When this sweet A-frame chalet popped up on my screen this week, I immediately stopped what I was doing to scroll through the listing and take a few moments to daydream about how nice it would be to curl up in front of the wood stove, cook a meal in the kitchen, or visit with friends around the fire pit. My life is hectic, so when I mentally escape, it’s to the quiet and nature…but comfortable nature, with couches and running water.

Located 90 minutes from both Concord and North Conway, this 1970 New Hampshire chalet has been stylishly updated, making it an ideal vacation home or rental (meaning I will have to keep dreaming for now), but it’s always fun to look! See if it makes you feel equally cozy.

A Cozy Updated New Hampshire Chalet in the Mountain Lakes District

What do you think of this New Hampshire chalet? See more of our favorite New England real estate spotlights!

Editorial Note: Yankee editors like to mosey around and see, out of sheer curiosity, what turns up when you go house hunting online. We have no stake in the sale whatsoever and would decline it if offered.

Home Details

Price: $379,000 • 1,632 Square Feet:  • Acres: 1.35 • Beds: 3  • Baths: 2
(Brie Stephens, Compass Real Estate, 603-819-8071)

The post House For Sale | A Cozy Updated New Hampshire Chalet in the Mountain Lakes District appeared first on New England.

In the heart of Nantucket, where coastal breezes carry centuries of tradition, a unique design legacy took root. Founded in 1968 by Andy Oates and Bill Euler, Nantucket Looms began as a humble weaving studio and has since grown into a beloved destination for handwoven textiles, distinctive home furnishings, and refined interior design. With its signature blend of timeless charm and seaside sophistication, the brand has long been admired by tastemakers like Jackie Kennedy Onassis and interior designer Billy Baldwin.

In Nantucket Looms: A Legacy of Style, their new book with author Linda Jane Holden, the island institution invites readers on a visual and narrative journey through its rich design heritage. From artisanal craftsmanship to the influence of maritime culture, the book showcases how this iconic studio has helped shape some of Nantucket’s most beautiful interiors. Featuring stunning photography by Matt Kisiday, it’s an inspiring celebration of classic design, natural materials, and the quiet elegance of island living.

Here’s a glimpse inside OutbACK, one of our favorite homes featured in Nantucket Looms: A Legacy of Style.

A Featured Cottage from Nantucket Looms: A Legacy of Style

Tucked away behind a tall privet hedge at the edge of town, OutbACK—a modern take on the classic Nantucket cottage—offers a serene, year-round retreat designed by Nantucket Looms Interior Design Studio. Built in 2021, the guesthouse blends timeless coastal style with handcrafted details, from soft organic textures and layered linens to natural wood accents and an airy, open-concept layout perfect for entertaining. With its cozy porch, stone terrace, and signature outdoor shower, it’s a gathering place for family and friends during island celebrations—from Daffodil Weekend to the Nantucket Christmas Stroll—and a true reflection of relaxed island living.

Is this your dream Nantucket Cottage?

Pick up Nantucket Looms: A Legacy of Style for even more island inspiration!

See More:

Watch! Meet the Women Behind Nantucket Looms on Nantucket Island
Nantucket Looms Is Weaving a World of Their Own

The post Coastal Charm Behind the Hedge: A Featured Cottage from “Nantucket Looms: A Legacy of Style” appeared first on New England.

Sponsored by Country Carpenters.

To understand the allure of colonial New England, you can begin by taking a look at the work of Country Carpenters, whose handcrafted home and barn kits are inspired by the timeless architectural styles at the heart of this region’s identity. Founded in 1974, the family-owned Connecticut company offers everything from saltbox sheds to bigger designs — traditional structures that clients often put to innovative use. Here, Chief Operating Officer Josiah Loye shares more of the Country Carpenters story. 

Q: Country Carpenters is celebrating its 50th year. How did it begin, and how has it grown?

A: Our founder, Roger Barrett Sr., had a strong love for post and beam barns. With his son, Roger Jr., he started disassembling old tobacco barns and reusing the timbers to build post and beam homes. Inevitably, the owners would want a small garage or barn, too, so the business evolved to the point where we put our focus on those outbuildings. In 2006, we went back to the roots of our business and started offering reproduction 18th-century-style homes. This year, to distinguish the two sides of the business, we created Post and Beam Barns to join Early New England Homes, two distinct companies under the Country Carpenters umbrella.  

Q: What do you see as the special appeal of historic New England architecture?

