A Vermont Waterfront Home Makes the Most of Lake Champlain Views

A ground-floor renovation and addition of a Lake Champlain house capitalize on lakefront views and include a series of outdoor vignettes. It all called for “quite a bit of steel,” says architect Jeff McBride. “What we did was really break the bones of the house and reset them.”

The addition of two “glass boxes” containing the primary bedroom and dining area helps reduce the distinction between inside and out.

he upper deck, made with sustainable TimberTech decking, has access points to three bedrooms, creates a quiet space for guests to gather, and provides seasonal shading for the “glass boxes” underneath.

The dining area, featuring a table and chairs by RH, was reoriented ninety degrees to face the view outside. The pendant is by Visual Comfort & Co.

The kitchen features flush millwork by Silver Maple. The owner’s photographs are incorporated throughout the house, including this one nestled into its own bespoke space.

The bedroom, which originally faced a solid wall, was rotated to look out a double glass slider and contains a built-in bed made to mimic and match the aesthetics of the kitchen.

Silver Maple gave the home a thermally separated building envelope, with high-performance foundation, walls, and roofing; steel thermal breaks to insulate between exterior and interior steel; and solar shading, making the original farmhouse design far more efficient.

The house, a primary residence on an expansive waterfront piece of land near Shelburne, Vermont, had spectacular views of Lake Champlain. The problem was with catching them.

The clients had built the house more than a decade earlier. They were introduced to architect Jeff McBride, principal of Shelburne-based Sidehill Design Studio, by Keith Wagner, founder of Wagner Hodgson Landscape Architecture in nearby Burlington and the original landscape architect for the house. Together, the two firms came up with a plan to take back the views and to, as McBride puts it, “pull the landscape in and push the inside out.”

McBride and his team set out to reorient the house by way of a complete first-floor renovation and addition, plus a new upper-level deck. He brought in Silver Maple, based in New Haven, Vermont, to complete the build-out—and create a connection between new and old so seamless “that it would feel like the two were always there,” says McBride.

The kitchen and main living spaces were each rotated ninety degrees to face the outside, while an addition consisting of two glass and steel boxes situate the primary bedroom and dining area as close to nature as possible without actually being outside. Above, a portion of the new deck is heated. “There is a full blurring of the spaces indoors and out,” says McBride.

Sidehill also executed the interior design, centered around clean, simple colors and pieces. “It’s almost hard to describe how much effort was put into making things look uncomplicated,” says McBride, from book-matched marble and a custom hood surround in the kitchen to floors that run flush from indoors to out. Walls bleed directly into windows, while custom millwork by Silver Maple includes built-ins that join wall and ceiling.

To complete the look, Wagner Hodgson created a series of outdoor spaces, including a firepit, several patios, and a pool. A honey locust tree the firm had planted more than a decade earlier anchors one patio space and provides a subtle link to the past—seamless, indeed.

Project Team
Architecture and interior design: Sidehill Design Studio
Builder: Silver Maple
Landscape design: Wagner Hodgson Landscape Architecture