Offshore Breeze

If you could hold this Nantucket house to your ear, you might hear the roar of waves. Not far from the ocean, the new home’s atmospheric interior conjures the shore. In fact, it’s as though nature has found her way in. Silvery driftwood, sun-bleached shells and sand spring to mind, just as interior designer Kathleen Hay intended. Hay, who heads an eponymous island firm, is well familiar with the elements. Her sophisticated, light-washed rooms channel the sea and all its surrounds.

The client, a local developer, recruited the designer along with Nantucket architect Lisa Botticelli of Botticelli and Pohl to devise a scheme that would please the local historical commission, suit the windswept locale and appeal to a potential buyer. He envisioned a classic Nantucket house—weathered shingles, pristine trim, traditional accoutrements—but with a clean, contemporary feel.

The long, narrow site called for some ingenious planning. Botticelli rose to the occasion with a clever scheme to maximize the property. She sited the house closer to the road, affording plenty of room for a pool, cabana and garage/guesthouse behind. A large Siberian elm that stood exactly where construction needed to take place was carefully transplanted by local landscape designer David Troast and his crew to shade the rear patio-to-be.

That done, the three-bedroom, gambrel-roofed house could rise up and take its place among its neighbors. The appealing facade suits the island vernacular, but inside a fresh breeze is blowing.

ARCHITECTURE
Lisa Botticelli, Botticelli and Pohl
INTERIOR DESIGN
Kathleen Hay
CONSTRUCTION
Josh Brown, J. Brown Builders
LANDSCAPE
David Troast, Ernst Land Design
PRODUCED BY
Stacy Kunstel