- Architecture
- Bath Design
- Builder Recognition
- Garden Design
- Interior Design
- Kitchen Design
- Product Design
- Small Spaces
Burr Salvatore Architects
with
Hemingway Fine Homes
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Front_Elevation-copy.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Burr Salvatore Architects
with
Hemingway Fine Homes
Among the appeals of many Connecticut small towns are the streetscapes of unique houses that date back several decades. The empty-nester couple who commissioned this new house from Burr Salvatore Architects wanted their residence to seem as if it had been part of the town for a long time. They envisioned both the outside and the inside appearing to have evolved naturally.
The architects responded to their directives by designing a Regency-style residence more typical of the 1920s. Indeed, from the street, the handsome structure reflects the best tenets of the style, with its repeating rhythm of dormered multi-paned windows, white-painted brick façade, perfect symmetry, and center-placed entry door surrounded by glass sidelights (though here, the door appears to float since the windows form an archway).
The design team even managed to site the house so that a venerable oak tree remained at the center of the front yard. To adhere to a period feel, while establishing fresh, timeless interiors, all casings and baseboards, even the architectural hardware, were custom designed.
Photography by Read McKendree / JBSA
Styling by Katja Greeff
The Rath Project
%20100vw,%20720px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/UM5A7653-Edit_3-copy.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
The Rath Project
Let’s be frank here: When has a water closet ever been a destination to covet? For this complete down-to-the-studs re-do of a primary bath, that particular room-within-a-room is akin to entering a jewel box, with its lacquered aubergine doors, walls lined with an iridescent wallcovering, and the whole of the diminutive space ablaze with soft light from a scalloped brass fixture.
As for the rest of the room, what was once an underutilized space is now a destination in the home that feels glamorous while remaining decidedly functional. One wall now features a floating white-oak vanity, while on an opposite wall an inviting makeup station, equipped with its own lighting source and fluted surfacing, beckons.
The shower and wainscoting sport blush-toned porcelain slabs, while the floor reveals an engaging rhythm of narrow marble slabs in shades of green, rose, ivory, and burgundy. The freestanding tub—positioned to take in views of the property—appears to occupy its own niche, defined by a crystal chandelier and an elegant sweep of draperies.
Photography by Erin Kestenbaum
Hemingway Fine Homes
%20100vw,%20791px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Hemingway-Fine-Homes.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Hemingway Fine Homes
Just because a particular style of a house has existed for generations doesn’t mean that every incarnation of it is simple to execute. Hemingway Fine Homes was commissioned to build this classic Regency-style home—the kind that has existed in tony Connecticut suburbs since the 1920s.
As Peter Sciarretta, Hemingway’s president, notes: “One of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of this project was the octagonal sunroom. The Hemingway team devoted extensive time and precision to ensure that every element of the room was perfectly symmetrical.” The goal was achieved as the decorative ceiling beams converged flawlessly at the center of the room, and the very shape of the room was perfect. Indeed, all of the home’s many symmetrical elements that characterize the Regency style were executed.
The hand-painted brick façade, slate roof, the integrated outdoor living spaces, and highly detailed interiors “reflect an unwavering commitment to precision, artistry and teamwork,” Sciarretta adds.
Photography by Read McKendree/JBSA
Devore Associates
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Devore-Associates-1.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Devore Associates
It’s all literally downhill from the moment you arrive at this property. But it’s that very feature—a downward progression to a series of fragrant and colorful gardens and garden rooms, manicured lawn areas, and an expansive bocce court—that makes this garden design from Devore Associates so extraordinary and exhilarating to experience.
This one-acre property has a grade that drops 55 feet from the roadway to the pond, but there is much to experience along the way down as the property continues to entice and draw visitors. Massings of white hydrangeas soon give way to a colorful cutting garden, followed by water gardens that are planted with lotus, all of which frame a swimming pool.
A kitchen garden is planted on one level, fruit trees are espaliered like artworks against retaining walls, fig trees flank steps leading down the grade, and grapes grow bountifully up posts of pergolas. Vegetables, herbs, and lemon trees make appearances elsewhere. At every level of this garden, built literally into a steep hill, one encounters numerous visual, audible, and scented rewards.
Photography by Anthony Crisafulli
Marmol Radziner
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Marmol-Radziner-3.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Marmol Radziner
Having worked with these clients for decades, the firm of Marmol Radziner knew what the homeowners wanted and what the house itself needed. What was once known in town as Wilshire Farm, this expansive, bucolic property features a main residence whose profile harkens to a French country house but is imbued with American vernacular forms.
