Nantucket to North Carolina

My husband Dan and I were discussing the house that is a recent object of my affection, previously mentioned here.

I was trying to explain to him that it is very similar to the style of a New England home. He wasn’t entirely convinced so I showed him some pictures of some houses I saw in design books and online and asked him to envision it clad in weathered cedar shakes.

I think I’ll have him convinced after he reads Holly’s post about a house that Victoria Hagan designed in Nantucket. I noticed the similarities between the CT house and the Nantucket house right off, specifically the “two wings”.

Here’s the comparison, the Nantucket home featured in Architectural Digest, 2005

OK now let me qualify here and say I’m not delusional, I’m aware that the CT house is far from a sprawling Nantucket estate. But you can appreciate the similarities right and hey if I wanted to (and had the dough) with some tweaking I could make the CT house more reminiscent of a New England estate.

Let’s just dream for a bit about the changes we could make to the exterior of the CT house with a biggie sized budget.

1- First order of business is to take the unsightly storm door off. There’s no way it saves enough in energy costs to offset the dislike that I have for it.

2- Au revoir Colonial sconces on either side of the front door. Replace with a nice set of rectangular lanterns. Maybe something like this. At $630 each, these lanterns from Circa Lighting fit it our biggie sized budget quite nicely.

3- Goodbye vinyl siding. And yes, I know that I have to paint wood siding every 10 years if I’m lucky but thats no matter because I’m about to apply cedar shakes to the entire outside.  When the vinyl siding comes off maybe we’ll expose some fun architectural elements or some charming trim. We’ll probably beef up the trim a bit or add some.

4- Vinyl windows, you are all being replaced with wood windows and we may need to add some transom windows in certain areas.

5- Now for the roof line, this is where things might get tricky. Considering the budget is no limit then I’ll consult an architect BUT if I had to keep the spending in check I might consult with my Dad and get my brother in law Patrick to draw us some plans. I have a big problem with the flat roof in the middle, the lines and the charm of the house almost die there in the middle. So I’ll want to raise the roof to change the style of it. A hip roof is a good option here.

Or I could peak the roof and create some dormers much like the Nantucket house. The wings upstairs hold these big attic storage spaces, raising the roof would open these up more and could possibly create the opportunity for room expansion inside.

6- OK on to some curb appeal-the brick patio is nice but some Pennsylvania fieldstone or slate would be much better.

slate patio (I’m guessing on material) at Nantucket house

Those overgrown, leggy boxwoods in the front have got to go. I don’t think we really need a hedge that tall there anyway and if that wall becomes stacked stone we wouldn’t want to hide it. If I put boxwoods back there I would select a different variety that has more of a compact growth habit.

7- One last thing to take care of before we leave the front, the front door color. Considering we’re going to have nice white trim and warm cedar shakes (which will eventually turn gray) we should give the house a little personality with a green or blue door. How about one of these colors,

Farrow & Ball’s Breakfast Room Green and Oval Room Blue

8- And hey while we’re at it, lets just go ahead and install a pool in the side yard because we’ve got space for it.

What do you think about my changes, would you want to add something or do anything differently? Do you think the CT house reflects a New England style or am I totally off here? Perhaps you want to go more English cottage?Thanks for playing,

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