A Coastal Home Transformation in West Tisbury

The addition of a gable on the water side of the house allows for better views of Vineyard Sound. The eucalyptus-patterned fabric on the living room chairs and ottoman is from James Malone.

Ricci Studio’s handmade Kipili Shore wallpaper makes a showstopping statement in the new entryway. The Mauresque chandelier is from Currey & Company.

French lavender—and the docile bees that pollinate it—greets visitors, with a straight shot through to the water before anyone even enters the home.

The custom kitchen in rift-sawn white oak won a PRISM award last year. Its ventilation hood is made of plaster, which builder Thomas Van Hollebeke says created a challenge that ultimately proved rewarding.

Designer Liane Thomas commissioned the custom walnut table from Connecticut’s Knock on Wood Antiques. The Four Hands chairs, covered in charcoal linen slipcovers, are on wheels for easy maneuvering.

The headboard, chair, and ottoman in one of the home’s two primary bedrooms are covered in Brook Perdigon’s Canopy in an indigo-and-white colorway.

When the project began, homeowner Jan Rosenfeld had just gotten back from Morocco, thus the Moroccan zellige tiles in one of the two primary baths

The sink “is the absolute first thing we bought for this project because we loved the color,” Thomas says. “This impulsive purchase was also the last thing we figured out”; it ended up in one of the home’s six en suites.

“Now I can see the sunset every night,” says Rosenfeld, referring to all the windows in the new living room gable. “It really is a beautiful spot.”

When more and more people started coming to Martha’s Vineyard in an effort to escape the pandemic, Jan Rosenfeld thought maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to have a home on Vineyard Haven’s bustling Main Street after all. She had bought the place so she could easily walk into town to “get a coffee and all that,” she says. “But my peaceful little house with the wraparound porch wasn’t so peaceful anymore.” Maybe I’m ready to live in the forest, she thought to herself.

That’s when she found the house in quieter West Tisbury, right where thick woods border Lambert’s Cove Beach.

The first order of business for designer Liane Thomas was to create an entrance. “The house didn’t have a front door,” Thomas says, “just two sliders next to each other on a porch.” She placed double doors within a two-story gable that she added to the front of the 1980s-built home. The gable also allowed for the creation of a dramatic entry hall with an ultra-high ceiling. A second gabled addition with loads of glazing at the back of the home expanded the living room for Rosenfeld’s extended family, in addition to affording better views of the water.

Thomas came up with a new program for the home’s windows in general. The original fenestration scheme was “very chaotic,” she says, with “mismatched windows everywhere. We set up a rhythm and order.”

Builder Thomas Van Hollebeke was up to the renovation’s challenges, including installing wooden hemlock ceilings and beams in the living room. “They’re natural, not paint grade,” he says, “which means there can be no visible nails, no visible fasteners. And site conditions don’t always allow for symmetry, but you have to do the math and make it look intentional, symmetrical, correct.”

Rosenfeld loves the team’s work and her new “rural” lifestyle. “I open my window and there’s a family of deer, bunny rabbits, osprey looking for their nest,” she says. “Across the street there’s a farm. I can walk over to get fresh eggs and herbs, see the cows and horses. And I’m just five more minutes from town.”

Project Team
Architecture and interior design: LMT Design
Builder: Kent & Van Hollebeke Construction
Landscape design: Kristen Reimann Landscape Architect