A: It’s really part of the heritage of America as a whole. Many of the first Europeans to come here were boatbuilders, and they took their skills and transferred them to actually building the barns we have here today. They launched a new art form — an American art form. Today, we have a lot of New England clients, of course, but we also ship around the country and other parts of the world. We’ve sent kits to Canada, Ireland, England, and all the way to Australia.

Q: Why is handcrafting such an important part of the Country Carpenters process?

A: Representing New England style goes beyond design. When you buy a building from us, you’re getting a unique piece of art. When people see our buildings, they can really sense that. You’re not just getting some mass-produced product — you’re getting something that’s beautiful and well made, and will stand the test of time.

Q: After a barn or home kit is shipped to the client, how is it constructed?

A: Many people hire builders to do this, but we make it simple enough that many homeowners with minimal construction experience have put up their own buildings, especially the smaller ones like our cabins and one-story barns. Some people are inspired to get truly ambitious. One client who I don’t think had any construction experience built one of our largest two-story barns: He just called in his friends, offered them beer and pizza, and made it a party.  

The whole idea of the “barn raising” is a tradition we want to keep alive. If it’s requested, we’ll send out a crew and actually get the clients involved. They can invite their neighbors, and we’ll hand them a mallet and put them to work. You should see the joy and the smiles on everyone’s faces. People love how the work brings them all together. For the clients, they’re not just putting up a garage or a barn to store their stuff or cars. They have a building that’s actually a part of history.

Q: How are Country Carpenters’ clients using barn spaces these days?

A: We have a lot of car collectors among our clients. People have built breweries out of our barns, or used them as wedding venues. We had one client put a golf simulator in his barn; others put in a climbing wall for their kids. Then there’s the whole barn home, which has really taken off the last few years. “Barn-dominiums” — they’re a real thing.

Q: Along the same lines, how has Country Carpenters helped push the whole “tiny house” movement forward?

A: We have a model called the Country Cabin, which was created in 2011. The idea for it actually came from one of our employees who had land in Vermont that he wanted to put a small building on. Today it’s one of our most popular structures. It can be a tiny home or an art studio — it offers a lot of versatility.

Q: What kinds of opportunities do you see for Country Carpenters in the years ahead?

A: There are a lot more millennials who are looking to purchase our barns, which we haven’t seen before — that’s exciting. In general, more and more people are wanting to learn how to build things. YouTube has really accelerated that, and so we’re working on making how-to videos that accompany each product. The way we see it, if people can feel personally a part of what it is we’re building for them, they’ll love our buildings even more.    

Save the Date! 

Country Carpenters hosts its annual Hebron Colonial Day celebration on Sept. 21 at its headquarters in Hebron, Connecticut. Visitors can see the working life of 1750s New England, including blacksmithing and textile work demonstrations, while also getting an up-close look at some of the company’s signature building designs. countrycarpenters.com/colonial-day

The post Country Carpenters: 50 Years of Classic New England Style appeared first on New England.

The house stands alone, in the center of a clearing: a simple white structure with dark window eyes, open to the sunny glade. Behind, a mossy rock face, several feet high, creates nature’s own version of a stone wall, and the woods fan out for miles. The steep roof rises like prayer hands. Birdsong drops all around.

“I had this vision for so long about how I wanted this house to look,” says Britt Witt. “All the white, very reminiscent of the white steepled churches all over Vermont. We thought about it for what felt like years.”

The last time I saw Britt and her husband, Matt, was seven years ago, when they were ensconced in an expansive brick studio in Burlington, Vermont, making ruggedly beautiful waxed canvas bags under the name Red House. Since then, the former Arizonans have weathered Covid; cleared the land they bought in 2016 on this precipitous ridge in Weybridge, Vermont; built their elegant, spare home on 23 acres; and finally moved in full-time, in 2022. They’ve also (just) sold their namesake “Red House,” in Shelburne, where they raised their kids, half an hour north of here.

“This is the Vermont we longed for when we moved here,” says Matt. “We were always looking and pricing, but it was insanely expensive—totally out of our grasp. So we ended up in a little house in Shelburne Village, which worked out great, with the kids walking across the street to the school.”

