When these homeowners decided to build their ideal home, their thoughts kept returning to the coastal style of the homes they saw during vacations to charming seaside getaways. Thanks to Divine Custom Homes, their vision was realized south of Hudson, Wisconsin. The new home evokes 1950s Cape Cod, with its gray stone and shake exterior, and fresh white enameled woodwork interiors.
Although most home designs currently favor open floor plans, this house features the coziness of more defined rooms. The living room nestles around a two-sided stone-enclosed fireplace, its unfinished gray ceiling beams reclaimed from a farm near Northfield. On the far wall, a bank of windows overlooks the nearby Troy Burne Golf Course. Every feature in the house was chosen to echo the mood of an earlier era, including the wainscoting, period fixtures, double-hung exterior windows, swinging doors, and transoms above every interior doorway.
The period theme carries through to the kitchen, where the hearth seating area, farmhouse sink, and old-fashioned faucets reinforce the traditional ambiance. At the same time, top-end appliances and a full-slab, matte-finish granite island make the space a modern-day pleasure in which to cook.
The four bedrooms are upstairs, radiating off a long hallway. Just off the plush owners’ bedroom is a small sleeping porch, with windows all around, giving the couple the feeling of sleeping in the branches of the burr oaks and white birch clustered throughout the 2-acre property.
Down the hall, each of the homeowners’ three children has a cozy bedroom with a special bonus: a tucked-away loft—each connecting to the next in the “fourth floor” of the house—accessible only by ladder and featuring 7-foot ceilings. Grownups, beware.
The lower level is made for entertaining, with a sunken TV viewing area, custom polished-walnut bar, billiard space, and home theater. Outside is an expansive patio with a gas grill and gas fire pit.
Wood burning isn’t out of style at this house, however: A stone fireplace in the four-season porch off the kitchen supplies the particular ambiance of a real wood fire. That feature may be less common in new homes these days, but it’s perfectly in keeping with the kicked-back lifestyle of Martha’s Vineyard.
By Beverly Geber
Photos by Spacecrafting
Builder: Divine Custom Homes
Home location: Hudson
Sponsors:
Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery
Integrity Windows and Doors by Marvin
Warners’ Stellian Appliance