In keeping with those cultural and historical references, the firm approached the design of every room in the main residence, the two-story guest cottage, and pool house as a distinct living experience—but with all spaces ultimately feeling connected. They chose a variety of vintage 1950s French furnishings and reupholstered them in contemporary fabrics, while also adding in sculptural modern forms.
Although every room is, at first glance, restrained in what it contains, upon closer look, a far more layered, nuanced design scheme emerges. Details such as custom millworks, a hidden bar lined with de Gournay wallpaper, French oak floors, lime plaster walls, and richly veined expanses of stone combine to create a cohesive and dynamic design. Classical ideas of symmetry and beauty prevail.
Photography by Laure Joliet
Studio Bartolotta
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Studio-Bartolotta-4.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Studio Bartolotta
Here is a kitchen that fully accommodates seemingly disparate needs, balancing rugged materials with tailored detailing. At this sportsman’s country retreat, the kitchen could easily function as a space to prepare game, as well as a destination for cocktails and conversation with friends after a day outdoors.
Like many kitchens of our time, this one serves as both the social and functional heart of the home, but it assumes a wholly original look. Studio Bartolotta fashioned a spacious island clad in a rhythmic fluted white oak and topped it with a vigorously veined Italian marble known as Ceppo di Gré through La Pietra Marble. Stools are upholstered in a rugged cross-ribbon pattern.
Elsewhere in the room is a monolithic wall of marble, interspersed with narrow shelving, a concealed wet bar, and an expanse of cabinetry in a ribbed, dark-stained oak. White oak ceiling beams foster a strong sense of architecture; a handsome blackened steel and brass Workstead pendant echoes the forms.
This is a space designed for a modern-day outdoorsman who enjoys celebrating with friends and family.
Photography by Neil Landino, Jr.
Ocean Master MAX Bolero: Ombré Blossom parasol Tuuci
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Tuuci_Bolero-Ombre-Blossom-02_2_Image_detail_IDA_PRIMARY-1.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Ocean Master MAX Bolero: Ombré Blossom parasol Tuuci
Hand-tufted blossoms cascade down the canopy of Tuuci’s Ocean Master MAX Bolero: Ombré Blossom parasol. Fashioned with performance, outdoor-rated fabrics and Tuuci’s engineering integrity, the parasol is as pretty as it is durable.
Tusk Home + Design
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Tusk-Home-Design-3.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Tusk Home + Design
Not even Santa could have accomplished and delivered what Tusk Home + Design was able to do. With only six weeks til Christmas, the owners of this home called on the designers who had built their residence to finally transform a bonus room into a bunk room. Years back, after the house had been finished, the designers and homeowners knew they wanted to do something with this empty space under the roof, and now they had the idea: Equip it with enough beds to sleep eight, along with a makeup vanity, storage and a hidden TV. Tusk Home admits to calling in favors from trades they had worked with to meet the fast timeline. The builders ensured that each bed had its own set up for lighting and outlets. As an extra daring element, the designers had the builders fashion a bunk that floats in the air, cantilevering over the bed below. “Just as the seasonal snowflakes started to fall,” recalls Tusk Home, “we made the last of the beds and handed the room over to the clients.”
Photograph by Julie Leffell
48-inch Professional Induction Range
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/SZWC_IR_Hype_56471_R_Full_hires_RGB_Revised_2-1.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
48-inch Professional Induction Range
Induction is all the rage these days, and Wolf has changed the game with its new 48-inch Professional Induction Range, boasting two spacious ovens. Go from simmer to sear in seconds with seven induction heat zones, each with a power boost function. The range is also offered in 30- and 36-inch models, with a choice of 10 color combinations of knobs and bezels, plus three door color choices.
Rolfs Elert Office
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/42OFR-00020-HIGHRES-copy.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Rolfs Elert Office
The name alone, Four Winds, sums up the strength and power of this house, as it sits perched atop a secluded hilltop within a breeze’s reach of Long Island Sound. The main house, designed by the famous architect Calvin Kiesling, dates to 1931, when it was built by architect and stone mason Frazier Foreman Peters.
The home featured a building method called “Flagg Masonry Construction,” in which exterior stones are laid vertically against formwork, held in place with sticks, and then backfilled with concrete. During a substantial reconstruction to modernize and expand the original house—adding new steel windows, a new kitchen, conservatory dining area, family room, plus primary and guest suites—Rolfs Elert Office also managed to reveal the texture and character of the original stonework as an interior wall next to a new main stairway.