When they expanded their search beyond Chittenden County, this was the first property they looked at: affordable, nothing but dense woods, with a treacherous driveway winding skyward, and a sharp, lunging turn they dubbed Dead Man’s Curve near the top. They eventually bought three of the five lots, and “dreamt on it, for four years,” says Matt. “We would come up here and have little gatherings with friends and set tables in the middle of the woods.” Britt points past the double glass doors, leading from the kitchen. “We homed in on that mossy rock wall. It was like Lord of the Rings, like Shire country.”

With a tight budget, they began talking to builders, getting quotes. “We drew this building on a piece of computer paper,” says Britt. “There was no architect. We had this vision of what we wanted. Then Matt called me one day, and he’s like, ‘Britt, I don’t think it’s going to work.’ The quotes weren’t in our budget, or if they were, they didn’t include electrical. Or a roof.”

And then, they found their guy; met him in Middlebury, over bagels and coffee. “We were sitting there,” Britt remembers, “and I asked, ‘So is the roof included?’ Yes, it’s turnkey. ‘Can we do marble counters?’ Yeah, no problem. ‘Cabinets?’ Turnkey. ‘Toilet?’ Yes, guys, it’s turnkey. And it’s like, yes, yes, yes.”

Their budget helped keep the design simple. Two or three interior walls. No closets. “It keeps you honest in what you possess,” Matt says. “Everything has to have a place or a function. If it doesn’t, it’s not necessary.”

For inspiration, they drove around, literally. “Britt wanted to create this great room to mirror all of the churches we were driving by. Three to four windows on each side, big double doors. And she’s like—let’s make our church out in the woods.”

So how exactly did they design a great room? They found houses that inspired them. They had to learn what a pitch was. “We just picked one and held our breath,” Britt laughs. “We had no idea what we were doing. But that’s never stopped us before.” The ceilings are nine feet high in the kitchen; 22 to the peak in the living room. They settled on six lights for the Marvin casement windows, but agonized over whether it should be 12. Or two. They studied other people’s windows, roof pitches. And hand-flagged the boundary of their future home in the woods, tracking the sun, figuring out where the front of the house would go.

They broke ground on June 1, 2019. The house was “done” by November. Hundreds of details were decided in those months. And that, they emphasize, is the crux of everything.

“We decided to be really intentional with the fixtures, with the finishes, with the trim and the molding, and the doors we picked out. To take this simple space and just give it an energy that almost doesn’t belong,” Matt recalls.

“It’s the details that make all the difference,” Britt says. But nothing was more important than the gooseneck sink fixture, its brass now aged, sitting proudly at the center of the kitchen island. It was the first thing the couple bought, before they even broke ground. The whole house is built around it.

Britt’s dad lives in England, and that’s where she first learned about DeVOL Kitchens, makers of gorgeous bespoke kitchens. The bathroom lights are also from DeVOL, but it’s this specific DeVOL faucet that sets the entire tone for a simple, elegant workspace, with a decidedly Shaker feel.

The kitchen floor is just as intentional. “I wanted something that looked like you brought in stones from outside, and that’s your floor,” Britt says. “Old, old English. I found a piece of quartzite, and knew this was it. When you’re building new, you need to have character. That’s why we did unlacquered brass on the kitchen faucet. The marble countertop gets a patina, too, and with the floor sometimes pieces chip off.”

Matt sees a connection to their Red House waxed canvas bags. “They age, too. A handbag that’s five years old looks totally different from when it was new. All this stuff as well. That was a shiny faucet; now it has character on it.”

Other details? The bathtub taps on a sprawling tub are from Waterworks, inspired by the Marlton Hotel in New York City, where they once stayed. And someday there will be an indoor shower, but meantime Matt has installed and hardscaped an outdoor hot/cold shower. “Shower season” runs May to November.

“It’s exactly what we wanted when we first came here,” Matt says softly, looking around the glowing space. It’s easy to imagine the seasons moving past these windows in a kaleidoscope of colors and images. Deer and birds. Foliage and snow. Light and more light.

They’ve planted fruit trees and blueberry bushes, built raised garden boxes. “We want to stand in the old ways,” says Matt. Then he grins. “We’re going backward. We’re not going into the future, into the meta. We’re standing in the old ways. Our end goal—we jokingly say—is that we want our whole life to become projects and chores, all the time.”

Last winter, Britt says, she gave up artificial light at night. “We had candles and oil lamps all winter.” Matt muses, finishing the thought: “It’s like we have 150-year-old people inside of us, trying to get out.” 

The post Home Tour | How One Couple Built Their Dream Modern Vermont Escape appeared first on New England.

