words by Juliet Johnson // photos by Agnes Lopez
Architect Tom Duke had designed a dream house—4,000 square feet of modern space, with plenty of glass and marsh views for miles. It would be sleek, contemporary and utterly chic. And then he and his wife Ellan learned there would be no way to dock a boat at the property. Kismet came in the form of a different house—also with views of the water and space for a boat. The problem with this one? It was “aesthetically challenged,” says Tom, who initially refused to even look at it. “I saw a picture and I said, ‘This is terrible.’ It was just a big, bland box with nothing on it.”
Ultimately, he paid a visit, tricked into viewing the home by a devious brother-in-law. He had to admit that the view was nice. And the original home did have some charm, though the add-ons were dreadful: it looked, to him, like a box on the front with an elongated block on the back. An architect well-accustomed to reconciling impossible dreams with awkward plot circumstances, Tom decided he would take on the challenge. After all, it came with the space his family (Tom, Ellan, and their four boys) needed.
Four years ago, bolstered by the kind of creative ingenuity only successful professionals know from experience, they began to renovate the entire house. Tom loves Craftsman style—“it stays true to what it does,” he says, and opted to borrow similar design elements to take flat, dull and boring to something with style.
One of his first projects was to build a two-story tree house, big enough for six tall people in sleeping bags (i.e. his sons and their friends). That, and removing the lurid wallpaper and fuzzy teal carpet on nearly every surface inside the home.
To give plain horizontal lap siding dimension, he added stone pilasters, metal brackets and stained shutters. He re-trimmed windows wider with a cap, to add “a little flair.” The garage door was replaced with a windowed, decorative stained door. The lower windows in the garage were replaced with glass blocks for security and to allow in natural light. Landscape lighting was added. And that was just the exterior.
Dramatic changes took place inside the home, as well. “When we moved in, the kitchen was half this size,” says Tom. As he considered opening up the kitchen to the dining room, Tom realized that the sloping bulkhead ceiling likely ran the width of the home. It did. The stylish, expanded kitchen now has a ceiling clad in tongue and grooved cypress.
To add a dose of modernism in the kitchen, Tom selected darker cabinets (Gray Skyline Walnut), white countertops (Snowden White Cambria Quartz) and Viking stainless steel appliances for an overall sleek, coordinated look. Painting the home in one color throughout, from the foyer to the deck, further unifies the space.
In the dining room, a beveled mirror wall (already there when the couple moved in) has grown on them. “It comes in real handy when you’re playing cards,” jokes Tom. Ellan likes the way it reflects light into the heart of the home, making the kitchen appear larger.
In the living room, the couple initially struggled with how to place
In the living room, the couple initially struggled with how to place furniture. Being that it’s a long space, they ultimately decided to split the room into two functional spaces: seating and TV at the front, a piano and desk in the back.
“Architects don’t like screened-in porches,” laughs Tom, but says the couple compromised with a beautiful, all-season room with fireplace and skylights opening up into soaring tree branches above and sky beyond. The room opens onto an upper deck; a lower deck is coming shortly where a greenhouse once stood. In order to minimize blocking the view to the river, he installed a cable railing.
The Dukes have renovated slowly, starting with smaller projects when their boys were young (like removing popcorn ceilings and replacing hollow doors). Four years later, they admit there’s still work to be done—but continue to enjoy the process all the while. “We bought a house that Tom wasn’t very excited about but, over the years, he’s ever so slowly whittled away at it to add his architectural touch—but he’s allowed room for our family,” says Ellan. “What’s here is the development of us.”
Tom concurs that “It’s a process,” jokingly equating his own home with his favorite Asian proverb: “House finish, man die.”
