Nantucket Retreat Honors Island Tradition with a Modern Design

The new four-bedroom house has a complex roofline with two gabled and one shed-style dormer facing the pool. Black-framed windows and doors add a contemporary element to the traditional facade of weathered cedar shingles and white painted trim.

The living room is a tranquil study in white and black. A 2,200-pound stone coffee table from homenature complements the over-grouted stone of the fireplace. Wood beams rescued from old buildings by Reclaimed Lumber & Beams in North Carolina add history and character to the room.

The kitchen island is topped with Danby marble quarried in Vermont. The backsplash behind the stove is natural stone over-grouted for a whitewashed look.

An eight-foot window above the kitchen’s black granite countertop opens accordion-style to the pool area.

In the dining room, built-in cabinets by Nantucket-based Cabko Cabinets & Design flank the door leading to the pool.

Handsome cabinetry in the entryway frames the door to a powder room.

A French door in the serene primary bedroom leads to a private patio facing the woods at the back of the house; a built-in wardrobe, one of two, and window seat supplement the suite’s walk-in closet.

An oak-slat wall adds warmth and camouflages a storage closet in the basement family room.

he pool cabana includes an office on the second floor and a wet bar and laundry room on the first floor. That’s the new house on the left.

An arbor defines the cabana’s outdoor space.

Inside the cabana, the staircase of wood and black steel, fabricated by Keuka Studios of New York, is set in front of a wall of black-framed windows to create a striking focal point. It leads to the second-floor office where a glass grid frames the view.

In the adjacent powder room, a wall-mounted stone sink is an industrial accent.

A stepping-stone path leads to an outdoor shower alongside the cabana.

The three windows above the arbor allow a view from the upstairs office across the double-height sitting area to the pool.

Nantucket Architecture Rooted in Family Memories

From concept through construction of this family compound, the owners and their design team spoke the mutual language of fond Nantucket memories.

“Because of that, there’s a richness to the outcome we achieved,” says architectural designer Steve Roethke, whose own experience with island life began as a five-year-old boy building sandcastles during one of many family vacations. Now a year-round resident, he lives his commitment to preserving the island’s special character through his architectural design and building business, S.M. Roethke Design.

His clients, a married couple with teenage children, represent a second generation of summer residents. “The wife’s parents bought the property and built a house in the 1980s,” says Roethke. “The history of her experience there set this project up for success.”

With their extended family including brothers and sisters, cousins, and nieces and nephews, she and her husband wanted to expand beyond the existing colonial-style house in a way that encouraged gathering while also providing privacy for multiple guests.

Screened from the street by the existing house, a straightforward two-story structure, the new complex includes a four-bedroom house, a pool cabana with an office, and a garage all built around a swimming pool.

Interiors Inspired by Nantucket’s Natural Beauty

Interior design fell to Nina Liddle, a year-round resident whose deep ties to the island date to the nineteenth century. “I have pictures of my ancestors on the train to Sconset,” she says. (The railroad was dismantled in 1918.) “This island is very dear to my heart. There is a connection to nature here that many people don’t get.”

The unique built environment and natural beauty of this forty-eight-square-mile island off the coast of Massachusetts gave the homeowners and their designers an appreciation of the role the Historic District Commission plays in assuring every building project on Nantucket, the entirety of which is a designated National Historic Landmark District, adheres to a strict set of design parameters.

Roethke complied with an exterior clad in traditional cedar-shingle siding weathered to a silver gray offset with white trim. “The clients’ vision for the interiors was cozy, textured, and monochromatic,” says Liddle. “The palette is beige, cream, and some gray with all-important black accents.” Pops of color come from the woodsy setting seen out the windows.

Thoughtful Layout Encourages Relaxed Family Living

The new house features a central kitchen with an eight-foot-wide window that opens accordion-style to the pool area, creating a handy pass-through for outdoor snacks and meals. The first-floor primary suite, located at the back of the house for added privacy, has its own outdoor patio facing the woods. Two upstairs bedrooms have balconies overlooking the pool. The fourth bedroom suite is in the basement where a large family room is a favorite spot to hang out on a rainy day.

The most dramatic space in the compound is inside the cabana. The frame of the building, a two-story box with a gable roof, is as simple as a child’s drawing. It belies the sleek staircase Roethke designed as both “a perfunctory means to access the second-floor office and a sculptural opportunity.” Custom black metal railings make a bold statement against a double-height window wall that floods the space with natural light. Add Liddle’s simple white sofas, black and gray accents, and Codor Design cluster light fixture and “you have the masterful points that make a good space great,” says Roethke.

“People come to Nantucket to recharge and reenergize,” he continues. “This place facilitates that.”

Project Team
Architectural Design and builder: S.M. Roethke Design
Interior design: Nina Liddle Design
Landscape design: Miroslava Ahern Landscape Design Studio