Sometimes people belong to a place so deeply, they can’t imagine being anywhere else. Maybe it’s land where generations of their ancestors put down roots, or maybe it’s somewhere they’ve spent their whole lives searching for—either way, explaining exactly what that place means to them can prove elusive.

A few years ago, three women who shared a deep love of Maine and boundless creativity set out to show in words and photographs how the homes we choose not only reflect who we are, but also tell the story of a place that, to us, is unlike any other. Maura McEvoy, Basha Burwell, and Kathleen Hackett traveled the state’s back roads and waterways to produce The Maine House, which they said was inspired by “our desire to record the Maine of our childhoods, a Maine that is swiftly vanishing.” Offering an intimacy not unlike that of looking through the family album of someone you have just met, the book struck a chord with readers around the world.

This year, its sequel, The Maine House II (Vendome 2024), continues the trio’s quest. They drove thousands of miles, rowed or were ferried by fishermen, knocked on countless doors, and made new friends, all in pursuit of the question: What makes a house a Maine house? And beyond that, they wanted to show the indefinable qualities that—to paraphrase Burwell describing her own cottage—make a home our ballast, anchor, and compass.

In putting together their sequel to The Maine House, the authors looked for properties that have been preserved, restored, and sensitively expanded to show how vital it is “to rescue Maine’s quirky architectural history if we are going to preserve its singular nature, one that goes hand in hand with reverence for the land.” Fittingly, the home profiles are arranged by what type of land they occupy: inshore, inland, and island.

Inshore: The Falls at Crockett Cove

Nestled into evergreens on the rocky shore of Maine’s Deer Isle, the Falls at Crockett Cove is among a handful of cottages that survive from the nearly 50 that were designed or renovated in this area by Emily Muir, a self-taught architect and modernist pioneer. Built in 1968, the property has been restored and updated, but current owners Carolyn and Ray Evans have taken pains to honor Muir’s vision: painting cabinets in original colors, matching new flooring to the old. “What was important to her is now important to me,” Carolyn tells the authors.

Inland: Panther Pond

The Maine tradition of rustic family cabins known as summer camps lives on at Panther Pond, a birch-accented structure that reposes on its namesake lake in the state’s southern interior. It was built in 1907 by Robert Treat Whitehouse, whose wife, Florence Brooks Whitehouse, was a noted author, artist, and suffragist. Florence’s great-granddaughter, Anne Gass, is among the group of siblings who are now the property’s caretakers, and when she’s at the camp, Anne often thinks of the women who came before her: folding towels on the bed just as she does now, or turning the kids loose to spend all day in the woods.

And as with previous generations, Anne and her siblings often invite guests here. But whether newcomers are asked back depends on the amount of pioneer spirit they bring to staying in a 117-year-old lodge, where a chipmunk might hop onto your bed. Wildlife is a fact of life here, as is the rough-hewn decor that’s so old that Anne doesn’t even know where it came from. “What she does maintain, however,” the authors write, “is that it will never change.”

Island: The Lighthouse

“There is beauty and dignity in leaving things as they are,” the authors write. “And, perhaps, nowhere is that more compelling than in the lighthouse where Jamie Wyeth lives through all four seasons.” That lighthouse—Tenants Harbor Light, built in 1857 on an island in southwestern Penobscot Bay—was bought in 1978 by Jamie’s father, famed artist Andrew Wyeth, himself the son of another art legend, N.C. Wyeth. Jamie carries on the family legacy as a distinguished painter in his own right, although in making this lighthouse his home, he knew he would be living and working in a place that was among his father’s favorite subjects.

“My father pretty much painted it all,” Jamie says, adding jokingly, “I thought maybe I’d paint the bugs.” But instead he found endless inspiration in the island, the water, and especially the gulls that are his constant companions. “I could live four lifetimes and not scratch the surface of what this place offers up to me every day.”

The post Scenes from “The Maine House II”: Inshore, Inland, and Island Cottages appeared first on New England.

People might buy a house for its immaculate kitchen or sprawling green yard, but Doug and Cory Kallfelz bought theirs for its imperfect hardwood floors. The rustic fir boards inside the former 1890s one-room schoolhouse show scars from scraping chairs and desks and pounding little feet; those same distressed planks would later withstand being thumped and thrashed with toy trucks by the couple’s two young boys (now teenagers, with one in college). The floors tell the story of an evolving family in the house that they built on the corner of two streets, Bridge and Hall, in the maritime village of Warren, Rhode Island.

