A Coastal Cottage on Mount Desert Island Embraces Year-Round Living

In the living room, framed painted panels from Gracie conceal the TV and reference the home’s island location.

A statue of a raven from Artemis Gallery in Northeast Harbor, Maine, sits by the front door of the Shingle-style double-gable house.

To honor what she calls the island’s “real culture of puzzling and games,” interior designer Laura Keeler Pierce added a Dunes and Duchess table to the living room to serve as a place for assembling a puzzle, playing cards, or doing work.

In the kitchen, old and new meet through traditional cabinets and hardware paired with a contemporary take on the classic candlelit sconce by The Urban Electric Co.

A first-floor powder room features Galbraith & Paul wallpaper.

Comfortable time-outs for the couple’s two Jack Russell terriers, Mischief and Jinx, come courtesy of custom built-in dog beds in the mudroom.

In the primary bedroom, Pierce and builder Tom Wallace dreamed up dual cabinets in the eaves, “just like you’d find in an old Maine cottage, with all these nooks and crannies,” Pierce says.

Pierce approached textiles with an eye toward creating a look that felt as if it was made of pieces collected over time, with bedding by Lisa Fine Textiles and wallpaper by Peter Fasano

A nostalgic cafe curtain fabricated by Makkas Workroom in an upstairs bath pairs with Urban Electric Co. sconces featuring shades in fabric by Jasper.

Galbraith & Paul drapery anchors an upstairs guest room.

Designing a Coastal Retreat with Local Roots

As soon as Suzzara and John Durocher walked into Rusticator, an interiors shop in Seal Harbor, Maine, they turned to one another and said, “Oh, this is us.” At the time, the Durochers were mid-renovation of their summer home in nearby Northeast Harbor, the Mount Desert Island town where Susie had vacationed since she was a kid. They were thrilled to find out that Rusticator’s owner, Laura Keeler Pierce, was a designer and had roots by marriage on MDI. The couple brought in Pierce to help tie everything together in their
new summer space.

A few years later, when the house next door, a cottage with a condemned foundation, came up for sale, the Durochers knew to enlist Pierce from the get-go. The condition of the house afforded the couple the opportunity to start from scratch, and they envisioned creating a space that could accommodate extended family, honor the area’s architectural history, and highlight the nature that drew them to the island, summer after summer (and increasingly in the offseason, too).

Pierce knew exactly what to do. “Susie’s family has this rich history with the place, but she and John also wanted to do things a little differently,” she says. “And so some of the elements throughout the house are more contemporary, particularly lighting, but then textiles are classic and often done in block prints or there’s a handmade nature to them.”

A Contemporary Shingle Style Home for Year-Round Living

Pierce worked hand in hand with architect Tom Saltsman to create a home that provided for moments both louder and quieter, reflective of the Durochers’ love of entertaining and being together but also of hours spent reading.

“The concept I was working with centered around two gable bars that represented the homeowners,” says Saltsman of the resulting contemporary Shingle-style three-bedroom home. “The space between them is the gathering and circulation space. The two bars are, in a sense, holding hands.” A footprint that’s less than 3,000 square feet accommodates get-togethers thanks, in part, to a wraparound porch that offers views of an expansive lupine field.

“Creating spaces that allow them to live a very tucked-away, orderly life, while also running up mountains or going on long bike rides or doing all of the things that we’re all being pulled in so many different directions to do, was important,” says Pierce. “It’s always fun for me when we’re chatting with them in February and they’re like, ‘Oh, we’re on MDI.’ I love that they’re enjoying it as much in winter as they are in August.”

There’s a name for that, says Susie. “I guess you could say we’re now ‘year-round summer people.’ ”

Project Team
Architecture: SaltsmanBrenzel
Interior design: Keeler & Co.
Builder: Thomas W. Wallace Construction Services
Landscape design: Emma Kelly Landscape