That stair hall, lit with a natural glow via a skylight, culminates in a dramatic floor-to-ceiling pane of glass that captures views of the landscape. The resulting home meets the needs of a modern-day family, fusing new and old elements in elegant and innovative ways.
Photography by Stefan Radtke
Reese Owens Architect
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/BB_04_east-copy.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Reese Owens Architect
We know by now how barns can make for great homes, but it’s important to remember that they were designed first for cows and hay. When Reese Owens Architects undertook the wholesale transformation of a barn into a living space, they were well cognizant of this basic fact.
For generations, this simple but handsome structure had been a recognizable icon in this part of Litchfield County. The barn and turreted silo were visible from the roadway. The designers were commissioned to reimagine the red barn as an entertaining/recreation destination for the family, whose main residence was situated just yards away.
The first task involved rebuilding the foundation and preserving as much of the original timber frame as possible. An antique barn in Canada was acquired as a source for period materials. The overall process prioritized preserving the original configuration and joinery, while exposing tie-rods as a way to create an open span without visible support posts. Where there were once barn doors are now picture windows. The original profile of the building remains, while serving as a new entertaining space.
Photography by Michael Biondo
Douglas Graneto Design
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/114A4776off-copy.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Douglas Graneto Design
It is possible to become obsessed about a material, and that is what happened with the client for this primary bathroom by Douglas Graneto Design. Once the client saw a grade of vigorously veined marble from PMI International Stone Importers, she wanted as much of it used in the room as possible—17 slabs, in fact, now clad the shower, floor, vanity countertops, as wainscoting, and even as a window surround. The natural design of the stone is, indeed, alluring, even haunting in its beauty.
During the gut renovation, an existing tub was removed in favor of creating a double shower that feels like a room in itself, as well as a dedicated makeup/vanity spot. To soften the effect of the hard marble, though, the designers brought warmth into the room by using a white oak for the vanity, which is accented to great effect with brass hardware from Waterworks. Where there isn’t marble, there are, instead, plaster walls, which add a further layer of texture to this striking room.
Photography by Tim Lee
Mideast Design Co.
%20100vw,%20720px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/30_Laurel_Lake_W-001-copy.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Mideast Design Co.
It might be possible to claim that one could live in this primary bathroom. There are, certainly, all of the necessary bathing and grooming features of a bath, but also a spacious walk-in dressing closet that leads into the space, a built-in coffee and wine bar, and access to both the home’s main deck and a parents-only outdoor space.
The design and color launching-off point for this gut renovation project began with an array of brightly hued mosaic tiles that work their way up the walls over the marble-topped walnut vanity. Those mosaic hues were sufficiently inspiring and alluring to help dictate all of the stone, wood, metal, and lighting choices for the room. As a result, the wall-relief of mosaics stands out as a defining visual element.
A sunken tub, clad in Fantastico Arni marble, relates directly to the marble-wrapped steam room and shower. Elsewhere, mitered marble details, a patterned limestone floor tile, walnut-framed mirrors, and brass fixtures foster a visual animation in the space. This room, while practical, works also as a daily sanctuary.
Photography by Davidson McCulloh
Tallman Building Company
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Tallman-Building-Company.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Tallman Building Company
Stone is unforgiving. But when Tallman Building Company began its work on this century-old house known as Four Winds, the firm needed to figure out how to not only replicate expanses of the original stonework, but also dig a foundation beneath an existing stone expanse to fashion a finished basement.
“We constructed a complete new skeleton of steel, engineered timber, and concrete within the 100-plus-year-old shell of this house,” says Bill Tallman, the firm’s principal. “And let me add, there’s not a single crack in the stone.”
When asked how he also managed to completely replicate the original configuration of the stone walls, along with the colors, he says: “We did many mockups. We sourced local stone from Connecticut and New York, and we had the craftsmen able to put it together.”
Like many successful collaborations, Tallman readily cites the most satisfying aspect of the build. “I’m most proud of how well we all worked together—the client and the Rolfs Elert office—to help the client really realize their vision. A lot of craftsmanship was involved and that required an affair of the heart, so to speak. We put our heart and soul into this. Everyone involved did.”
Photography by Stefan Radtke
Washington Builders
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Washington-Builders.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Washington Builders
As much as everyone wanted to preserve the 18th-century barn that had stood on this site in Litchfield County, it just wasn’t possible. However, Washington Builders found the ideal solution: The firm, headed by Chris Washington, purchased a circa-1800 barn from Canada, and reassembled it on the site, making it into a recreation space for the family.
