Laura Kaehler

Our clients wanted to build a new home that reflected their family-centric lifestyle. They emphasized design features that reinforced and supported informal family interaction.

Key Design Features

To make the home look less massive than the square footage of the house would suggest, we extended the roof lines down to a one and one-half story height with broad, flared, over-hanging eaves. This provided deep shadows and reduced the apparent height of the home when viewed from the entry drive. Varied rooflines visually divide the house into different volumes, which appears to reduce the overall size of the structure. In addition, the numerous porches on both the front and back of the home further reduce the apparent scale of the building.

To allow this relaxed shingle style house to blend into the property, we situated the home on a large rock outcropping and supported the home on a fieldstone plinth. Natural cedar shingles on the roof and walls help to blend this home into its woodsy environment.

To create a home where the owners’ children could bring their friends and have room to play and study, we designed multiple comfortable spaces on the first floor, second floor, and basement. This included a basement game room/media room with soda fountain bar, a family room with stone fireplace and large screen television, a second floor study balcony overlooking the family room, a three season outdoor porch with stone fireplace and an outdoor pool with easy access to the lower level.