“These were the original floors when we pulled up the shaggy green carpet,” Doug says. “They have all these little patches and spaces where they’ve been infilled, by us or before us, and the planks and old handcrafted nails periodically pop out of the floor, and we whack them back in.”

Only three things from the original schoolhouse remain: the well-loved floors, the refurbished front door (sandblasted with the number 22 for their address and painted bright red), and a rectangular transom above the back porch door. Doug and Cory salvaged a few weathered planks and beams from the original structure—an 800-square-foot, one-story Greek Revival—which they’ve incorporated into their three-story, townhouse-style renovation and separate garage space to give it the classic look of a crisp Nantucket cottage. They added cedar shingles on the outside, which only look better with age as they fade to a silver-gray that provides an elegantly muted counterpoint to the blue sky and vivid violet hydrangeas.

The couple met while they were both studying architecture at Syracuse University. They moved to Rhode Island in 2002 and first settled into an apartment on the East Side of Providence while working as architects for Union Studio, a sustainable-design firm where Doug now is managing partner. They bought the Warren fixer-upper in 2004, when they were expecting their first child, Otto.

“We wanted a project, and we got one,” Cory says. “This location is particularly appealing, because it’s walkable to downtown and the water, and the bike path is a stone’s throw away.” The home is surrounded by their neighbors’ Victorian cottages, many of which Cory and Doug helped renovate.

“The base things were right: the site and location, the neighborhood,” Cory says, adding, “There was a slew of us who had babies at the same time. Some of those external things you can’t measure or design for, but they happen to influence why we’re going to stay and make these changes to evolve the house.”

After they had moved in and Otto was born, Cory eventually left Union Studio to create her own residential-design firm based at their home. Bridge Hall Design is named after the two streets that intersect at their nest. As they settled, they began nearly 20 years of transformations that would document the metamorphosis of their abode to suit their family’s needs.  

Like the floors, their family table tells a tale. They built the dining room around the dimensions of the rectangular wooden Scandinavian-style table sourced in Vermont. It was the first thing they bought as newlyweds living in the East Side apartment, and bringing it with them was mandatory. It became the centerpiece of raising their children.

“This had to be a workhorse space,” Cory says. “It still has remnants from art projects and the grime of small children.” They attempted to replace it with an upgraded table, but their younger son, Max, said it just wasn’t right, and the old table should stay. So it remains.

As well it should, since the midcentury-modern Thonet canework chairs surrounding the table also tell a story that might suit Martha Stewart. Cory discovered and purchased the set of 10 vintage oak chairs on eBay; they were then transported from the Enron boardroom in Houston, Texas, by a Greyhound bus to the bus depot in Providence. “They were in the hold where the luggage goes,” Cory says with a laugh. “Some of them still have an Enron bar code.”

It’s often a topic of dinner party discussion around their table, which dominates the space adjacent to the kitchen. Separating the dining area from the living room are twin white columns accented by crown molding at the ceiling. The home itself is a 20-by-40-foot column.

“It’s not hard to be cozy when the footprint is as small as this,” Doug says. “It’s one of the great assets of this house—just by virtue of the size of it, it’s inherently cozy.”

Changes they’ve made to the kitchen, dining room, and living room include heightening the first floor to accommodate 9-foot-6 ceilings, adding colonial-style trim to windows and walls, and constructing built-in shelves to store wine, books, photos, and keepsakes. They use every inch of a tight footprint. “We think of this home as the inside of a sailboat. You’re knitting things into corners and finding ways to make it as livable and useful as possible,” Doug says, “so that the space can live large.”

The sailboat theme extends past the second floor—with its large bedroom, guest bedroom, and home office—to the third floor, the former attic, which is now a small apartment for their sons. The stair railing is created from boat hardware, and Rhode Island landmarks are featured in the decor, including a sign for Newport’s Hammetts Wharf, which Doug designed with Union Studio. Hanging wall pieces pay tribute to local institutions such as Del’s Lemonade, Benny’s, and Apex (another site Doug is currently working on).

At the foot of the window-lined staircase is a school of bronze-cast fish, protruding from the wall, swimming in a pool of natural light. Several were brought back from the couple’s honeymoon in Greece, and Doug’s parents added to their collection after vacationing there. “We designed this spot for the light to hit, and you appreciate it every time you come down the stairs,” Cory says.

