This Chappaquiddick family retreat is all about the porches
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From the very start, the house on Chappaquiddick in Edgartown, Massachusetts, was all about porches. Built for a homeowner who loves to assemble family and friends for breezy summer gatherings on Martha’s Vineyard, the house is richly sentimental, providing everyone who steps in the door with a sense of soulfulness and joy.
Here is a place where the family heads out on bicycles in the morning to load up at the local farm stand with plump produce for dinner, then spends evenings on the porch singing, playing the banjo, and laughing. Here is a place where the homeowner enjoys peaceful nights on a sleeping porch that evokes memories of summer nights at her childhood home on the Massachusetts mainland. Here is a place where two people or 20 can gaze at the color-streaked sky as the sun sets over the ocean.
“Above all, the only thing a house represents to me is a place where family and friends can gather,” says the homeowner, a New England native with a big extended family. “Nothing means more to me than my family, so we made the house largely about outdoor spaces and porches for us to gather. We need the space for the spontaneity.”
Architectural designer Jennifer Drain of ArchiPlicity in Plymouth, Massachusetts, included iconic elements of 19th-century New England summer houses, such as a stone foundation, gambrel roofline, shingle siding, and a porte-cochere — although the latter connects the main house to a more modern feature, a two-car garage. (Another 21st-century feature is the solar farm, located on the 8-acre property out of sight from the house, a photovoltaic array that provides all the electric power the house needs.)
Most importantly, Drain included numerous balconies and porches: a covered entry porch and an ocean-facing screened porch accenting the main level, and three balconies and a sleeping porch on the second floor. “I designed the house to look like a turn-of-the-[20th]-century Shingle Style house that had been there forever, with balconies and porches providing views not only of the ocean to the south but also of a horse farm to the north,” says Drain. The all-important living room portion of the porch includes a stone fireplace and some 600 square feet of space so the family can lounge comfortably. It opens to the adjacent dining area, which is just off the kitchen and is the preferred spot for nearly every meal.
As captivating as the setting and the views may be, however, the house’s sentimental old-soul charm comes wholly from its interiors. “Everywhere you look, there is something wonderful and quirky that makes you smile,” says the homeowner.
Indeed, every room offers myriad objects that delight the eye, chosen with care by interior designer Jon Hattaway and the late Martin Potter, Hattaway’s business and life partner, who succumbed to cancer during the course of the project. Potter’s ideas and influence are seen throughout the house, in such elements as the entry foyer mural, which he designed to depict the New England coast; the coffered ceilings of the first-floor rooms, which he varied in design to add visual interest; and the curvaceous Southern-pine-veneer master bedroom headboard, which he designed to take advantage of the ocean view.
Hattaway credits Potter with inspiring creativity among the entire team of designers and tradespeople who worked on the house. “Martin had an extraordinary imagination and he was also incredibly encouraging to others,” says Hattaway, principal of MJ Berries Design in Boston’s South End. “One of his greatest gifts to me was that he helped me trust my creative intuition.”
It was important to Hattaway that the house evoke a sense of age, that its collection of objects, elements, and surfaces look as if it evolved over time. In the entry foyer, the scenic maritime mural and gracious stairway with elegantly simple balustrade with spindles in three patterns establish that old-summer-house welcome. The adjacent living room and screened porch beyond offer layers of decorative appeal: painted furniture, both antique and new; interesting artwork, much of it by folk artists; perfectly scaled sconces and light fixtures; timeless fabrics; and exquisite rugs.
Architectural details speak to the design team’s concept of a casually elegant vacation house that has aged well. Simple yet deep baseboards and crown mouldings accent every room. Fireplaces, each with a unique mantel, are found in nearly every first-floor and several upstairs rooms. French doors, floor-to-ceiling windows, and arched transom windows are strategically placed to maximize natural light and sea breezes. Some of the random-width pine floors are stained in various tones, while others are painted, a classic summer house touch. The color scheme changes gradually, subtly, and gracefully throughout the house with blues, grays, and greens grounding the first floor, and pale pinks, golden yellows, and soft oranges used in the second-floor bedroom suites. “The second floor reflects changes in color where the nuanced shades of the walls are all reminiscent of beautiful sunsets, the homeowner’s favorite time of day,” says Hattaway.
One of the house’s most endearing spaces is an ocean-facing sleeping porch off the master bedroom. “I wanted a version of a sleeping porch,” says the homeowner, who recounts blissful childhood memories of summer nights falling asleep on a screened-in porch in her family home. “My father would move all our beds onto the screened porch during the hottest part of the summer,” she says. “I’ve never felt more safe or secure than falling asleep on that porch.” Drain designed the windowed space, and builder Mike Stewart of Plymouth applied horizontal boards to the walls to make it look like an outdoor porch that had been converted for year-round use. Hattaway finished the room with a painted floor, vintage brass bed, and antique wicker bookcase.
Although the house is all-new construction, it “almost looks like a restoration of an old Cape house,” says the owner. Even the artwork speaks to a sense of age, wisdom, and humor. A small painting in the first-floor powder room declares “Be Nice or Leave!” while a large canvas in the living room depicting a nostalgic midcentury beach scene by a contemporary folk artist boldly bears the title The Virtue of Sunlight and the Labors of Truth.
“Between what Jenny and Jon did, they created a new house with an old soul,” says the homeowner. “It has everything that is so important for my family’s way of being together.”
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