“It was challenging to have to stay within the original footprint of the former barn,” says Washington, “but we did it.” While the buying of antique barns from elsewhere is common practice for Washington, he prefers hemlock barns from Canada and elsewhere in the Northeast. “We like Northern barns because those early pioneers used larger, stronger timbers because of snow loads.”
He and his team were also entrusted with laying a new foundation for the main house, portions of which also date back to the 1700s. “When you’re dealing with structures that are this old and delicate, the whole process is a bit like walking on eggshells,” he emphasizes. Now that both structures are complete, Washington is proud of the fact that “it all really feels historic. It seems as if these exact buildings could have been there the whole time.”
Photography by Michael Biondo
James Doyle Design Associates
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/James-Doyle-Design-Associates-2.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
James Doyle Design Associates
Let’s go ahead and express a geographical bias: Any view of Long Island Sound from the lower Fairfield County shoreline is among the best vistas on earth. That now stated, this new house is positioned to embrace full-on views of the water, with more than 250 feet of direct waterfront.
Permitting rules proved to be one of the best design directives, for they stipulated that native plantings be incorporated at the water’s edge; maritime shrubbery and native meadows provide the perfect buffer. Tall hedges of hornbeam greet visitors at the front of the house, while oak trees and strips of meadow draw people into the central courtyard. Parterres of boxwoods, and beds of gravel interspersed with seasonal perennials, serve as borders along the rear terraces.
Views of the Sound remain unimpeded when swimming in the vanishing-edge pool and spa, though a bountiful herbaceous border provides privacy and color. Eventually, a lawn gives way to a stone staircase that leads to a bocce court and waterside cabana. Meanwhile, those views of the water remain inspiring at every level and place in the garden.
Photography by Neil Landino, Jr.
Renée Byers Landscape Architect
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Renee-Byers-1.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Renée Byers Landscape Architect
While substantial Shingle-style houses of the late 19th century can be among the greatest of residential architectural creations, they also age, sometimes to the point of decrepitude. It took the vision of landscape architect Renée Byers to see what her own Litchfield County property could become for her family once she purchased the weathered house and land. She re-created, renewed, and even reinvented her 11-acre spread of land.
Her design goal was to make the grounds into an inviting, low-maintenance retreat for friends and family to gather. Upon looking at old photos of the house, she reconstructed a porch and garden walls, adding steps and paving but using reclaimed fieldstone, granite, and bluestone for greater effect. She reclad the pool and restored its cabana, and she remedied serious drainage issues by regrading the rear hillside. Native ferns, perennials, and shrubs now “decorate” the undulating property.
Outdoor rooms are as well furnished as those inside the expansive home—albeit with novel natural elements and features. New specimen trees and towering maples, pruned like topiary, have been sited to frame the bucolic views that vault into the distance.
Photography by George Byers
Melanie Foster Interiors
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Melanie-Foster-Interiors-2.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Melanie Foster Interiors
As a personal art collection grows, there is the risk that the rooms of a home might come to feel like galleries in a museum. Recognizing that the enlightened homeowners of this Georgian-style home collect lots of name-brand contemporary faces and figures, as well as abstract works, one design goal of Melanie Foster Interiors was, “respect the estate’s classical proportions, while enhancing its capacity to serve as both a private gallery and a sophisticated family home.”
This family now lives effortlessly—and comfortably—with their fine artworks that populate the walls of every room. Decorative wallpapers, Venetian plasterwork, and decorative paint finishes feature throughout the six-bedroom residence. But family, it seems, comes first. Ample seating areas in the living room, a tiered media room, an inviting sinuously curved sofa in the parlor, large-scale cushiony pieces in the office, a game table in the library, two tables in the dining room, and a densely configured and boldly hued seating area in the family room point to the communal, welcoming agenda for this house.
Photography by Keith Scott Morton
Stephanie Rapp Interiors
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Stephanie-Rapp-1.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Stephanie Rapp Interiors
Where there is art in this home (and there is a lot of it), you notice it. That’s due, in large part, to Stephanie Rapp Interiors’ expert and strategic placement of the pieces. So art-centric are these homeowners that the project was playfully dubbed “Gallery Chic.”
The designer established sight lines and viewing angles to “generate an immersive gallery-like experience.” Employing a neutral palette—both on the walls and for the furnishings—was a way for every artwork to emerge to full effect. Yet, this is a home for day-to-day living and not a series of sterile art galleries in the shell of a 10,000-square-foot home.
Rapp has an uncanny sense of geometry in the placements of furniture: Expansive armchairs are angled in rooms to foster conversation, contemporary daybeds and curvaceous chairs invite lounging, and a grid of built-in shelving functions as a hive of individual display units. Exuberantly rendered lighting fixtures do their job to illuminate, while working as sculptures in keeping with those set on pedestals and plinths.
Photography by Neil Landino, Jr.
Boldt Studio Architecture & Design
%20100vw,%20771px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Boldt-Studio-1.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Boldt Studio Architecture & Design
Color was the main ingredient for the success of this kitchen—namely the use of a Benjamin Moore shade known as Black Knight. That dark, rich color, with its very subtle tones of green-blue, served to accomplish a design solution. The homeowners needed the designers at Boldt Studio to emphasize the kitchen as the ultimate destination in the home, while also connecting the room to the living room, from which it had been separated by a partition wall. Prior to the removal of that wall, it was a long and circuitous route through the house to the kitchen. Now, given its decidedly unconventional color and its direct link to the living room, the kitchen serves as the locus of life in this busy home.
Another challenge was to double the storage and counter space without adding to the square footage of the room. The designers met the challenge with a single, generously scaled countertop area that includes a dish station, dining table, and prep counter. Storage was increased with a variety of cabinets, shelves, and compartments that work in concert to result in a truly elegant and useful kitchen.
Photography by Jason Lindberg
Elizabeth Bolognino Interiors
%20100vw,%20810px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Elizabeth-Bolognino-2.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Elizabeth Bolognino Interiors
How refreshing and comforting it is to be reminded that some of the most dramatic kitchen renovations don’t require significant architectural changes. Elizabeth Bolognino Interiors was able to wholly reinvent this kitchen that had existed unchanged for some 20 years. Without having to alter the layout or make any changes to the architectural elements, the designers transformed the room with updated door faces, hinges, statement appliances, beautiful stone surfaces, and a sculptural metal hood from RBL Metals.
Every appliance, paint color, piece of hardware, lighting fixture, and material was carefully chosen for maximum effect. An Officine Gullo range stands out in the room, along with ABC Stone’s Calacatta Turquoise Antico for the island and counters. Farrow & Ball’s Skimming Stone and Benjamin Moore’s Grey Cashmere were used in abundance to create a warm and soothing mood. What was old is new, and what was traditional and elegant remains so in a now timeless and tailored space.
Photography by Adam Kane Macchia
Studio Bartolotta
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Studio-Bartolotta-Small-Space-1.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Studio Bartolotta
Some structures defy categorization—and that often makes them the most fascinating built entities. To look at this structure, referred to by its owners and by its designer, Studio Bartolotta as the “Osprey Pool Pavilion,” is to see, as its designers say, something that is “equal parts shelter, sculpture and social space.” Underneath its steel frame, topped with a corrugated galvanized roof, is an intriguing cylindrical volume clad in vertical cedar slats, that are, in turn, banded in weathered steel. Not unlike traditional silos and water towers found in the rural Northeast, the form feels agrarian, but at this home it contains, instead, a luxurious cabana and fireplace. An al fresco seating area looks to the pool and grounds, making it a hub for poolside entertaining and as a quiet respite. The timber platform on which the elements rest creates a sense of lightness, even elegance. Once dusk settles, novel lighting emerges within the pitch of the roof, on the steps that assume the presence of a plinth, and as radiating bands about the volume.
Photograph by Andrew Bartolotta
Greenwich Play
%20100vw,%201080px%20data-src=https://cottagesgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Greenwich-Play-1.jpg%20src=data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==%20loading=false%20/){kind=link}
Greenwich Play
It’s playtime, certainly for the children who live in this home, but also for the adults. Situated above the home’s three-car garage, this playroom manages to function as a place for the family of six to hang out and gather, to retreat, and, simply, to have fun with games. Hidden nooks nestled beneath the dormers feature four bunks, which beckon as places to nap or read. A multipurpose game table positioned at the center of the room cleverly doubles as a Ping Pong table or pool table. The drawers of a wall of built-ins, topped with a long and inviting window bench, hold everything from art supplies to board games. Walls throughout are covered with Schumacher and Chasing Paper patterns in a soothing palette of blues and grays—hues that take on a special softness when the ceiling spotlights are on. A spacious seating area centers on a large TV. As the kids grow up, the space will grow with them, since the room is so flexible and varied in what can take place within.
Photograph by Julia D’Agostino