The new back porch provides a spot for winding down. “In the summertime, we have a couch out there, and it’s protected and private, and enclosed,” Doug says. “It’s a wonderful place to sit and hang out with people. Even just the two of us on a summer day.”

The family is satisfied with all the work, even though it took nearly two decades to complete. “If we had done this all at one time, then it wouldn’t be what we have today,” Doug says. “It’s because of how life unfolded—the fact that we did this incrementally, over 15, 20 years—we lived with it long enough to know what we really wanted, and the choices we made over time added up to something more than the sum of its parts.”  

The post Home Tour: A Renovated 1890s Nantucket-Style Cottage in Warren, Rhode Island appeared first on New England.

If you’ve ever dreamed of owning one of New England’s most iconic homes, here’s your chance. One of the newest additions to Maine’s real estate market is the famous “Wedding Cake House” of Kennebunk, Maine. Steeped in history and elegance, this 2.23 acre property sits on the banks of the Kennebunk river and boasts over 300 feet of water frontage as well as a sprawling 5-bedroom home. Next door, a barn and carriage house offer additional entertaining space plus a bonus 2 bedroom apartment and kitchen.

The home was built in 1825 and retains countless unique historic details, from the sweeping custom mural in the front foyer to the ornate, frosting-like exterior trim. According to its current website, the trim was added starting in 1952 following a fire which destroyed the original barn, and the property’s name was born soon after when a local business man dubbed the house “The Wedding Cake House” for a postcard collection of numerous Kennebunk homes. Since then, the home has undergone many significant restorations to restore and maintain all of its former glory, and has been both a private home as well as an inn. Take a look inside!

Is this your dream Maine home? See more of our favorite New England real estate spotlights!

Home Details

Price: $2,650,000 • Square Feet: 6,263 • Acres: 2.23 • Bedrooms: 8 • Bathrooms: 5 full, 2 half
(Nathan McCabe, Pack Maynard and Associates, 207-967-3883)

The post House For Sale: The Wedding Cake House in Kennebunk, Maine appeared first on New England.

Sponsored by The Barn Yard.

Take a look around The Barn Yard’s showcase locations in Ellington and Bethel, Connecticut, or click through the stunning project photos on its website, and it’s clear this family business has come a long way. When it was launched by Everett Skinner III and his father, Bill, in 1984, they were selling simple, sturdy sheds. Fast-forward 40 years, and The Barn Yard is now a leading timber frame builder whose own designs grace properties across the country and as far away as Europe.

The company is led today by Everett’s two sons: Everett IV, who serves as president, and Chris, vice president. Growing up, the brothers learned every part of the business. In high school they worked on construction crews and delivered sheds, and even picked weeds around the company’s yard. They also absorbed a philosophy that has stuck with them, Chris says. “My father and grandfather taught my brother and me a long time ago that if you work hard at what you’re doing and build something right, you’ll always be successful.”

The brothers would eventually take their places in the company, bringing a wealth of knowledge and some fresh ideas with them—including expanding into timber frame construction. Up to that point, The Barn Yard had built a number of conventionally framed barns, but timber framing would mark a big leap into the past and the future, simultaneously.

Harking back to New England’s early days, timber frame construction relies on wooden joints and fasteners, rather than metal ones, to hold the structure’s beams together. Around New England, Chris notes, people tend to think of this as “post and beam” construction, though that style doesn’t necessarily have the wood joinery that is the hallmark of timber frame craftsmanship.

“We take tradition very seriously,” he says. “We want our clients to experience a structure that is constructed in a way it would’ve been 200 years ago. We like all wood-to-wood connections; we like exposed oak pegs. We like the traditional joinery—the mortise and tenon, the half-laps, the dovetails, the scarf joints. We try to incorporate all that into our standard buildings because, honestly, it’s what our clients deserve.”

But cutting all the timbers and joints the old-fashioned way—by hand—would be a staggering time expenditure. “With a business model like ours, it’s not about building one or two barns a year. It’s about crafting more than 250 barns a year,” Chris says. “So the only way to get to that scale is to invest in technology and capacity.”

And that’s where The Barn Yard’s cutting edge lies. It uses Italian-made CNC machines (CNC is shorthand for “computerized numerical control”) to precisely cut the building components. This advanced technology not only makes short work of cutting wood, but it also helps enable The Barn Yard to embed steel within some of its wooden structures to support, say, an unusually big open span. The company pairs its innovative production with modern design features, such as CAD (“computer-assisted design”) software that lets The Barn Yard’s engineers and designers bring a client’s vision to life.

