House in the Orchard
Awards
Connecticut Cottages & Gardens | 2011
Innovation in Design for Architecture Award
House In The Orchard
Designed to evoke an iconic country horse barn and its collection of attendant outbuildings, this country retreat is formal and elegant, while still warm and inviting.
Framed by an allee of apple trees, a visitor first encounters a pair of timber-framed barn style garages dominated by a grid of tiny square windows. The barns flank an entry courtyard finished by a mudroom breezeway connecting the garage to the house.
A cupola that lights the entry hall below tops the tall central gable of the main house. Small narrow windows line the gallery along the front. Symmetrical kitchen and bedroom wings extend out from the rear, with larger expanses of glass that open to a view of the rest of the orchard and the rolling hills beyond.
Materials were carefully chosen to echo the iconic connected farm buildings of New England: white clapboard, rustic fieldstone base and cedar wood shingled roof. This white on white sculptural starkness is most evident in the wide board window trim and the highly articulated main entry.
Inside the house, arched oak timber trusses ornament the soaring living space that is dominated by a simple and massive fieldstone fireplace. Wide plank wood floors, fashioned from reclaimed antique hemlock, create a warm contrast with the white plaster walls. The master bedroom has an intimate feel with a tray ceiling and fireplace trimmed in wood and marble.
The kitchen evokes traditional farmhouse iconography with apron sink, thick white marble counters, and an oversized hearth-style opening for the range hood. Dark hued and worn, antique stone flooring in the kitchen provides a centerpoint to the white, as do bronze lantern pendants over the farm table island.
His and her master baths continue the theme of starkly simple interiors, with white marble and traditional fittings, refined painted millwork and rustic timber details.