Houzz Tour: Designer’s Own Custom Home on Lake Minnetonka

Photos by Spacecrafting

House at a Glance
Who lives here: Gabe and Mark Lindberg
Location: Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota
Size: 3,500 square feet (325 square meters); four bedrooms, four bathrooms
Designers: Gabe Lindberg of O’Hara Interiors (interiors) and Littfin Design (architectural drawings)
Builder: Dorian Thompson of Thompson Construction

Originally, the couple’s plan was to renovate and add on to their cottage. But after Thompson assessed the structure with the architectural draftsman and laid out its limitations — along with the resources it would take to turn it into what they envisioned — the consensus was to start with a clean slate. So they tore it down, recycling and donating as much as possible, and built a new house based on Lindberg’s design.

The existing detached garage, which Thompson built for the couple a decade earlier, was remodeled to match the new house.

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Past a white-oak-and-metal staircase, the house opens up to a free-flowing family room, kitchen and dining area. Lindberg outfitted the family room, seen here, with cozy transitional-style furnishings, layers of texture and neutral colors with splashes of blue and green.

Scroll to the bottom to see the floor plans for the home’s first and second floors.

Wall paint: Pure White, Sherwin-Williams; ceiling paint: White Heron, Benjamin Moore

The room’s gas fireplace has a clean-lined cast-stone surround and a television above it. To its left is a built-in white oak cabinet with inset drawers and arched glass doors. The cabinetry was masterfully crafted by a cabinetmaker introduced to Thompson by Lindberg.

“They do all my cabinets now [and] can do pretty much anything we want,” Thompson says. “Every room has something special on the cabinetry, whether it’s a door profile or a wood species or reeding.”

The adjacent kitchen has white oak perimeter cabinetry with inset beaded cabinets and hardware in unlacquered brass, a finish that develops a patina over time. At the kitchen’s center is a pale blue-gray island with reeded panels and doors.

The countertop and the backsplash above the sink and cooktop are honed Zermatt quartzite, a soft white natural stone with gray veins.

Island paint: Boothbay Gray, Benjamin Moore

An enamel range in a deep blue-gray peeks out behind the island. Above it, a Venetian plaster hood echoes the curvature of the island pendant lights, which are dark green and brass. The hood was hand-built and plastered by Thompson’s father, David, who founded Thompson Construction.

“He was an artist before he became a builder, but he’s been a builder for 35 years,” Thompson says. “He likes all the artistic, difficult, head-scratching work.”

The entrance to the small pantry and the primary suite are to the left of the range.

Island pendant lights: Henry Industrial, Visual Comfort

Below windows overlooking Lake Minnetonka, the sink has a special faucet that dispenses instant hot water. The husband, who works from home, told Thompson that being able to make tea without having to bother with a kettle is one of his favorite little luxuries in the house.

For his part, Thompson says that one of his favorite details is the paper towel dispenser built into the cabinet to the left of the sink — which makes sense, since he and his wife have seven children, a Labrador and a Great Dane. “We go through a lot of paper towel rolls,” he says with a laugh.

Thompson’s father built the arched, cased opening to the dining area using reclaimed barn timbers.

Flooring: L’Artiste by Timbertop in Lorrain, Urban Floor

The cabinetmaker custom-made and -stained the dining room table, which has a reeded pedestal base, to match the wood-paneled ceiling and kitchen cabinetry. A built-in bench with drawers for storage extends the width of the room, and a linear chandelier with an aged iron finish complements the black-framed windows without obstructing the spectacular vista.

The wide-plank engineered European oak flooring has a rich grain and a medium tone that contrasts subtly with the lighter white oak timbers and cabinetry. Thompson liked Lindberg’s choice so much he recently installed similar medium-toned wood floors in his own home.

The dining area opens onto this deck, which was built with wood-look PVC boards. On the right of the previous photo, you can spot the frame of the open door seen here.

Seemingly suspended in the tree canopy thanks to the lot’s gentle slope, this deck is also accessible from the coffee bar-pantry area just outside the primary suite. Scroll down to the floor plan to see how the spaces connect.

Decking: Vintage collection in weathered teak, TimberTech

The best lake views — framed by a trio of tall casement windows — are from the primary bedroom, Thompson says. Here and throughout the house, the windows are drywall return with a wood cap, or sill, instead of being surrounded by casing. The clean, modern look balances the home’s more traditional architectural elements.

Roman shades provide privacy and light control, and their natural material and neutral color complement the textures and colors of the bedding.

A gold-leaf chandelier adds a touch of drama and a warm glow.

Chandelier: Florko, Arteriors

A door with another leaded transom window opens to the en suite primary bathroom. Its heated cement tile floor, which has a star pattern in dusky green, transitions to a black herringbone mosaic floor tile in the curbless, doorless shower.

The heated floor is another of those little luxuries that Thompsons’ clients really appreciate. “The husband said he had never had a heated floor, [and] now he can’t go back,” he says.

Tile: Star & Cross in Zeppelin (main floor) and Zellige in Pure White (walls), 2 by 6 inches, Zia Tile

At the top of the stairs leading from the foyer, this hall bathroom has a rich walnut double vanity topped with soapstone. Marine-style recessed ring pulls on the vanity and matching linen cabinet coordinate with the linear brass-and-glass sconces. For visual interest, Lindberg mixed the brass door hardware with polished nickel plumbing fixtures and accessories.

The toilet (not pictured) is in a niche across from the linen closet.

The room isn’t square, so laying out the retro black-and-white mosaic floor tile was another challenge for the tile setter. The tile flows into the no-curb shower under a fluted glass door that was custom-welded by one of Thompson’s friends.

“If you want it to look perfect, you have to put a lot of extra effort in,” Thompson says of the painstaking work that went into the home.

Floor tile: Soho penny round mosaic, Anatolia Tile

In the basement, there’s another bedroom and this workout room — which, as Thompson tells the story, was partly responsible for the decision to scrap renovation plans.

Lindberg’s husband is over 6 feet tall, and he asked if the existing basement ceiling could be raised to accommodate his workouts. After measuring the ceiling at 7 feet — less, taking into account the soffits for HVAC — Thompson and the draftsman realized that the project would be so extensive they might as well build a whole new house.

Starting fresh allowed them to give this airy new workout room a nearly 10-foot ceiling. It also has joint-friendly Boflex athletic wood flooring that’s shock-absorbing and can withstand heavy loads.

Below the dining room, a rustic-style enclosed porch has a wood-paneled ceiling and walls covered in the same siding used on the home’s exterior.

Pros Share 8 Design Tips for Screened-In Porches

The enclosed porch is on the bottom right of the back of the house, and the door to its left is the main access from the basement to the backyard. En route to the lake is an inviting entertaining area surrounded by stone walls and lush vegetation.

Thompson says his crew protected the plants during construction, but he gives credit for all the landscaping to the homeowners.

“They actually did all of that by themselves with their own two hands, [mostly] before we built the house,” he says. “It’s one of my favorite things on the house. [Lindberg] made it look like it had been there for 20 years.”

The basement isn’t yet complete, but it’ll eventually have a sauna, a wet bar and several other special amenities. “It’s all going to be incredibly fancy,” Thompson says.

In the meantime, Lindberg and Thompson are busy with a half-dozen other projects, working together to bring other homeowners’ visions to life.