a corner of the living room (below) is furnished with
a Richard Mulligan rope bed and 1960s French beechwood
chairs. The bunk room (right) is outfitted with boat
ladders and retro-style fans. Ochre’s Arctic Pear chandelier
(facing page, bottom) lights the kitchen’s office nook.
space is 22 feet by 26 feet, with no walls to block the views. “The house
is overbuilt and the windows are double-glazed, because the house is so
exposed to the weather,” Ellis says, noting that in winter, storms often
sheath the house with frozen saltwater spray. Invisible high-tech elements include radiant heat, steel porch columns, blown-in insulation,
and soundproofing.
But the decor is low-key old-time summer. “We were careful to not
overdesign the interior,” says Andra Birkerts of Andra Birkerts Interior
Design in Wellesley, Massachusetts, who previously had teamed up
with Charles Myer and S+H to build the family’s year-round residence
in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Birkerts. “The family comes here to enjoy being by the sea. They sail, swim,
barbecue, go to the Fourth of July bonfire, watch the sunset. We kept the
interior light, with blues and greens used as accent colors.” And, she notes,
“all the fabrics have to be tough.”
Her greatest challenge was the big, open first-floor living/dining area.
There, she opted for conversational groupings that allow for a constant flow
of traffic. “People are always coming and going through all
these doors,” she says. “Usually, there are wet dogs, sand, or
wet bathing suits involved.”
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Upstairs in the children’s bunk room, steel ladders lead
not only to upper beds, but also to ceiling-height aeries and secret hideaways. Enormous windows flood the room with light. “This is a kids’ house
