Seabrook Village Cottage Home
Located on Seabrook Island, this new home is being designed for Seabrook Village. The Village is a 101-site planned community on Seabrook Island that is more than half complete. Envisioned as a traditional, cottage-style community, in order to create a cohesive look, the design of the homes with smaller lots and in many cases with only 15′ separation, the designs of the homes are closely controlled. The advantage of selecting a small lot is that the conversation starts out with the homeowner deciding they would rather build small, but build with high quality finishes versus building bigger than what they need, but with a lower quality. The design we’ve created reflects gracious retirement living in a vibrant community. We are able to include all the spaces the clients desired, while not creating a sprawling home. In fact, when home size is restrained, as in this case due to lot size, you often discover new ways of putting together the pieces of the design puzzle.
Our Empty Nester clients choose their lot because they liked that it had a view to a small lake through mature oak trees at the rear of the property; and that the large oak trees would provide shade and privacy for their outdoor living areas on the porch and deck. Eleven-foot high ceilings and huge windows and doors provide wall to wall views through the porch to the lake, including a huge window behind the sink overlooking the view of the lake. Additional views of the lake can be seen from the master suite and the guest bedroom/second owner office. Large windows flank the stove for additional light, as do transom windows on the end walls set within two bays flanking a fireplace. State of the art lighting is also used to make this space seem bigger, adding grace and comfort to the homeowners Empty Nester lifestyle.
In a small home, outdoor living space makes a huge difference to expanding the living area and creating a seamless connection from outside to inside. On the screened porch that runs the full width of the rear at the second level, the 11-foot ceiling is clad with wood. A stone floor, cable railing, and full height screening make the porch an elegant and functional outdoor room while maximizing the view. On this level is also an outdoor shower area and private sun tanning deck. Stairs provide access down to a lower grilling deck, completing the amenities to fully enjoy an Empty Nester Lifestyle. This home embodies comfortable living at a bigger scale than the size of the home would suggest.
Since our homeowners maximized their building area allowed within the footprint allowed, the challenge for our architectural design was to create shapes and texture out of almost a solid volume. The solution was to create a simple gable shape for the main part of the home with elements on the front and rear to break up the big box shape.
Image Gallery
We are hopeful we will be able to professionally photograph this home in the coming months, but in the meantime, we wanted you to have a sneak peak of the completed project.
