My new cottage book: Call for submissions

It’s always fun to begin a new category in House Enthusiast, and happily, today, it’s for good reason. I’m following up on The New Small House with a new book project, and I need your help. I'm looking to collect submissions for a book I'm writing for The Taunton Press about cottages, now. The book will feature cottages that range from approximately 1000 square feet to 2000 square feet and serve as primary residences or vacation getaways for their homeowners. 

I'm hoping to find creatively designed cottages from across North America: located in a community, near the water, amidst the wilderness, and some experimental cottages, too. Featured cottages will primarily be newly constructed, but a few might be fresh renovation/additions to older cottages. With the aid of the featured cottages, the book will illuminate approximately ten fundamental design qualities that characterize captivating cottages. I’ll be defining “cottage” fairly broadly, so traditional and more contemporary takes on “cottage” are welcome.

If you know of a new (or newly renovated) cottage that you think I should consider including in the book, please let me know. For now, simply email me Katie@katiehutchison.com some low-resolution jpegs of the exterior, interior, and context, along with some background information about the size of the cottage, where it's located, who owns it, who designed it, if it has been professionally photographed, and if it has been featured in another publication. Also, please let me know if you're aware of any architectural drawings that depict its plan and its site.

I'll be collecting cottages to consider for publication in the next few weeks and look forward to reviewing those that you may recommend. Together, I look forward to creating a book that informs and inspires readers who may be embarking on their own cottage designs. Please join me!

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast
 

Harvard Shaker-house renovation/addition now on KHS website portfolio

If you've been following the "Before & After" blog posts for this project, you might be interested in seeing the completed project in its entirety now posted to the KHS website portfolio pages. Find it here.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Before & After: Den/Office at the KHS Harvard Shaker-house renovation/addition

Upstairs, a very low and uneven board ceiling in the room that the owners use as a den/office made what is actually a very large room feel quite compressed. Dark, stained, board walls contributed a somewhat oppressive vibe. Replacing the board ceiling with a raised, plaster, tray ceiling that springs from above the original board walls -- painted a light color (Grout) from C2 Paint -- created a much more inviting, bright, and expansive space. New trim color (Sheer), also from C2 Paint, and a new floor color (C2's Magnet) tie the color palette in this room to the new palette in the rest of the house.

Look for more photos of this completed project on the KHS website portfolio soon.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Before & After: Porch (looking in) at the KHS Harvard Shaker-house renovation/addition

This "Before & After" pairing illustrates the fundamental change we made that enabled most of the other improvements in this renovation/addition project. The existing arched opening in the "Before" image (at bottom) separated a lower-level screened porch from an upper-level screened porch. The patio doors in the "After" photo (at top) now infill the arched opening. We removed the wall with the door and the perpendicular wall with the window seen in the "Before" image.  These changes allowed us to capture the space beyond the arched opening for the interior to create an expanded semi-open dining/kitchen area. To make the interior expansion seamless, we raised the floor of the area that had been the upper-level porch, so it aligns with the main living level, and made sure there would be no soffits in the planes of the walls we removed. We also raised the floor of the lower-level porch to reduce the number of steps required to circulate from the newly expanded interior to the remaining screen porch. Stay tuned for more to come.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Before & After: Kitchen (and bathroom entry) at the KHS Shaker-house renovation/addition

This is more of a "Before, Demo & After". To orient you, the window on the right in the three horizontal images above is the same window in every shot. The door seen in the middle "demo" image used to lead from the stair landing back down into a full bath. We reconfigured that bathroom to be accessed instead from the new door you see in the "after" image at the top. We removed the stud wall that you can see to the left in the "demo" image to create a more open kitchen/dining area which made room for the island with a breakfast bar top and bar seating that you see in the vertical image to the left. New soapstone counters and Shaker-style cabinets in addition to a new color palette help refresh the look. More to come.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast