Legacy Of A Storm
No one would choose this way to renovate their home. But when superstorm Sandy destroyed everything except for a coffee table, a family got a chance for the beach house of their dreams.
Design by Kathryn Cook Interiors
Photography by Vic Wahby
Text by Donna Rolando
Eleven years ago, Superstorm Sandy hit the Shore with a vengeance—and one particular Mantoloking family with particular cruelty. Their house on the beach was torn up so thoroughly that only a coffee table was still usable. There’s no getting back those lost days of beachfront togetherness, but the clan now, finally, has one consolation: A new beach house has risen on the site of Sandy’s wreckage, built to welcome children and grandkids, the more the merrier, while being an epicenter for good times.
For convenience, the dining room’s French doors lead to a screened porch.
Destructive as she was, Sandy also presented an opportunity to improve upon what had been a modest, Cape-style house. “They used to have a house at the beach; now they have a beach house,” says Kathryn Cook, the homeowner’s designer from the eponymous Essex Fells firm, who notes that the house in its earlier incarnation “was not as open and light and airy as this one.”
Quartzite and white tile give the kitchen simple elegance.
Besides the open floor plan the redesign maximized, the new classic shingle-style home abounds in supersized tables, both inside and out, offers five bedrooms and provides generous reclining spaces for multiple generations of the extended family that vacations there.
Stripes prove a powerful way to spice up a traditional living room.
“Our family has been coming to Mantoloking for three decades,” says the owner’s granddaughter. She describes the home as “an important gathering place for our family to make memories. From building sandcastles to playing Foursquare on the street and making big splashes in the pool, this home has been the site of many happy memories for our family.”
The reimagined beach house, following the owner’s tastes with a light traditional vibe, welcomes the seaside into the design, but not in a kitschy way. Instead, Cook used a color palette derived from beach, bay, sea and sky with “lots of pops of blue,” a bright accent that continues even outside to the screened porch gathering area. The new layout amplifies sunlight, while the natural walnut flooring and contrasting white walls deliver unity throughout.
“She wanted all white interiors,” Cook says—indeed, tranquility was mastered by Benjamin Moore’s White Dove. “There’s no wall color in any of the rooms.” Architectural features such as archways add to the home’s character.
This wood table joins the bay window to create a cozy niche.
As soon as guests walk through the door, they find their sense of style anticipation mounting as they catch sight of a showstopper: a one-of-a-kind shell chandelier visible in the dining room. Big enough for the entire gang—and expandable, the vintage fruitwood table by Baker Furniture piques interest with its birdcage bottom. Ditto for the hint of bamboo in the chairs, which contribute coral cushions to tie in with the custom rug. “We wanted to keep the chairs low so you could see all the way through to the backyard,” says the designer.
Just beyond the arched, built-in serving buffet in the dining room is a tranquil neutral kitchen with Shaker-style cabinets trimmed in Benjamin Moore’s Silver Chain gray and teamed up with a white subway tile backsplash. Natural quartzite countertops extend the gray-and-white palette to a full island, but family also can spill over to a wooden, oval-shaped kitchen table nestled against the custom Kravet-fabric-trimmed bay window. Globe pendants by Visual Comfort deliver a classic touch.
Blue brightens the décor on a teak-wood porch table.
No problem if all the extended family gathers on one day. The screened porch is designed to handle even more troops with its Pottery Barn teak sectional, fully equipped with Sunbrella indoor-outdoor upholstery and looking smart in a white-trimmed navy over a water-resistant sisal rug. Keeping the teak motif is another dining table by Garden Cottage with a bench and navy-upholstered chairs.
“Navy has a very crisp look,” Cook says, pointing out that it harmonizes with the interior blue but has its own individuality. Noting that the pool area has yet another table, she says: “We wanted to make the flow as easy as possible and provide enough areas for different people—or different generations—to sit and relax.”
A navy porch sectional keeps the color crisp.
In the living room, where that salvaged, glass-topped coffee table sits proudly as the lone Sandy survivor, heron paintings over a whitewash-wood console give a tasteful ocean nod while the couch in “super-popular” cotton stripes engages joyfully with a zigzag-patterned parson chair. “We wanted to play up the geometry of the (wool) rug with the zigzag of the reupholstery,” Cook explains. Completing the look are brass accents as well as simple glass lamps and window treatments.
Since Sandy’s rampage left only a staircase and partial roof standing, this reconstruction project designed by architect John Lederer of Bay Head had drama in its DNA. Yet he and Cook succeeded in restoring family togetherness in a way that all generations appreciate.
Says the homeowner’s granddaughter of her beach home: “After Hurricane Sandy and the rebuild, we treasure it even more.”
