Understated Elegance
A summer home in Osterville leaves ostentation behind, surrounding the four generations of its close-knit family in effortless style.
Thomas Catalano’s clients needed a big summer house. No matter that the couple are empty nesters. With four married children and seven grandchildren (number eight is due in the fall) a quiet weekend for two at their Osterville retreat is a rarity. “Every weekend there’s some portion of the family here,” says the wife. “On Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends we have everybody, plus my mother.”
Big is one thing, though, and loud is quite another. Although they wanted a house large enough to accommodate their close-knit clan, both husband and wife felt strongly that their house should whisper, not shout. “I wanted a house that sat quietly on the site, and didn’t overly announce itself,” the wife says.
No question, the home architect Catalano designed for the two-acre bayside site is sizable. The 5,500-square-foot main house holds five bedrooms, each with its own bath, as well as the kitchen, study, and living, dining and family rooms. A guest house—a miniature version of the main house—offers a great room, small kitchen, TV room, guest suite and a bunk room that sleeps five.
For all its mass, though, the cedar-shingled house is remarkably inconspicuous. Catalano kept the silhouette modest by using a gambrel roof, adding half a dozen gables for interest. “We wanted to try to make the house sort of hug the land,” he says. “Using the gambrel to bring the roof down to one story allowed us to get volume on the second floor but keep the overall profile low.”
Inside, the house adopts the same quiet importance, with floors of gleaming hand-planed walnut and fine millwork on walls and ceilings.
Interior designers Lee Bierly and Chris Drake joined in the process early on. “When Tom agreed to work on the house, he made it clear it was in everyone’s best interests to get the designers in right away,” the homeowner says. “We had worked with Chris and Lee before. They knew us, they knew our style and the environment we like, so they understood just what we wanted.”
ARCHITECTURE
Thomas Catalano
INTERIOR DESIGN
Lee Bierly and Chris Drake, Bierly-Drake Associates
CONSTRUCTION
Bayside Building
LANDSCAPE
Bruce A. Besse Jr., Barnstable Land Design
Photo Galleries
Thomas Catalano’s clients needed a big summer house. No matter that the couple are empty nesters. With four married children and seven grandchildren (number eight is due in the fall) a quiet weekend for two at their Osterville retreat is a rarity. “Every weekend there’s some portion of the family here,” says the wife. “On Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends we have everybody, plus my mother.”
Big is one thing, though, and loud is quite another. Although they wanted a house large enough to accommodate their close-knit clan, both husband and wife felt strongly that their house should whisper, not shout. “I wanted a house that sat quietly on the site, and didn’t overly announce itself,” the wife says.
No question, the home architect Catalano designed for the two-acre bayside site is sizable. The 5,500-square-foot main house holds five bedrooms, each with its own bath, as well as the kitchen, study, and living, dining and family rooms. A guest house—a miniature version of the main house—offers a great room, small kitchen, TV room, guest suite and a bunk room that sleeps five.
For all its mass, though, the cedar-shingled house is remarkably inconspicuous. Catalano kept the silhouette modest by using a gambrel roof, adding half a dozen gables for interest. “We wanted to try to make the house sort of hug the land,” he says. “Using the gambrel to bring the roof down to one story allowed us to get volume on the second floor but keep the overall profile low.”
Inside, the house adopts the same quiet importance, with floors of gleaming hand-planed walnut and fine millwork on walls and ceilings.
Interior designers Lee Bierly and Chris Drake joined in the process early on. “When Tom agreed to work on the house, he made it clear it was in everyone’s best interests to get the designers in right away,” the homeowner says. “We had worked with Chris and Lee before. They knew us, they knew our style and the environment we like, so they understood just what we wanted.”
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