All of this powers The Barn Yard’s core series of customizable timber frame barn kits that range from the classic New England carriage barn to the rugged-but-handsome gambrel barn of the western U.S. It’s been a popular product line from the start, though Chris says they’ve seen some differences in how clients are using their barns—especially in terms of rethinking them as spaces to live and play.

“There was a period maybe 10 or 12 years ago where it seemed like everyone was having a barn wedding. People would go to a venue and be in a beautiful barn, and say, ‘Wow, this is fantastic—I’d like to have a space like this at my home!’” he notes. “And overall, I get the sense that the typical American in the past 25 years has just felt like they want a little more luxury in their life.”

Some clients are having their timber frame barns designed for storage but also leaving room for cozy touches like sitting areas, TVs, and fireplaces. Others are going full-out for the “party barn,” purpose-built for entertaining and recreation; it’s a relatively new offering at The Barn Yard, but the examples so far are stunning.

Take the Bald Hill Barn, a 3,600-square-foot custom project in the monitor barn style. It was built to hold all kinds of amenities—full bar, gas fireplace, bathroom, LED chandeliers, walk-in cooler, radiant-heat flooring—but for Chris, what makes it special is the variety of materials The Barn Yard was able to work into the design. The exterior siding incorporates old corral boards from Idaho; the interior features reclaimed barn wood from New England and the mid-Atlantic (some boards are so old they still have 18th- or 19th-century carpenter’s marks on them). There’s stonework, copper gutters, twisted steel railings—“a combination of textures that I feel makes it really impressive,” Chris says.

Another spotlight custom project is the Bradway Barn. In a testament to The Barn Yard’s design versatility, the attached three-car garage is a classic New England carriage barn, but the main entertainment space evokes the tall, narrow tobacco barns that were once common in Connecticut. The wide-open interior was made possible by precision-cutting massive Douglas fir timbers to form two arched supports called sling brace trusses. “You wouldn’t have had something like a sling brace a hundred years ago,” Chris says. “So we were taking the shell of what you would have seen historically and introducing some new design elements on the inside. It really made for a stunning building.”

Modern and traditional elements work together throughout the Bradway Barn. A classic cupola brings natural light into the interior, but so do state-of-the-art sliding glass doors by NanaWall. The warm, rustic look of reclaimed barn board is paired with white shiplap walls and an eye-catching accent wall made of Pennsylvania fieldstone. A gallery-style loft provides a unique recreation and relaxation area, not to mention a terrific vantage point for seeing the whole grand space at once.

Custom party barns aren’t the only new way The Barn Yard is putting its timber frame expertise to use. The company has developed a line of outdoor pavilion kits that fit right into people’s embrace of outdoor living, post-covid. Open on all sides, they can be a poolside shelter or a cooking and entertaining space or, really, whatever a client can dream up. There’s a new series of tidy little cabins, with names like Yellowstone and Allagash that give them a heritage feel. Need more space? The Barn Yard has, yes, actual two-story barn home kits ranging from about 1,500 square feet to nearly 3,000.

It’s a broad catalog of offerings that is matched, Chris says, by The Barn Yard’s expanded sales territory. “For 25 years, we were just a New England company—you wouldn’t see our products in Kentucky or Florida, for instance. But because of the CNC machine-cut joinery, every week we’re shipping products that we crafted in our shop to California or Hawaii or the Bahamas. We can send an entire barn frame kit across the country and the client can put it together with their local contractor, because everything is so simple and cut so precisely.”

Of course, if you live in New England, you have the option of booking The Barn Yard’s own expert building team to construct your barn, garage, or pavilion. It can be an awesome sight, and one that reveals the beauty of timber frame construction inside as well as out. “One of the most impressive things for the client is that literally the second day we’re on their site, we’ve got the whole timber frame up,” Chris says. “It’s just the naked frame, but people always say to us, ‘Wow, that looks amazing. I almost wish it could just stay like that!’”

To see more of The Barn Yard’s timber frame kits and custom projects, and to learn more about its mission to build quality while providing an unmatched customer experience and preserving the values it was founded on in 1984, visit the company website at BarnYard.com

The post Building the Dream at The Barn Yard appeared first on New England.

