Hancock Cottage
Completed while with Knickerbocker Group
Featured: Down East Magazine, June 2021 & Maine Home and Design Architecture Issue, 2021
This custom lake house in Maine is a carefully crafted family retreat, born from over a decade of planning and cherished memories on a historic 40-acre lakeside property. What began as a collection of YWCA cabins, a lodge, and an infirmary evolved into a grand vision for a main cottage, realized through close collaboration between Brian and the owners. The result is a comfortable, Scandinavian-influenced home designed as a central gathering space for a large, multi-generational family retreat. Throughout the project, minimizing site disturbance was a priority, resulting in a cozy lakeside haven nestled seamlessly beneath the natural tree canopy, ready to host a legacy of family joy.
The exterior is unified by a sophisticated, nature-inspired palette, clad in locally sourced rough-sawn Northern White Cedar timbers and stained dark brown to mimic the texture of the bark of surrounding trees. The different volumes are clad in distinct vertical and horizontal applications, such as reverse board-and-batten siding and prefinished white-cedar shingles, all stained a natural brown tone to harmonize with the surrounding pine bark.
Inside, the home utilizes a clean aesthetic with white walls, black hardware, and colors drawn from the natural landscape. Interior materials include moss-colored nickel-gap paneling and sandy-toned white-oak kitchen cabinets. A strong connection to the site is maintained through the extensive use of granite, with thick slabs found on the property repurposed for the front step, fireplace hearth, and the dramatic entry porch column. Brian worked with the owners to conceptualize the options for the existing stone slabs that had been sitting in a pile in the woods for decades. The team landed on the decision to make it a statement piece and use it to support the corner of the entry porch. When the family gathers together each summer, they now take their yearly family group photo in front of the stone column.
The focal gathering space of the home is the expansive, nearly 600-square-foot screened porch, which functions as a durable, multifunctional outdoor living room that opens to the surrounding forest, lake, and the main living areas of the house. This space boasts polished concrete floors, a granite fireplace with a reclaimed stone hearth from the property, a custom L-shaped cedar bench, and a unique cedar table designed by the homeowner for various activities like Ping-Pong, crafting, or overflow dining.
