Transforming a Coastal Home

A design team’s vision and expertise help a couple transform their waterfront home.

Waterfront Home Renovation Maximizes Views and Natural Light

The architect and his team saw the home’s potential during the first walk-through despite a dated interior and walls that blocked a lovely water view.

“It was a small stucco house with enormous potential,” says Tobin Shulman, principal and lead architect at SV Design, an architecture and interior design firm with offices in Beverly, Chatham, and Winchester, Massachusetts. The homesite—at the confluence of a river and the ocean on the state’s North Shore—had “absolutely fantastic water views,” says Shulman, but the house didn’t take advantage of them. “It had layout quirks that created a space where when you walked in the front door, you couldn’t see the water at all. There was a big wall and stairs that you had to navigate—and then a porch between you and the view,” he remembers.

The homeowners originally asked the team to open up the house front to back to embrace views from all the primary spaces on the first floor; they also wanted the lower level to echo that open plan, with additional guest rooms.

New Second Story and Custom Features Add Functionality and Personality

That’s precisely what the SV Design team did, with a twist. “We worked really collaboratively with the homeowners,” says Shulman. Over time, the project evolved to include a dormered second story housing a primary suite that offers privacy—and an even better waterfront vantage point.

The new home, completed in 2024, features a first-floor living room with twenty-five-foot, six-panel, foldaway doors and a kitchen with a vaulted ceiling and exposed beams. The architect describes it as “beautiful in both composition and materiality.” The living spaces open onto a sheltering porch with a fireplace. The former primary bedroom became a guest suite when they decided to build up.

The lower level suits the homeowners’ love of entertaining. A more casual family room space is stacked directly under the living room, for a different perspective of ledge and water. A patio space underneath the porch offers seating, a firepit, and a spa. There’s a home theater and bar, gym, and two guest rooms. A spa-like bath houses an infrared sauna, elevated Japanese soaking tub, and textured pebble floors.

Creating a Seamless Indoor-Outdoor Connection

A dramatic staircase connects all three floors and leads to the new upper-level primary suite. The custom bed is centered in the space and built forward so one can walk around it. “It provides easy access to the bath and pushes the bed closer to the view,” says Shulman.

Opening the house to the outside also meant bringing the outside in. “The indoor-outdoor connections are everywhere, in the architecture and materials,” says Shulman. “The stone on the exterior is locally sourced granite, the same you see in ledge outcroppings. In turn, those tones inspired the interior palette, the walls, and the furnishings.” By bringing in watery blues and natural materials, the connection feels seamless.

A greenhouse was added to the renovated detached garage, and flower gardens “roll from the front yard down and around the side of the home,” says Shulman. He says if he had to choose a favorite spot in the house, it would be the first-floor porch. “Initially, I thought it had to be the living room, because the opening itself is like a work of art,” he says. “But there’s something lovely about the slightly more intimate space.”

The takeaway from this project? “There’s potential in any space even if it may not be obvious when you first see it—and even if there are obstacles in the way,” says Shulman. He says it’s his team’s job to communicate that: “Everyone reacts to different things, so we’ll do whatever it takes: computer modeling, renderings, sometimes a walk on the property. Or, we may wave our hands around and say ‘imagine this whole wall is a giant opening.’ Sometimes they say, ‘Whoa, you can do that?’ And we say, ‘Yes, we can.’ ”

To see more projects, visit svdesign.com, or schedule a consultation at any of SV Design’s Massachusetts locations: Beverly (978-927-3745); Chatham (508-348-5485); and Winchester (781-570-2949).

Project Team
Architecture and interior design: SV Design
Builder: Premier Builders
Landscape: Hilarie Holdsworth Design