REMARKABLE – JUNE 2008

By Joshua Bodwell

Photography Darren Setlow

A new take on a traditional Shingle Style home is inspired by Hollywood

Life rarely affords us second chances. We have to live with the results of decisions that, in hindsight, we might wish we had spent a bit more time considering. When it comes to the new Cape Elizabeth home of Phil and Christine Laughlin, an unexpected second chance gave the couple an opportunity to create the home they always envisioned for themselves and their three children.

In 2001, the Laughlins built a new home in Cape Elizabeth’s Cross Hill neighborhood. After just two years, the couple found the house and site lacked the privacy from neighbors they had hoped for, so decided to build a new house just a few streets over. That first house became, in many ways, a practice run for their current house. “The second time around,” says Christine, “we knew just what we wanted.”

A Wholly American Design
The Laughlins had not worked with an architect while planning their first home. When they got their second chance, the couple turned to Mark Mueller of Portland’s Mark Mueller Architects. Drawing inspiration from homes on Casco Bay’s Peaks Island (where Phil grew up) and Great Diamond Island (where the couple owns a second house), the Laughlins quickly decided to build their new home in the Shingle Style, a decidedly American architectural aesthetic developed around the turn of the 20th century. “We took a lot of ideas from cottages we like on the islands,” says Phil.

Mueller speculates that today’s home builders are attracted to the Shingle Style because it offers a traditional aesthetic that can both accommodate and incorporate more contemporary shapes and forms. “People are growing tired of Colonials,” says the architect.

Mueller’s design for the Laughlins feels appropriately rambling and true to the tenets of the Shingle Style: asymmetrical rooflines; rounded, eyebrow dormers; minimal trim; rugged stone chimneys. Mueller says that the trickiest elements in a contemporary Shingle Style are the porches. A hallmark of the style, deep porches were originally designed to block out the hot summer sun, as the Shingle Style was a popular choice for seasonal cottages. Today, Mueller strives to design porches that appear just as spacious as those built a century ago, but that allow in ample sunlight. “How the home is sited becomes more important than ever,” says Mueller.

“The real difference is the floor plan,” he notes, comparing the Laughlin home to a traditional Shingle Style. Constant entertainers, the Laughlins insisted on an open first floor with wide halls and spaces uninterrupted by doors.

Openness
As you step through the front door—which is tucked away beneath the sweeping porch to the right side of the home’s central mass—the expansiveness of the floor plan is dramatic. “I love that I can stand at the edge of the kitchen and family room,” Phil says, “and see into every room on the first floor.”

Upon entering, the sprawling kitchen seems to encompass all that the eye can see, and the darkly stained oak floors, used throughout the house, appear never-ending. “We kept making the kitchen bigger and bigger,” Mueller chuckles, “and the bigger we made it, the more Christine liked it.” He estimates that the Laughlin kitchen—with its oversized, four-stool island, eat-in breakfast niche, petite butler’s pantry, and large walk-in pantry—is about 300 square feet larger than the average kitchen he lays out.

Although spacious kitchens are now commonplace, kitchen designer Robin Amorello of Atmoscaper Design was pleasantly surprised when she received the plans for the Laughlin kitchen. “The family can do a lot of living in that kitchen,” says Amorello. Still, the space forced her to make a compromise on one of the basic tenets of sound kitchen design—the “work triangle” created between the refrigerator, sink, and stove. “When we realized that the fridge would need to be on the other side of the island,” says Amorello, “I broke the space into work stations rather than a work triangle.” The great success of the kitchen is not its sheer scale but rather how its simple yet finely crafted details imbue it with such welcoming warmth.

Beyond the kitchen, the dining room—with its 10-foot, custom-made Mulberry Cottage table—stretches from one side of the house to the other. French doors at either end of the dining room allow the breeze to blow through on summer evenings, ushering guests onto the small front porch or out to the broad back porch and tiered patio, which descends to the pool.

Separated by little more than a step down and pair of columns, the dining room opens into a “casually formal” living room. The white, coffered ceiling and fireplace add a touch of sophistication that is balanced by mellow, pale-blue furniture and a light seaside tone. “I grew up in an old house,” says Christine, “and I knew exactly how I wanted this space to feel—like a cottage.” And when it came to designing the kitchen, Christine again knew precisely what she wanted.

The Must-Have Kitchen
After seeing the romantic comedy Something’s Gotta Give starring Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, Christine was enraptured with the kitchen design of the Hamptons beach house owned by Keaton’s character. To recreate the look and feel of the movie kitchen, Christine worked with both Amorello and Sherri Cook of Cook & Cook Cabinetry. After several viewings of the film, as well as still frames of kitchen scenes created by Christine, Amorello and Cook each brought their notes to the table.

Amorello believes the kitchen’s appeal is based on the cumulative affect of its many simple details. “Obviously the bright color scheme was important,” she says, “and the dark oak floors, white cabinets, and honed black-granite countertops give it a feel that is quintessential cottage.” Dark, oil-rubbed bronze bin-pulls and cupboard catches finish the vintage look. A few “style details” made it onto Amorello’s personal favorites list, including the glass-fronted upper cabinets and the thick, wooden-scroll end brackets beneath the cabinets. Even today, she still marvels at the quality of the kitchen’s construction. “Cook & Cook cabinetry is built like fine furniture,” Amorello says.

“I think people say that because we’re cabinetmakers who really look at the details,” says Sherri Cook in response to the compliment. The first thing Cook noticed while watching the movie was the classic frame-and-panel construction of the drawers. The technique was a perfect fit for Cook & Cook, who use hard maple and traditional woodworking techniques such as miter and spline joints for drawer fronts and dovetail joinery for the drawers. “I still remember the first time my husband and I saw Something’s Gotta Give, says Cook with a laugh. “We both stared at that kitchen in awe.” She says that the Laughlins’ kitchen was the first of several projects the company has executed to resemble the kitchen in the film.

Just like the house itself, the kitchen is the result of a second chance. And, like the best things in life, the Laughlin’s happiness with the final product is reflected in the most minute details—such as double-hung windows that Christine wanted in the kitchen rather than crank-out casement windows. “I had to be able to put my tomatoes on the window sill,” she says with a smile.
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