A Chicken Coop Inspired the Design of This Award-Winning Home

Architect Brian Mac took his design cues from an adjacent farm and Vermont’s classic vernacular. As seen from the shore of the lake, this side of the house includes a door that opens to the main corridor and a terrace, complete with a firepit, off the kitchen and living room wing.

Landscape architect Keith Wagner chose a bluestone walkway and a grouping of river birch trees to help create a serene, understated setting for the home’s courtyard.

Dave Vilord of Custom Metal Fabricators of Vermont created the hot-rolled-steel fireplace that anchors one end of the home’s great room.

The sitting nook features a shell chair by Hans J. Wegner, and Allied Maker flush-mount fixtures line the corridor that connects all four wings.

Interior designer Brooke Michelsen designed the kitchen cabinets, while the stained-oak island is topped with quartzite.

Original BTC pendants illuminate the hardworking blue-gray pantry.

The powder room includes a fossilized marble sink from Burlington Marble & Granite; the custom floating drawer holds essentials without overwhelming the small space.

In the primary bath, the tile—zellige on the walls and herringbone cement on the floor—was sourced from Clé.

Michelsen designed the built-in bunk room to include four beds, two ladders, a reading nook, and a dresser.

To create a cozy TV room, both the walls and the ceiling were painted Farrow & Ball Down Pipe.

An aerial view of the home shows its proximity to the neighboring farm and illustrates how a perpendicular corridor links the residence’s four gabled wings. From left to right, the gables include a garage; a mudroom and gym; the main living area; and the bedrooms. This novel design also created outdoor spaces that are, as Mac notes, “specific to the function of each of the house’s gables.”

When asked what inspired the award-winning design of this island home in northern Vermont, architect Brian Mac doesn’t hesitate when he answers, “A chicken coop.”

A chicken coop? Really?

After a pause and a wide smile, Mac adds, “Yes…and a barn.”Mac explains that, while the multi-gabled home he designed is coolly contemporary, many of its cues come from the classic gambrel barn and gable-roofed chicken coop that are part of a farm adjacent to the new home’s 12.6-acre lot.

“The area is noted for its pastoral farms, and we wanted to use some elements and details of that agrarian design to help this home pay tribute to, and also fit in with, the neighboring landscape,” says Mac. Therefore, he kept the home just one story high and included features such as black-stained vertical cedar siding, a series of forty-eight identical double-hung, two-over-two windows, a standing-seam roof, and four gables with the same pitches.

“We loved Brian’s design because it was so sympathetic to the neighborhood and our lakeside lot while also giving us the low-maintenance, elegantly simple look we were hoping for,” says the owner who, with her husband, is retiring to what she calls “our forever home.”

The home’s gabled structures, or wings, are connected by a corridor. Three bedrooms and a bunk room are located in the wing facing the lake to take full advantage of water views. (The owners plan to eventually build a three-season guest cottage on the lakefront.) Other wings house the kitchen, living, and dining rooms; the garage; and a mudroom and gym.

Mac’s wife, interior designer Brooke Michelsen, worked closely with the owners to create a minimal yet elegant open-plan design that features locally sourced natural materials such as oak, slate, and bluestone. A striking steel fireplace acts as the home’s centerpiece.

“We chose a largely neutral palette and a clean design so as not to conflict with our pristine setting,” says
Michelsen.

That setting is extremely important to the homeowners. “We fell in love with this secluded lakefront lot as soon as we saw it,” says the wife. “And Brian and Brooke and the entire team made it even better, giving us the home of our dreams—one that blends perfectly with the landscape. As our visitors continually tell us: ‘This is paradise.’ And we agree!”

Project Team
Architecture: Birdseye
Interior design: Brooke Michelsen Design
Builder: O’Neill Builders
Landscape design: Wagner Hodgson Landscape Architecture