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Classic Lake House With Playful Surprises
A Minnesota home inspired by East Coast Colonial Revival architecture abounds with custom details and built-in character
When designing a new lakeside home for repeat clients, Jean Rehkamp Larson of award-winning Minnesota firm Rehkamp Larson Architects sought to capture the grace and symmetry of an old house while ensuring all the comforts of modern living. Collaborating closely with colleague Angela Taffe Wingate, the clients, interior designer Sue Weldon of Harris Weldon Interiors, Streeter Custom Builder, landscape designers Keenan & Sveiven and a team of skilled local artisans, Rehkamp Larson not only achieved that balance but also filled the home with thoughtful, personalized details at every turn.
“Even though it’s a classic house, there are these playful moments overlaid on the classic architecture [that] make it feel couture,” she says. Scroll down to explore the house and uncover the design’s charming surprises.
“Even though it’s a classic house, there are these playful moments overlaid on the classic architecture [that] make it feel couture,” she says. Scroll down to explore the house and uncover the design’s charming surprises.
The front door opens to a foyer with a herringbone-pattern stone floor, a seagrass area rug, a paneled ceiling with a lantern-style pendant light and lively wallpaper above the wainscoting.
These French doors are directly across from the foyer.
Colonial Revival homes typically have a center hall with a staircase, but Rehkamp Larson diverged from tradition, moving the stairs to a wing to preserve the lake view and access.
Colonial Revival homes typically have a center hall with a staircase, but Rehkamp Larson diverged from tradition, moving the stairs to a wing to preserve the lake view and access.
The living room is on the other side of the pony wall visible in the previous photo. It features a gas fireplace with a Samsung Frame TV above it and built-in bookcases on either side. A brass chandelier hangs from the beamed ceiling, and French doors on the left open to the lakeside patio.
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The adjacent dining room has another seagrass rug, a faceted-mirror chandelier and, on the walls, a Schumacher mural of the Bosporus based on a 19th-century lithograph. Millwork tracery on the ceiling gives this room an intimate, grounded feel, Rehkamp Larson says.
The furniture-like built-in cabinet with a mirrored back was built by Jon Frost of Frost Cabinets, a local master woodworker responsible for most of the custom cabinetry throughout the house. Rehkamp Larson credits Frost and the other traditional craftspeople who worked on the home for creating much of its bespoke feel.
“When you have a great conversation with a cabinetmaker, the cabinetmaker intimately knows so well how to execute things that they contribute to the design,” she says. “That takes it further than we can take it ever on our own, because it’s the next layer of knowledge that comes in. We experience that with metalworkers, cabinetmakers, flooring people — all those capable artisans who come together make the house special.”
“When you have a great conversation with a cabinetmaker, the cabinetmaker intimately knows so well how to execute things that they contribute to the design,” she says. “That takes it further than we can take it ever on our own, because it’s the next layer of knowledge that comes in. We experience that with metalworkers, cabinetmakers, flooring people — all those capable artisans who come together make the house special.”
To the left of the cabinet is one of the home’s playful details: a secret dish cabinet that’s camouflaged in the mural when closed. Rehkamp Larson says the clients brought the idea to the table.
“It really is an Easter egg in this case, with that beautiful pink interior,” she says.
“It really is an Easter egg in this case, with that beautiful pink interior,” she says.
A bar links the dining room to the screen porch. It’s outfitted with a refrigerator and ice maker behind the deep teal lacquered cabinets. The countertop is Black Misty granite, and the backsplash is made of the same stone that’s used on the home’s exterior. It’s a link that makes the room look as though it was an addition — and therefore helps make the home look as though it evolved over time instead of being newly built.
Cabinetry paint: Hague Blue, Farrow & Ball
10 Ways to Build Historic Charm Into a New Home
Cabinetry paint: Hague Blue, Farrow & Ball
10 Ways to Build Historic Charm Into a New Home
On the south side of the house, the screen porch overlooks the pool. Its vaulted ceiling and substantial mullions give it more weight than a typical screen porch, Rehkamp Larson says.
New to home remodeling? Learn the basics
New to home remodeling? Learn the basics
Removable glass panels and a wood-burning fireplace extend the room’s season.
The kitchen is on the other side of the entry hall, combined with an informal eating and sitting area. Whereas an old house likely would have had four independent rooms for the living, dining, kitchen and sitting areas, Rehkamp Larson designed this house to be much more open. Beams overhead help to define the spaces. The pairing of modern light fixtures with more traditional architectural elements and decor also contributes to the interior’s fresh contemporary look.
Behind the banquette in the dining area hangs a retractable world map: a repeated detail from the previous home project with the clients.
“While you’re reading the morning newspaper, you can pull down the map and and check on your geography skills,” Rehkamp Larson says.
Just outside the frame of the photo on the left, doors open to a pergola-covered patio next to the pool.
“While you’re reading the morning newspaper, you can pull down the map and and check on your geography skills,” Rehkamp Larson says.
Just outside the frame of the photo on the left, doors open to a pergola-covered patio next to the pool.
The clean, classic kitchen has pale beige custom cabinetry, unlacquered brass hardware and Olympian White Danby marble countertops.
