked,” says Lauren. “We found him to really understand our vision. Beyond that, he was honest, trustworthy and reliable. His follow through was great, and we actually came in under budget.”

The finished product could easily grace the pages of Dwell Magazine (the international modern homes magazine, has, in fact, done a story on Hygge Supply). Black on the outside—to please Tommy—and white on the inside for Lauren, the home is bathed in light from Hygge’s signature floor-to-ceiling windows and extra-tall ceilings. “It’s like living in a big light box, it’s great for photo work,” Lauren says.

The floor plan centers around a great room with a streamlined, efficient kitchen. The master suite is on one end of the room, with two more bedrooms and a bathroom on the other end. The Hygge package included some unexpected luxuries, such as a polished concrete floor, a wood-burning fireplace, a soaking tub in the master bath and even a high-tech door lock that works via your thumbprint.

Join the Greenes and Gary Mott as they tour you through this fresh take on building your dream house in our Northern Home and Cottage 2020 Virtual Tour.

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