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HOUSE IN THE MEADOW

Western Connecticut

Renovation/Addition
Completed 2000
Builder: Canedo Brothers Builders, Darien, CT

For this project, the clients asked us to create the feel of a vacation house for year round living. The yard already felt like a great vacation spot; the challenge was to renovate and add to the house in such a way that it would become a place of casual elegance connected to the outdoors. The existing house was dark, cramped, and sadly lacking in details. They wanted to add a new, larger master suite, two new bedrooms for guests and children, a bigger kitchen, a casual eating area and a new mudroom. An important aspect of the design was to create a house that feels cozy and livable for the family alone but also can handle large gatherings of extended family and friends.

We decided to keep the location and the layout of the major public rooms on the first floor basically intact, but to alter the way these rooms connect to each other and to the outdoors. We began by adding a deeper front porch, to create a more inviting front entry and to provide a more gradual transition to the interior of the house. Inside, the existing entry hall was separated visually from the living room by two coat closets. We moved those closets to the side and created a large cased opening through which you see the living room, and the backyard.

The connection from front door to kitchen was a labyrinth of dark hallways, so we cleared that out and enlarged the existing dining room into a music room with a large cased opening to the foyer. Similarly, the existing galley kitchen and tiny dark eating area were too small and unpleasant to be useful for a family of five. We bumped the kitchen out about six feet to create an up-to-date kitchen with an island. Aligning a cased opening to the living room allowed us to capture the view into the fireplace. Pocket doors with glass windows slide out from the walls, ready to provide separation, if needed, but still allowing light to pass from room to room. A cathedral ceiling makes the kitchen really special and airy, while the adjacent eating area has a large window area with transoms that make eating in feel like eating out.