Summertime cruises on Battle Lake represent some of architect Jean Rehkamp Larson’s most cherished childhood memories. Her mom and grandma would slowly steer the family’s pontoon along the shoreline, taking in the scenery, including the houses. “You always had to be careful, because your voice carried,” Rehkamp Larson laughs. “But we definitely found our favorites, and they were the historic cottages that had been around since the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s.”
So it was in the spirit of that era that Rehkamp Larson designed a new cottage for an empty nester couple on the Gull Lake Chain. The approach was similar to that for a traditional farmhouse, a topic of expertise for Rehkamp Larson, who wrote the book The Farmhouse: New Inspiration for the Classic American Home, which is considered an authoritative source for the architectural style. “In general, vernacular buildings, when they were built by local people, were logical and simple,” she says. “So a simple gable meets another simple gable in a logical way, then the spaces fit in after that. And that’s the case for a cottage on the lake just like it is for a farmhouse.”
One of the challenges, Rehkamp Larson says, is that today, we expect more out of our rooms and how they relate to one another. “So translating those simple forms to a modern program, or space plan, is where the magic happens,” she says.
Every remodeling project we get to do on an old house teaches us about proportions and how things were put together. That is the best education.”
–Jean Rehkamp Larson, Architect
For this cottage, Rehkamp Larson divided 2,100 square feet of space between a pair of gables to better relate to a smaller lake home scale. The larger of the two gables places the living and dining spaces and kitchen on the lake side and guest bedrooms and baths on the street side. In the second, smaller gable, the owner’s suite gets the lake view, and the garage and workshop face the street.
A symmetrical composition of windows on all sides conveys a bygone look—and on the lake side, they’re banks of big double-hungs. “The double-hung was easier to build before we had more modern hardware,” Rehkamp Larson says. But mixing in smaller windows would have been typical, too, so she added awning and casement windows, including the classic in-swing casement. “Again, it had simple hardware—a latch and hinges—so you could just open the window into the space.”
Other architectural elements carrying the cottage theme through include reclaimed Douglas fir paneling and flooring. “Because the flooring is nailed in place and not tongue and groove, it’s going to expand and contract a little bit and just look more homemade, which the homeowners liked the idea of,” Rehkamp Larson says. “And then you’re going to see the surface nails, as well. It’s expressing the way things are put together.”
That kind of character keeps impressing you the more you get to understand it, Rehkamp Larson says. “It’s not about the first impression. It’s about how the house settles in over time—and how you feel it and appreciate it as you experience it.”
Design Details
- Square Footage: 2,100
- Style: Vintage lake cottage
- Distinguishing Features: Simple two-gable form, deep roof overhang, fireplaces built of small granite boulders, true screened porch, inset-door cabinetry, nailed Douglas fir flooring
- Architecture: Jean Rehkamp Larson and John Kirk, Rehkamp Larson Architects, 2732 W. 43rd St., Mpls., 612-285-7275, rehkamplarson.com
- Builder: Craig E. Williams, 22765 Hole in the Day Dr., Nisswa, 218-839-1876