Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/380056
201 Hourihan recalls listening carefully to the family's wishes and then work- ing together to maintain a consistent interior palette, using color judiciously in the neutral environment. Area carpets over the bamboo flooring add texture and vivid color. Vintage leather chairs from Andrew Spindler Antiques in Essex anchor one of two seating areas in the living room; in the other area, a pair of chairs placed by the masonry fi eplace adds a leafy splash of teal blue. Between the kitchen and dining room, strings of chain mail hanging from a metal track create a delightful diaphanous curtain to separate the spaces. Hourihan still has an emotional tie to the project. As she says fondly of the owners, "They ended up do- ing so much and loving it so much." MacNeille revels in the region's archi- tecture, whether it's updating a 1960s cot- tage or restoring an early-1900s Peabody and Stearns–designed carriage barn (for which his firm won a prestigious Bulfinc Award, given annually by the New Eng- land chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art). After a childhood spent in a 1718 house in Connecticut, at age 20 he took a summer job painting properties for Historic New England (for- merly the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities) in Boston. The passion has buoyed the span of his career. "As a kid I was steeped in this stuff," Mac- Neille says. "I never looked back." While the project had its challenges, the owners and the design team embraced it P L A N S 1. Dining Room 2. Guest Bedroom 3. Kitchen 4. Bathroom 5. Master Bedroom 6. Living Room 7. Guest Bedroom 1 2 3 5 6 7 4 Floor plan illustration by Pip Hurn as a way not to reinvent, but to reimagine, the 1960s. "Obviously, we have a lot more resources today," notes MacNeille. "We looked at the '60s with a diff rent eye, try- ing to keep the aesthetic and excitement of it, but still have a rigorous design." He couldn't be more pleased to see the family enjoying the cottage. "It was a shell of its former self—we brought it back." ● n