Modern Maine in Kennebunkport

At the front of the house, sixty-eight linear feet of glass opens interior common rooms—kitchen, dining room, and living room—to the lawn, which landscape architect Soren deNiord punctuated with lava-stone spheres. DeNiord had to regrade the land to compensate for a three- to four-foot elevation change along the glass facade.

DeNiord focused the view on dramatic rock outcroppings in the front yard, which he planted with native species like bush blueberries and sweetspire.

Interior designer Krista Stokes tinted concrete floors forest green, enhancing the indoor-outdoor relation. The entry’s Angela Adams rug softens the glass and concrete.

In the living room, Stokes balanced costlier details—custom millwork by Derek Preble Cabinetmakers—with a RH coffee table and a CB2 accent chair.

The fireplace’s “molten metal” plaster, as Stokes describes it, matches the kitchen hood and TV cabinet doors.

Homeowner Aja Bowley and daughter Elisa are seen here in the kitchen, which features backsplash tiles from Heath Ceramics. A vintage chandelier lights up the dining area.

Plenty of glass optimizes passive solar in winter, while generous overhangs protect the home from overheating in summer.

The primary bedroom, clad in Farrow & Ball’s Stiffkey Blue and boasting a Room & Board bed, faces the children’s playroom across the courtyard.

The screened porch, framed in mahogany, is furnished with outdoor pieces from Industry West.

Designing a house always entails practical decisions that support a family’s lifestyle. But rarely does the process alter the lifestyle itself to the degree it did with this Kennebunkport, Maine, home.

Builder Geoff Bowley and his wife, Aja, had two children when they met with architect Jessie Carroll and designer Krista Stokes to talk about the house that they were conceptualizing in Binnacle Hill, a forested neighborhood Bowley was developing. “Our family was growing, and we knew we needed more room,” observes Bowley. “We would spend, at minimum, the next five to ten years of our life here.” The discussion about the number of bedrooms became “the impetus to talk about whether we would have more children”—albeit, he admits, a bit sooner than he’d expected.

Stokes recalls, “He went in for a house meeting and came out with Aja and me telling him they needed to have another child.” The family has since grown to include three children, a factor that informed aspects of the design.

Bowley proposed a U-shaped structure. At the time, Carroll, a New England Home 5 Under 40 winner, worked with Whitten Architects (she now has her own firm), and her team lined glass-walled living spaces along a south-facing yard to maximize passive solar. Two wings—one devoted to a garage and kids’ areas, the other to the primary bedroom—extend from it perpendicularly. An enormous playroom sits above the garage. “It’s away, but because it’s a U shape, you can be in your bedroom and look into the window of the playroom to see what’s going on,” says Carroll.

The architecture’s hybrid style blends farmhouse vernacular with modern concepts of openness. “We’re regionalists,” explains principal Rob Whitten. To visually minimize the 4,000-square-foot structure, he and Carroll clad the garage wing—the largest volume—in white shingles. “It makes the garage look like a barn,” says Whitten. On the other wings, Thermory, a low-maintenance moisture-proof pine siding, “makes the house look more recessive.”

Landscape architect Soren deNiord used the back of the lot to “bring back a bit of the ranginess and woods,” making the inside of the U a kind of woodland courtyard. Out front, a large green lawn with dramatic outcroppings becomes an entertaining and play area.

“With Soren, it was lawn and ferns,” says Stokes, who convinced her clients to tint the concrete floors green. “I was having a hard time working in soft elements with all the hard concrete, glass, and stone.” The forest-green tint connects indoors to out and takes the edge off.

As for furnishings, she explains, “We played the game of high and low. I didn’t want to dictate to the three-year-old. I told Geoff that even though they’re going to put their sticky sippy-cup fingers on it, you’re a grown man, and you need a good couch.” So, sophisticated yet fresh items mix with furniture from Room & Board and CB2.

This dovetailed perfectly with Carroll’s intentions. “In a family home, it’s important to distinguish between refined moments and playful areas,” she says. The finely crafted details of the home supply the former, while durable materials and Stokes’s softer touches make it ideal for a family that’s a toddler-size larger since the project began.

Project Team
Builder: Geoff Bowley, Bowley Builders
Architecture: Rob Whitten, Russ Tyson, Jessie Carroll, Whitten Architects
Interior design: Krista Stokes
Landscape design: Soren deNiord, Soren deNiord Design Studio