From outside, the Birdhouse on Prouts Neck in Scarborough, Maine, appears to be an archetypal shingle-style home that’s accustomed to the region. Stepping through the front door and into the heart of the cottage, however, unfolds a different aesthetic that’s airy and contemporary—though it wasn’t always that way.
The 2,400-square-foot home’s new, open floor plan now allows for a bright kitchen adjacent to a cozy eating nook and living room. “The kitchen used to be a strange little galley you had to cross through to get to any other place in the house,” says Donald Powers, founding principal of Union Studio, who headed the design portion of the reconstruction project.
Jeff Roberts Imaging
The architecture firm collaborated with local builder R.P. Morrison to rework the layout of the former house, which had a 1,355-square-foot footprint that was bound by several zoning restrictions that only allowed for building up rather than out. To provide breathing room to the formerly tight eating and living spaces, the team moved the home’s private rooms up two new additional floors, resituating the kitchen at the ground floor’s spine, which controlled foot traffic while making it an accessible, enjoyable place to gather.
The clients, design-savvy epicureans, centralized the kitchen’s layout around a monolithic island topped with a 2-inch-thick Carrera marble slab that spills off the edges of the wood-slatted base. “It is, quite literally, the kitchen’s anchor. It weighed a ton,” says Powers. “To get the marble slab inside and on top of the island was a feat.”
Products
Faucet manufacturer: Kohler
Refrigerator manufacturer: Frigidaire
Dishwasher manufacturer: Bosch
Stove/cooktop manufacturer: Wolf
Lighting manufacturer: Chandelier: Currey & Co.;
Pendants: Arteriors Home;
Sconces: Circa Lighting
Window/door manufacturer: Marvin
Overhead, custom millwork by the builder meets high-gloss cream walls and a central beam before stretching across the ceiling in pale, gray-stained wood in a pattern that continues to the breakfast nook’s V-grooved dining space. “We wanted to take advantage of the ceiling, which is too often undifferentiated in contemporary homes,” Powers says.
Contemporary luminaries such as midcentury, white enamel pendants and a modern brass chandelier cast a warm glow over the space, and stainless steel appliances complement the powdered blue gray custom cabinets. The slate shade stretches through each room of the house—lining the framed oversized windows and doorways that allow daylight to flood in—and continues out to the façade’s trim, establishing a visual connection throughout the more traditional exterior.
Jeff Roberts Imaging
“When you work with tight restrictions, it often results in very interesting, unique solutions you wouldn’t come to otherwise,” says Powers. “We like that it all feels a little unexpected.”
Project: Birdhouse on Prout’s Neck
Location: Scarborough, Maine
Architect: Union Studio, Providence, R.I.
Builder: R.P. Morrison Builders, Scarborough, Maine
Home size: 2,400 square feet
Kitchen size: 150 square feet
Cost of kitchen per square foot: Withheld
