VILLAGE FAMILY HOME ON THE OCEAN

Virginia Beach, Virginia

Featured Press

One Kindesign
Ocean Home Magazine
Virginia Living

Longtime residents of Virginia Beach, and active in the community, the clients for this project had always wanted to live on the ocean. They envisioned their new house as their primary residence, as comfortable for two as it would be for twelve when serving as a gathering place for their three grown children, signiﬁcant others, and friends. Their site, at just three-eighths of an acre, called for a house that would both fit in with the scale of the neighborhood and exemplify the quality and style of turn-of-the-twentieth-century houses. The entry sequence proceeds from a motor court through a garden, across a porch, and into the stair hall. Off the stair hall is the combined living / dining room; a pine-paneled den does double duty as guest quarters. The kitchen and family room connect to the dining room as well as to the stair hall and the mud room. The second floor is organized as three zones: a sitting room which can be closed off using pocket doors to function as an upstairs living room, a primary bedroom suite with ocean views, and the children's rooms, each with its own bath and walk-in closet.

Evocative details abound: cottage-like arched portals, paneled doors with stained-glass sidelights; oval and diamond windows juxtaposed with larger bays, and picture windows with muntins or edged with smaller panes. Even the shingles offer endless opportunities for ornamentation: every fourth course is narrow, endowing the facades with a pleasant rhythm, which is further elaborated by diamond and wave-patterned inserts.