An earthy palette adds warmth to white-painted walls. The cathedral ceilings and 4-foot half-wall were among the visual tricks Smith used to create the illusion of more space, enabling her to forgo adding square footage to the house.
At first glance, the small cape appears to be a typical New England clapboard farmhouse. Distinguished by a long, low-pitched roof that yields 3-foot, 8-inch second-floor side kneewalls and limited headroom, the house is picture-perfect in its rural Vermont setting. Since 1940, it has been owned by architect Pi Smith’s family. First purchased by her grandparents, the property passed on to Smith’s father, then to her. “A major renovation was definitely in order,” she said. “The whole first-floor structure had rotted. There was no
insulation, the windows leaked, and the heating system was poor. The house also had an unusual linear shape because a long, narrow L-shaped addition had been appended to the west gable end.”
Smith’s first step was to toss out the original floor plan of small rooms, multiple doorways, and limited traffic flow and rethink how to best use the total space via an open floor plan. Upstairs and down, walls were removed and repositioned, windows added, and rooms redesigned to create the illusion of a larger space. Attic space gave way to a child’s playroom, a loft-style guest bedroom-lounge area, and a cathedral ceiling for the living room. The oversize entry hall was converted into a cozy dining room. A large guest bedroom was halved so a combo guest bath-laundry area could be added.
To further expand the space, dropped ceilings were removed, revealing one of the home’s charming architectural features: original post-and-beam framing. Perhaps the biggest change of all was the stairway relocation and redesign. Now with a windowed landing and a view of the meadow, the switch-back staircase delivers traffic to the center of the second floor, making it possible to create a central hall and much-needed bath.
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