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Houzz Tour: Fairy Tale Gatehouse in Minnesota
This cozy cottage in Minnesota blends fine antiques with reclaimed materials from bridge pilings, city streets and Midwestern barns
Houzz Contributor. Hi There! I currently live in a 1920s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe as "collected."
I got into design via Landscape Architecture, which I studied at the University of Virginia. I've been writing about design online for quite a few years over at Hatch: The Design Public Blog.
Houzz Contributor. Hi There! I currently live in a 1920s cottage in Atlanta... More »
The owner of this home knows how to get around — she enjoys traveling to Europe, wintering in Arizona and even moving from place to place within this four-acre Lake Minnetonka property. The grounds include the main house, carriage house, boathouse and now this new gatehouse, which she uses as guest quarters and as a place to sneak away for quiet time. She is also an avid antiques collector, so most of the furniture, accessories and architectural elements came from her collection.
"My client has done lots of traveling in Europe and has a keen interest in French and English architecture," says Jeff Murphy of Murphy & Co. Design. The house "resembles a stone cottage seen in France or England." To get the look, he studied the details, proportions and massing of English cottages from the 1600s to the 1800s. He used reclaimed stone, brick and dog-eared cut slate on the outside and reclaimed beams, ceiling planks and flooring inside, all accented by the client's antiques.
Houzz at a Glance
Location: Deephaven, Minnesota, on a wooded site on Lake Minnetonka
Size: 860 square feet
"My client has done lots of traveling in Europe and has a keen interest in French and English architecture," says Jeff Murphy of Murphy & Co. Design. The house "resembles a stone cottage seen in France or England." To get the look, he studied the details, proportions and massing of English cottages from the 1600s to the 1800s. He used reclaimed stone, brick and dog-eared cut slate on the outside and reclaimed beams, ceiling planks and flooring inside, all accented by the client's antiques.
Houzz at a Glance
Location: Deephaven, Minnesota, on a wooded site on Lake Minnetonka
Size: 860 square feet
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| Long before the owner had the house, she had the antique chimney pot and a stash of limestone for the facade, reclaimed from pilings from the 1889 Lake Street bridge in Minneapolis. Copper accents outside include the patinated bucket, the rain chain and the ridge cap. The first two are antiques; the ridge cap "was something that the builder, Bill Ziegler, and I worked on to get an older-looking style, but with the venting requirements for the attic," Murphy says. |
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| A 1744 French fireback gives visitors a hint about the antique finds that await inside. "When my client sees something that she likes, she buys it, even if she doesn’t have a place for it. She keeps all these antiques and architectural pieces in a garage, and then picks and chooses from them when she’s doing a project," says Murphy. |
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| The house has a beautiful pond and wildlife behind it, all set within rolling woods. Cable railings keep the view of the pond open for diners to enjoy. The occasional fox sighting gave the house its name, Fox Hollow. |
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| "My client is an avid gardener, and the property looks like an arboretum," says Murphy. On this side of the house, the owner's green thumb and collecting skills meet — roses climb an old French orangerie window. A weeping spruce adds its unique profile to the site. |
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| "As the owner is very into landscaping and gardening, she devised a layout for the front brick courtyard and plantings," Murphy says. The bricks on the entry terrace were reclaimed from the streets of Minneapolis. |
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Although the windows are new, "We specified authentic wood Marvin windows to give it a more authentic look, along with the non-crank-out casement type, which are push-out and have hinged wood screens on the interior," Murphy says.
The wood lintels atop the windows are reclaimed, as is almost all of the wood inside the house and out.
The wood lintels atop the windows are reclaimed, as is almost all of the wood inside the house and out.
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| "It’s not hard to find the reclaimed wood; there are many different dealers that specialize in this," Murphy says. "They will often find other unique architectural items when they tear down a building, such as the old slate shingles ... the builder found these at the wood dealer's yard." The roof, with its rare dog ear-shaped shingles, came from an 1810 Pennsylvania barn. |
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| Inside, the vaulted ceiling and open plan make the "great hall" feel larger, while reclaimed materials make it feel older. "The owner really has a great sense of interior design and style, and did all the interior decorating herself," says Murphy. She bought the French baker’s rack many years ago, and Murphy designed the windows so that it would fit perfectly between the them. |
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| Most of the wood came from mid-19th-century barns. The oak ceiling timbers came from a Minnesota barn built in the 1860s; the pine boards, from another Minnesota barn built in the 1870s. The flooring came from a Wisconsin barn built in the 1880s. "The joint details were something that our office researched and drew into the details of our architectural drawings, based on old traditional timber framing details," says Murphy. |
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This vignette includes more widespread finds; the sailboat over the fireplace is a pond sailer from Seattle. The stone fireplace surround came from a quarry in Derby, Iowa, while the firebrick traveled all the way from Italy. The owner bought the steer hide rug from a street vendor outside Scottsdale, Arizona.
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| The kitchen includes an antique butcher block table, sconces from an early 1900s Wisconsin cabin and vintage copper pâté molds from France on the wall. |
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| Murphy positioned the breakfast alcove to take full advantage of morning light. The leather sheet chairs are from Vermont, and the vintage rack came from a French pharmacy. A few unexpected modern touches keep the space fresh, including stainless steel kitchen counters, an Eames lounge chair and outsider art. |
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Reclaimed materials continue into the bedroom; the owner found these unique doors in France about 20 years ago. The oak millwork came from an 1870 tobacco barn in Winchester, Kentucky.
Just for fun: The contractor hid a stuffed white mouse somewhere in this room for the owner to find. Can you spot it?
More:
Houzz Tour: Charming Bright Country Home in France
Just for fun: The contractor hid a stuffed white mouse somewhere in this room for the owner to find. Can you spot it?
More:
Houzz Tour: Charming Bright Country Home in France
Ideabook published on Aug. 26, 2012.
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To Murphy & Co. Design, Congratulations! It so well designed that it is ALL that is needed and required for happy living. Have you started building mine yet?
For anyone interested I wrote an article not long ago on a 'Before' and 'After' for Barn Conversions. http://hometipster.com/visions-barn-conversions/
Thanks for the great article - a truly beautiful home.
If you compare the inside and outside photos, it's really not hard to figure out the floor plan. I would like to see photos of the bathroom---I'm imagining a carved stone sink. It looks like the bathroom is probably in the little jut out at the end of the kitchen.