When my husband and I were first house hunting, our dream was to find a 1920’s craftsman bungalow with a snug fireplace, original woodwork, and a roomy front porch. We ended up buying a sweet cape that we love, but I still find myself clicking on every bungalow I see when scrolling online real estate sites There’s just something about their cozy, suburban, pre-war charm that says “home” to me. This 1920 bungalow in Scituate, Rhode Island, was recently renovated from top to bottom, while retaining a few key elements of its original charm. Located a half-hour west of Providence, it’s sure to become another family home in no time. I hope it gets to make another hundred years of memories. Have a look and see if it looks like home to you!

What do you think of this Rhode Island bungalow reno? See more of our favorite New England real estate spotlights!

Editorial Note: Yankee editors like to mosey around and see, out of sheer curiosity, what turns up when you go house hunting online. We have no stake in the sale whatsoever and would decline it if offered.

Home Details

Price: $449,900 • 1,368 Square Feet:  • Acres: .69 • Beds: 3  • Baths: 2
(Gregory Coupe, Long Realty, Inc., 401-447-7048)

The post House For Sale: An Updated 1920 Rhode Island Bungalow appeared first on New England.

Newport, Rhode Island, is a small city with massive appeal for home buyers. It boasts impeccably preserved Gilded Age mansions, a legendary sailing scene, museums of every stripe, and lively shopping and dining — not to mention its famous namesake folk and jazz festivals. I recently came across a meticulously renovated home in one of Newport’s most sought-after historic neighborhoods that stopped me in my tracks. Thanks to the efforts of Doris Duke and The Newport Restoration Foundation, which saved some 50+ historic homes from demolition in the 1960’s, the Point neighborhood boasts the largest collection of colonial-era homes in the United States. Strolling the neighborhood today feels like stepping back in time, and the nearby views of the Newport Pell Bridge aren’t bad either. Have a look and see if you’re equally smitten with his historic Newport gem.

Is this your dream historic Newport home? See more of our favorite New England real estate spotlights!

Home Details

Price: $1,275,000 • Square Feet: 1,188 • Acres: 1,929 sqft lot • Beds: 3 • Baths: 1.5
(Robert Sullivan, Edge Realty, 401-783-1007, robertsullivan@edgerealtyri.com)

The post House for Sale: A Renovated 1895 Gem in Newport, Rhode Island’s Point Neighborhood appeared first on New England.

The great thing about the mountain cabin is how perfectly it satisfies all winter travelers, from downhill skiers to cozy loungers. At the end of the day, everyone comes back together to prepare meals, warm up in front of the fire, and watch the snow fall. I recently came across a listing for a sweet little green cabin in the tourist-favorite town of Conway, New Hampshire. It’s a delightful example of a classic winter retreat, updated with an open, modern style. It made me want to pull on an oversized sweater and curl up with a book and a glass of wine. Have a look and see if you’re equally transported!

Is this your dream winter cabin? See more of our favorite New England real estate spotlights!

Home Details

Price: $315,000 • Square Feet: 656 • Acres: .47 • Beds: 2 • Baths: 1
(Michael Whitney, KW Coastal and Lakes & Mountains Realty, 603-610-8545, mjwhitney@kw.com)

The post House for Sale: A 1971 New Hampshire Mountain Cabin appeared first on New England.

Want to bring a cozy cabin vibe into your own living space? We asked Pam and Chris Daniele of Vermont-based Dirt and Glass for their expert cozy-making tips.

1. Lean into lamps. Choose low-wattage lamps for a soft glow. “We are not an overhead-light household,” Pam says with a laugh.

2. Grab a blanket—or three. Achieve that lived-in, well-loved look with throws in mismatched textures: wool, woven, quilted. “Blankets all the way,” Pam says. “Don’t be shy.”

3. Thrift and thrift alike. Weathered books, repurposed wooden crates, antique photos—all are welcome in the Danieles’ home. “They make a place feel so much more personal,” Chris says.

4. Maximize relaxation. Trade your coffee table for soft poufs where guests can put their feet up. Bonus: extra seating.

5. Go green. Live plants do double duty in small spaces: They contribute to cleaner air and they bring nature inside (especially essential in winter). 

6. Let it burn. No fireplace? No problem. Candles add similar natural warmth to a room—Pam prefers the “Cozy” scent from Aura Candles, while Chris opts for a maple tin candle. “It smells like pancakes,” he says.

The post 6 Expert Tips For Achieving a Perfect Cozy Cabin Vibe appeared first on New England.