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Photo by Melinda Nelson
The architecture of the wraparound screen porch and sunroom, along with a low roofline, helps break up the mass of the two-level house.
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Photos by Spacecrafting
In true screen-porch fashion, the home’s exterior cedar shake siding covers most walls. Siding from Shakertown—with 10 cedar shakes already attached to a board—allows for faster installation. A semi-solid gray stain maintains the charming look of the wood grain.
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Interior designer Katie Bassett, with family dog Dallas, enjoys lounging year-round in the sunroom, which opens wide to the lake.
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Traditional built-ins—including bookcases in the living room—outfit several spaces. “With charming houses that were a lot smaller in scale, like what you find here around the lakes, you had to eke out storage wherever you could,” architect Ryan Fish says. A pair of lounge chairs upholstered in a mariner’s blue-and-white stripe fabric woven with alpaca and wool is like a classic fisherman’s sweater.
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A built-in bench covered in water-resistant Lee fabric featuring a fish motif adds fun and function to the home’s entry, which passes through to the center stair hall.
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Pendants above the island and sconces around the room’s perimeter—parts of which are finished in brushed brass—add warm light to the kitchen workspace. “I love the way the sconces shine down onto the countertops,” Bassett says. “They add a layer of character.”
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The home’s simple architectural palette brings the same painted woodwork and stone used in the sunroom to the kitchen cabinets and backsplash. Soapstone and quartz countertops are durable and easily maintained.
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Rugs bring color to otherwise neutral spaces, including the dining room, where Bassett also had the cane host chairs painted by Custom One Painting in Benjamin Moore’s Blue Damask.
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Bassett incorporates family heirlooms into her designs. “I’ve had this library table with me since I was in my 20s, and I bring it everywhere I go,” she says.
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An antique bamboo rack on the screen porch keeps sun protection close at hand.
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Bassett’s office is the only room in the house with pink. “I live in a house of men, including our dog,” she says. “I decided there’d be one room where I get to have pink.” The curtains—made with linen fabric found on Etsy—pop against soft, faded gold plaster walls finished by artist Darril Otto. But the best part is the view to the lake and sailing school next door. “I get a fabulous cross breeze and can hear all the kids laughing,” she says.
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The pass-through between the kitchen and screen porch keeps Bassett connected to guests and lake views.
Year-round lake activity—kids taking lessons from the nearby sailing school in summer, snowmobilers and cross-country skiers in winter—drew interior designer Katie Bassett and her husband, Marty, to their home on Lake Minnetonka’s Wayzata Bay 10 years ago. But there was one hitch: The house hardly took advantage of its lakeside location. Built in the 1970s, it was inspired by a ski house in Snowmass, Colorado, that the original owners loved. The kitchen faced the driveway, not the lake, and the overall style was cozy—and brown, inside and out. “The low ceilings and dark paneling made for very small and dark spaces,” architect Ryan Fish says.
After living that way for seven years, the Bassetts turned to Fish and fellow architect Lars Peterssen for help with an overhaul. “The house is on pilings with no basement, given the water table, and to tear it down and start over would have been way more expensive,” Peterssen says. “So we tore most of the house down to the foundation and started to design it from there.”
Leaving the staircase and back of the garage largely intact, the team rebuilt all other spaces, creating a more comfortable ceiling height, improving flow, and, most importantly, connecting the home’s spaces and architectural style to the lake. The unobtrusive design is intentional. “It looks like it’s always been there—it sits really quietly on the site,” Fish says. “When people go by, they don’t know it’s just been built.”
Lowering the roofline helped achieve that established quality. “It’s not a full second story,” Fish says. “That’s what differentiates this from newer, more massive homes. When we do traditional homes, we try pulling the roof down as much as possible, which creates a nicer scale.”
Cedar shake siding, crisp white trim, and a cupola—with a custom-made copper weathervane of a man in a canoe—further the classic look. But the way key rooms connect to the lake—and to each other—isn’t all that common in older lake homes. “The house, as you look at it, is a cleaned-lined traditional,” Fish says. “But the flow of spaces inside is entirely modern—what people want these days.” The new room arrangement maximizes the lake view the minute you arrive. “When you open the front door, you see the lake and the whole house opens up around you,” Fish says.
Interior finishes play an important part, too. “The reason I used so much shiplap is that I wanted it to feel like a lake house, like you’re in vacation mode, right when you walk in,” Bassett says. It’s part of a streamlined palette of materials: The stone for the fireplace surround was also used for the kitchen backsplash, the same wallpaper went up in two baths, and every door is painted black.
Perhaps most importantly, however, is that the finishes and furnishings—including fade-resistant and textural fabrics for most upholstery, and durable soapstone and quartz for the kitchen countertops—are largely maintenance-free. “I kept telling Ryan and Lars, ‘If I’m making it too pretty, stop me.’ You can put your drinks down or your feet up on the tables—it’s all very user-friendly,” Bassett says.
But that didn’t stop Bassett from having some fun. “Even though the base of the house and all the permanent finishes are hardy and rugged, I tried to add a little creativity and color with furniture and fabrics, rugs, and lighting,” she says. Lighting, in particular, adds distinctive character. “Take a house like mine, with cedar shakes on the outside and shiplap on the inside,” Bassett says. “You can push it in a lot of directions based on the lighting—industrial farmhouse, traditional, super cottage-y. I wanted some elegance.”
The brushed brass finish on the kitchen pendants and sconces extends to the counter stools and even the home’s hardware. “It’s kind of an unexpected surprise,” she says.
Nonetheless, the home’s carefree feel remains front and center. “I didn’t want a showpiece,” Bassett says. “When you turn into the driveway, you feel like you’re on vacation.”
Interior designer: Katie Bassett, Katie Bassett Interiors, International Market Square, Ste. 525, Mpls., 612-385-1456, katiebassett.studio // Architects: Lars Peterssen, AIA; Ryan Fish, AIA; and Jason Briles, Associate AIA, Peterssen/Keller Architecture, 2919 James Ave. S., Mpls., 612-353-4920, pkarch.com // Builder: Jim McDonald, McDonald Remodeling, 6015 Cahill Ave. E., Ste. 100, Inver Grove Heights, 651-554-1234, mcdonaldremodeling.com
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