Ocean Point Cottage
Project Location: Boothbay, Maine
On a sloping six acres overlooking Linekin Bay and Spruce Point in Boothbay, we designed a four-season cottage and wood working shop to replace a poorly sited and badly built 1960 ranch that did not confirm to Maine shoreland zoning standards. Our clients, a couple with two children, had deep ties to this area; the husband had spent 40 memory-filled summers just two doors down at his parents’ cottage.
After an extensive permitting and approval process, we designed a shingle-style house in keeping with the old cottage vernacular of the area. The new cottage and shop replace the nonconforming square footage and volume of the existing structure, and the new footprint uses the site’s ledge and hillside to provide interior and exterior spaces with expansive water views, protected sunspaces, and privacy from the surrounding cottage community. Our design included open-plan kitchen, dining, and living spaces; an upper-level master suite that takes advantage of views and privacy; and a lower-level walkout with bedrooms and a shared bath for the children. A detached garage and shop will serve as an office and guest loft in the future.
To balance the interiors with the aged feeling of the exteriors, ample wood and rugged materials are used throughout, including cedar, heavy beams, and rough-sawn timber framing. A carver and wood worker himself, the husband has a great appreciation for the teak countertops; teak and holly kitchen flooring like the kind found in yachts (in fact, the entire kitchen was built by a local shipwright); cedar shutters and trim; salvaged heart pine planks from a 19th-century warehouse; flame maple kitchen cabinets; and pine beadboard on every wall. Authentic working shutters close and bolt over the windows, and the door locks are brass boxes with external tumblers.
Each outdoor space provides a different kind of outdoor setting, granting sun or shade, privacy or community depending on the circumstance. Decks, patios, and seating areas allow for easy entertaining, and separate clusters of spaces provide privacy as needed.
Project Completion Date: 2002
Photography:
Brian Vanden Brink
Collaborators:
- Landscape Architect: Catherine Conn, Landscape Gardens & Design
- Structural Engineer: Albert Putnam Associates
Related Press:
Design Story
Similar Projects
