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Idea Home 2006
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Harbor View Idea Home 2006
Idea Home 2006
(Originally Published: September/October 2006
Wheeling gulls, purple-and-orange sunsets and white birches silhouetted against blue waters are just part of the beauty surrounding Harbor View, our 2006 Idea Home in Door County, Wisconsin. Set on a bluff overlooking the waters of Green Bay, this getaway, and eventual retirement home, lowers blood pressures the moment you walk inside. And the house's thoughtful design and innovative products will inspire homeowners who want to create an escape of their own.
Invite the outside in With a spectacular setting like this, it only makes sense to welcome the calm views of lake waters and tall trees into as many rooms as possible. Even rooms meant for working, such as the kitchen and laundry room, are designed with large windows to take in the surrounding scenery and turn the spaces into more enjoyable retreats.
STYLE-SAVVY
Whether you're building or remodeling, details make the difference. Here's what we did:
TRUE TO A STYLE Door County is known as the Cape Cod of the Midwest, so naturally a Cape Cod cottage-inspired exterior was a good fit. This style made exterior choices easy: a steeply pitched roof gives the front exterior a single-story cottage look. James Hardie's low-maintenance shingle siding in gray substitutes for weathered wood shakes. Manufactured stone paths and porch supports give an aged look. The deck railings and Clopay paneled garage doors have a classic look.
BRIGHT OUTLOOK We used Weather Shield's large range of energy-efficient windows to bring in views all around the house. Sidelights and a three-paned door with a Schlage handle set illuminate the foyer; a stack of windows and skylights saturate the conservatory in sun. Transoms over doors between rooms let light deeper into the house, and round windows add distinctive architectural detail.
WIDE-OPEN SPACES The moment you walk through the front door of Harbor View, the sweeping water view hits you. Designed with the main living areas opening into each other, the home features unobstructed sight lines extending from the front door to the two-story great-room to the kitchen to the dining room. The vistas and light are breathtaking. Open plans, however, offer decorating challenges.
CONNECTIONS
Our foyer, great-room, kitchen and dining room all open to one another. Here are decorating tips that help unite the airy rooms:
COLOR LIMITS When the eye takes in multiple colors and rooms all at once, decor can look confusing and disconnected. A two-color scheme, such as the spring green and terra-cotta pink of our Harden upholstered furniture, connects our rooms with a single palette, visually turning them into one.
SYMMETRY AND BALANCE Because our home's layout has several rooms of furniture visible at once from the entry, kitchen and balcony, we arranged pieces in pairs or in balanced placements for visual order. We created two conversation areas in the great-room. Instead of another sofa, we chose a daybed to leave the water view unobstructed, allow for back-and-forth conversations and provide a place to recline and relax.
CONTINUOUS FLOORING AND WALLS Designing an uninterrupted canvas for furniture and colors to reside upon helps visually unite the rooms as well. Here, the natural maple floor flows smoothly with a similarly colored sisal rug, a stone fireplace mantel from Wassmer Studios and a wall color with just enough depth to set walls apart from white woodwork.
MINIMAL ACCESSORIES Let oversized, statement-making art or accessories fill in for a lot of smaller pieces, which would look cluttered. For overall simplicity, we used large matted art prints and big pieces of pottery on our wood bookcases.
CONTRASTING MIX With less color and pared-down accessories, our rooms build interest with unique combinations. Echoing Door County's Scandinavian heritage, we chose formal furniture pieces and paired them unexpectedly with contemporary silver lamps, vases and a casual, nubby textured rug.
