Features

All the plumbing fixtures in the house, including this sink, were salvaged from a home in Weston, Massachusetts. 

Neutral wall colors throughout the house draw the eye to the view outside, but there are a few pops of color inside, such as the blue kitchen cabinets (above). Several IKEA cabinets were combined and faced with salvaged pine for the kitchen island. The countertop is birch plywood. The kitchen stools are from Artas Designs in Biddeford. 

A view of the interior of the Benezra house, which incorporates aspects of the farmhouse that originally stood on the property with mid-century modern finds and new materials. The steel and hemlock posts are new. The chandelier made with brass pipe fittings and the bookcases on the bridge were likely built in the 1960s. The sliding door at the left came out of the original house. The neutral gray of the walls are meant to encourage the eyes to the windows. 

An interior bridge connects two portions of the home and showcases a variety of materials, including roof timbers salvaged from a nineteenth-century farmhouse, a custom bookcase salvaged from a 1960s home, and new materials like hemlock posts and cable railings. 

The master bedroom with salvaged roof timbers, new hemlock posts, a mirror by Furniture by Dovetail in Massachusetts, and a four-poster bed from Thomas Cummings Woodworks, also in Massachusetts. 

This bunk bed salvaged from a Massachusetts home designed by a MIT professor. To make the piece of furniture work in this home in Maine, Caleb Johnson Associates and Builders added an additional wall to the bedroom. A loft above the bunk bed has a secret door made of a bookcase salvaged from the same Massachusetts home. 

Caleb Johnson Architects and Builders designed kitchen windows around this soapstone laundry sink, which the homeowners found on Craigslist and repurposed as a kitchen sink. The surrounding IKEA cabinets are faced with pine salvaged from the farmhouse that once stood on the property. 

A view of the front entry’s polished concrete floor and stairwell with a staircase made of reclaimed wood, new steel risers, and a cable rail system. The bridge above spans between the two volumes of the house. Caleb Johnson wanted the house to always express its own structure, so beams and posts throughout the house (whether salvaged, new hemlock, or steel) are visible. Other elements like the electric conduits going to the light fixtures are also purposely highlighted. 

Two nineteenth-century gable roofs (now covered with standing-seam metal roofs) determined the volumes of the colonial-inspired forms that make up this house. Under the shed roof, a glassed-in bump-out encloses the great room. The stone slabs that serve as benches around the gravel drainage bed came from the foundation of the farmhouse that once stood on this property. 

The two roofs of this Kennebunk home include a gable roof dating from the nineteenth century and a shed roof dating from the twenty-first century. The glassed- in portion under the shed roof is the great room. 

A glass connector joins the two buildings that form the house. The portico’s steel posts and beams will patina over time. 

A massive granite chimney, assembled by G.M. Libby and Sons Masonry, extends through the living room ceiling to the master bedroom above. Rockport Post and Beam fabricated the Douglas fir trusses, which are juxtaposed with elegant furnishings, including a pair of Louis XIII–style Minton-Spidell armchairs covered in Kravet fabric and a carved wood coffee table from Somerset Bay Home. 

In the owners’ bedroom, gray-blues and greens reflect the many shades of the sea. The Afghan carpet is from Araby Rug Galleries in Falmouth; the armchair and ottoman are from Lee Industries and feature chenille Kravet fabric. A crème brûlée-colored secretary from Somerset Bay Home enlivens the palette, and the glass front aggrandizes the view. 

A narrow, fir-paneled hallway like you might see on a ship, leading to the owner’s office 

A guesthouse staircase with a mahogany railing and red birch treads

A bridge, lined with a mahogany-topped cable railing, that spans 16 feet between second-floor bedrooms 

Driftwood-colored cabinetry from Dream Kitchen Studio in Rockland and Juparana Tier granite counters from Morningstar Stone and Tile in Topsham set off the cook space. The recessed cabinet panels match those on the home’s interior doors and built-ins; Morris simply added 5 1/2-inch-wide crown molding to the upper cupboards to hide ductwork and create a custom look. 

When you step through the mahogany front door, you can see beneath the bridge to the ocean on the far side. A Somerset Bay Home breakfront with a sky-blue interior plays on the pattern of the door’s transom and sidelights. The chairs and chenille Kravet sofa in the foreground are arranged on an Araby Rug Galleries Afghan carpet. 

To energize the neutral scheme in the owners’ bathroom, Morris combined various-sized porcelain, travertine, and glass tile from Old Port Specialty Tile in Portland with an Ivory Fantasy granite bathtub surround from Morningstar Stone and Tile. 

Blue-green trim and granite veneers link the home with the guesthouse-garage unit and porte-cochere, a signature of Camden architect John Morris’s designs. Over time, the buildings’ eastern white cedar shingles will weather to the shade of the stones. 

All was calm on the day this photo was taken, but during storms, the spray from the waves sometimes douses the screened porch, which is set back just 75 feet from the edge of the cliff.