To the left of the apron-front sink, a built-in glass-front cabinet mimics a hutch that one might find in an old home.
To the left of the apron-front sink, a built-in glass-front cabinet mimics a hutch that one might find in an old home.
To the right of the sink, a bank of tall cabinets conceal a panel-front refrigerator and freezer and the door to a butler’s pantry.
Wall paint: White Cloud, Benjamin Moore; cabinet paint: Stucco, Sherwin-Williams
Wall paint: White Cloud, Benjamin Moore; cabinet paint: Stucco, Sherwin-Williams
The narrow butler’s pantry has blue-gray cabinetry and Black Misty granite countertops. It’s home to a coffee maker, sink and refrigerator drawers. There’s also a small brass porthole in the backsplash on the left.
Cabinet paint: De Nimes, Farrow & Ball
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Cabinet paint: De Nimes, Farrow & Ball
25 Old-Fashioned House Details Worth Keeping or Reimagining
The porthole peeks into a built-in desk on the other side of the wall. Rehkamp Larson says this is another playful detail from the clients’ previous project that they brought back.
One door in the butler’s pantry leads to a mudroom and side door to the house; the other door leads to the kitchen.
Cabinet paint: Lamp Room Gray, Farrow & Ball
Cabinet paint: Lamp Room Gray, Farrow & Ball
In the backsplash of the mudroom’s custom sink, brass outlets designed to be installed in the floor look like little pieces of jewelry set into the Black Misty granite.
To bring ample natural light into the interior of the home — a feature not commonly associated with traditional architecture — Rehkamp Larson added two cupolas. One is in the mudroom hall, and the other pours light into this anteroom outfitted with his-and-hers closets.
The primary bathroom has soft purple wallpaper, a custom vanity with a marble top and nickel-finish accents. The clients opted for no tub but a luxurious shower, whose custom metal door is just past the towel warmer.
The light-filled bedroom has a cathedral ceiling and an expansive view of the lake.
The staircase that traditionally would have been in a central hall is between the primary suite and the open-plan kitchen and dining space, across from the hall desk.
This is the exterior view of the stairwell. The tall expanse of divided glass offers a view of the lake, brings natural light into the home and gives the classic house a fresh sensibility, Rehkamp Larson says.
A sweet sitting area with sliding doors is at the top of the stairs, with a TV on the wall. “It’s a pretty good spot for a date,” Rehkamp Larson says.
In the upstairs hallway, flanked by bedrooms, square Solatubes (tubular skylights) are set into the ceiling and framed with wood. They fill the space with natural light, complemented by Moroccan-style pendant fixtures.
The ceiling of one of the upstairs bedrooms tapers down while a dormer pops up, which makes the room feel tucked in the roof of an old house, Rehkamp Larson says. Vintage-style patterns on the wallpaper, drapery, linens and upholstery give it an air of nostalgia.
The room’s en suite bathroom has a built-in single vanity with inset doors and a marble top. The shower has a low curb and, on its walls, soft blue-gray subway tile set in a running-bond pattern.
Another bedroom has a built-in dresser and similarly nostalgic sensibility.
In its en suite bathroom, sweetly scalloped sconces flank a scalloped vanity mirror.
This bathroom has a shower-tub combination, blue-gray subway wall tile and penny tiles that resemble wallpaper above the subway tile wainscoting.
A shared upstairs hall bathroom has darker blue subway tiles and a more subtly patterned, but still vintage-feeling, wallpaper.
A playful tile “No Diving” sign nods to the home’s in-ground pool.
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10 Ways to Put a Creative Twist on Tile
Between the home and the lake, a stone wall surrounds the pool and hot tub and a pool house with a sauna. In this view, you can see the screen porch on the left and the stairwell and pergola on the right. The primary suite is beyond the stairwell, just out of frame.
Inside and out, exemplary design and craftsmanship went into every element of the house.
“The homeowners value design and quality craftsmanship, and they trusted the process,” Rehkamp Larson says. “This brings out the best in everyone — all involved brought their A game. The result is a home that is greater than the sum of its parts.”
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“The homeowners value design and quality craftsmanship, and they trusted the process,” Rehkamp Larson says. “This brings out the best in everyone — all involved brought their A game. The result is a home that is greater than the sum of its parts.”
More on Houzz
Read more stories
Browse photos for ideas
Find home professionals
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House at a Glance
Who lives here: A family
Location: Near the Twin Cities in Minnesota
Designers: Jean Rehkamp Larson and Angela Taffe Wingate of Rehkamp Larson Architects (architecture); Harris Weldon Interiors (interior design); and Keenan & Sveiven (landscape design)
Contractor: Streeter Custom Builder
A brick herringbone driveway leads to the home, which features horizontal lap siding, natural stone cladding from Minnesota-based Orijin Stone and copper gutters.
Inspired by classic East Coast Colonial Revival architecture, the house has a symmetrical facade and a wide front porch. “When you have snow many months of the year like we do, it’s extra nice to have a spot to feel like you’re stepping out of the weather before you’re entirely in the house,” Rehkamp Larson says.
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