Sunday is the last day to see Boston Magazine’s Design Home. This year, Design Home is a net-zero energy house, built, owned, and soon to be lived in, by real people. Homeowners Natalie and Tom Treat, along with Ridgeview Construction and National Grid, collaborated with Design Home to promote awareness of energy efficient design and raise money for Boston Children’s Hospital. (Tickets are $25, all of which goes to Boston Children’s Hospital.)
The 2,400-square foot, single-family home in Salisbury, Massachusetts is a brand new modular construction designed by BrightBuilt Home. It features energy efficient building techniques and systems, as well as eco-friendly finishes and furnishings, all from local sources, overseen by architectural and interior designer Lisa Sivan Wasserman.
It’s the last weekend to take the tour and see the whole thing in person. Here’s a preview of some of the spaces, along with decor details you won’t find anywhere else. (I wrote all the copy for the Design House again this year, so I’ve got plenty of extra scoop. If you’re more interested in the energy efficiency aspect, let me know, as I’ve got a lot of information on that as well, and can direct you to the experts.)
In the entry, gray slate tile bridges the exterior and interior and requires minimum maintenance. Sunlight streams through the cut in the family room wall. The elephant mahogany console table on curvilinear steel base, is by Ray Bachand of 60nobscot, and the vintage rug is from Landry & Arcari, which provided the rugs in every room. The Walsingham Gallery in Newburyport provided the artwork throughout the house, often done by local artists depicting local subjects. This seascape in oil is by Robert Bolster.
To the right, the reclaimed antique wood bench with sleek acrylic legs is also from 60nobscot. Low VOC paint from Benjamin Moore was used throughout.
Lynn Dayton of Dayton Home, a home furnishings shop in Wellesley, decorated the family room. Dayton was inspired by natural woods, minerals, grasses and stone. She used natural linen on the windows to reflect the commitment to organic. Plus, they allow for privacy but also light and heat. (Dayton supplied the fabrics for the window treatments, which were sewn by Adorna, a local to the trade custom workroom.) Sofa is by Wesley Hall and glass table lamp Arteriors Home.
The sunroom was an add-on that will make the Treats feel like they’re in the New Hampshire woods, right in their backyard. Low maintenance indoor/outdoor furniture from Yankee Fireplace. I love the unfinished beadboard cathedral ceiling.
The upstairs palette is much lighter, and the vibe more relaxed. A vegetable-dyed, hand-spun wool rug in seafoam green with a terracotta lotus tree pattern from Landry & Arcari provides soft color on the floor. The reclaimed wood flooring throughout was supplied by Jewett Farms + Co. Upstairs they used wide planks of live sawn old growth white oak. The landscape paintings, Darlou Gams‘ diptych “Morning” and “Breezing Marsh,” reinforce the dreamy feel, and a pair of vintage rattan stools found on eBay add texture.
The child’s bedroom, designed by Emily Lacouture of NOW Interiors, a design studio and retail shop in Acton, is playful and sophisticated. The patchwork quilt with animal spine pattern is handmade by a RISD-trained artist Meg Callahan. The stump side table is locally made chainsaw art by Vermont craftsman Barre Pinske and the wooly llama foot stool is by Eli Parker. The life size baby giraffe sculpture by Ocean Sole is made out of flip flops retrieved and recycled from the beaches of Kenya.
On the other side of the room, an abstract cityscape by Boston artist Beatrice Dauge-Kaufman and an on-trend polished copper spotlight sits on a glossy black console.
LaCouture also decorated the guest room, in which she used a hand-painted 1960s vintage folding screen from France as a headboard. The reclaimed wood bench at the foot of the bed is an nice juxtaposition to the smooth pale wood Fan chair by Tom Dixon, which is a contemporary take on the classic Windsor chair. That chunky, handknit throw is delicious.
The master bedroom palette is soft and soothing. Kerry Vaughan of Red Bird Trading Company in Newburyport decorated the room, using a statement making, Phillip Jeffries Driftwood grasscloth-covered four-poster bed by Lee Industries as its centerpiece. A diamond quilted linen coverlet and white linens keeps the palette perfectly pared down, while a locally made linen throw with velvet backing, mohair and velvet throw pillows, and lamp shades custom made in Maine from marbleized paper add a touch of texture and color. The nailhead trim bench, covered in cotton velvet is also Lee Industries. The room is grounded by a wool and silk rib rug in a lustrous gray from Landry & Arcari.
A narrow grasscloth covered console table doubles as a vanity, accessorized with a swirly distressed wood mirror.
The children’s room and guest room share the spa-like blue and white bathroom that opens off the upstairs hall. The space saving vanity is from Peabody Supply Company; its bottom drawer and storage shelf supplement the narrow linen closet next to the shower. Accessories fromNOW Interiors, such as the rattan mirror and aqua striped Turkish towel reinforce the bath’s coastal vibe. Both this and the master bath feature radiant flooring, an energy saving alternative to baseboard heaters.
Kerry Vaughan of Red Bird Trading conjured an artist’s atelier as inspiration. The décor, like that elsewhere in the home, draws from natural elements and sticks to the spirit of using locally made and reworked pieces. An extra long sectional by Lee Industries is upholstered in heavily textured, oyster white Belgian linen, and sits on an overdyed Turkish rug. Above is an industrial style raw brass light fixture.
Under the eaves is a recycled cot from Maine, covered in cowhide.
Another area features a drafting table.
Coastal Windows & Exteriors provided the home’s triple pane argon windows, which reduce solar gain from the sun in summer and prevent heat from escaping in winter. The 27 Sunbug Solar panels on the roof will generate at least as much power as the home uses each year. The Treats expect to have saved enough on energy bills to compensate for the cost of their panels within four to five years. An electric circuit monitor by PowerWise will gather data about how much electric the home’s lighting, appliances, etc. consumes, so they can analyze where to cut back and where waste might be occurring.
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