The classic Maine lakefront cottage, or “camp,” has a rustic, unfussed-over look that in a new building can take quite a bit of fussing to capture. Project architect Will Winkelman and builder Henry Banks went to great lengths to imbue this new, four-season camp with that wood-smoked spirit, using stripped local hemlock logs for columns, and even band-sawing the occasional red-oak floorboard along its grain to give a split appearance.
In the kitchen, Winkelman says, “we were going for that site-built feel.” Painted cabinets provide visual relief in an interior of oil-finished woods, but the look is homey enough to fit the backwoods theme. That theme is reinforced by the use of logs to frame a bay at the sink window and as legs for the maple-topped island. The Fireslate sink and counters add a note of farm-bred elegance.
The kitchen space itself, a shed-roofed “addition” designed to suggest that the building had grown in stages, splays open toward the living and dining areas. Bridging the gap is a builtin dry bar worthy of its own story. Banks fitted worm-etched faces of a white pine log to form a cabinet front that looks as if the log itself were somehow peeled open. Winkelman knew he had a great builder on this project, but he still can’t quite believe this piece.“What Henry did was just incredible,” he says.“It’s magic.”
Project Credits: Builder: Henry Banks, Denmark, Maine; Architect: Whitten Architects, Portland, Maine; Project size: 200 square feet; Construction cost: Withheld; Photographer: Brian Vanden Brink.
Resources: Cabinets: Kountry Kraft, Circle 190; Countertops and sink: Fireslate, Circle 191; Dishwasher: Bosch, Circle 192; Fittings: Chicago Faucets, Circle 193; Lighting: Cooper Lighting, Circle 194; Prep bowl: Blanco America, Circle 195; Range: Viking Range, Circle 196; Range hood: Garland, Circle 197; Refrigerator: Sub-Zero, Circle 198; Windows: Kolbe & Kolbe, Circle 199.
