Photography by Michael Patch
Gracious lake home evolves for a new season
With stunning 180-degree views, this home graciously overlooks Smith Mountain Lake. Originally purchasing it when their two children were in high school, the homeowners are the second owners of the house, built in 2005. Their children are now in their mid-20s, making their way in life.
Outside in
The exterior of the house has a stone facade mixed with light green Hardie Plank siding and white trim. With this color scheme, the home blends easily into the landscape and the lush green plantings at the front door. The front door faces the woods, with the back of the house looking out onto the lake. A small, covered porch at the front door provides a place to sit on the steps and enjoy the wooded landscape.
Upon entering the front door, guests are immediately drawn into the living room, with its vaulted ceiling and views straight down to the lake. The room is flooded with natural light and almost feels like a tree house, with the natural world blending into the house. Taylor Brothers supplied huge slider doors spanning the length of the room that open onto a curved deck. Wire rails allow for an unobstructed view and give a nod to the nautical world. The deck offers a metal loveseat and two side chairs with white cushions for seating around a fire pit. Ken Potter, of Potter Construction, designed and modified a good part of the home, designed the rounded deck and suggested modifications that helped the house renovation better tie into the landscape plan.
Inside out
The homeowners have updated the interior of the home across the years, most recently enlisting the help of Lynchburg interior designer Beverly McCloskey of Beverly McCloskey Designs. She has consulted on all of the bedrooms as well as the basement entertaining area. The main bedroom, located off the living room, features a bay window that provides generous light and views for days. Curtain panels done in a modern black, gray and white floral fabric frame the windows.
Purple/gray leather, sourced from Moore & Giles, covers the headboard. When the leather arrived, homeowner Joy says it was a little more purple than she had expected, but she grew to love it. McCloskey leaned into the hint of purple for the rest of the room, making the experience a happy accident. She covered the bench at the foot of the bed with purple fabric. Additionally, a green club chair residing in the bay window also has a purple accent pillow, spreading the hue around the room. A painting of a white rose by local artist Delmus Phelps hangs above the bed.
Down the stairs
McCloskey also helped with two bedrooms in the basement, one for each of the children. A gorgeous wooden four-poster canopy bed anchors their son’s room. The cloth headboard has a geometric green-and-white fabric that is repeated in the drapery panels. A slider door allows access to the stone patio outside the door. On either side of the bed reside two matching cream side tables with horseshoe lamps. A desk sits opposite the bed, allowing work to be done while visiting. African baskets that the homeowners bought in Rwanda hang above the desk, as well as a rattan mirror to bounce light around the room.
The activity hub of the basement is the den and wet bar area. The room walks out onto a stone patio with the same sliding doors as the living room directly above it, providing indoor/outdoor living. The overall design for the room was based around two tapestries that the homeowners found in their travels. They found one of the tapestries on a trip out West, and the second one is from Ecuador. It was crafted by Maximo Laura, who has been exhibited at the Smithsonian. McCloskey says, “The homeowners were inspired by the tapestries for the design of the whole basement. My job was to find a way to make the design cohesive around the whole space using these.”
In order for McCloskey to blend the tapestries into the room, she decided to keep the bones of the room neutral. The walls, rug, two sofas and two club chairs were all done in variations of white and cream. Pops of color to draw the tapestries in were added in the accent sofa pillows and the bright blue curtain panels. A fun, clear glass ball light fixture is centered above the room. The floors warm the space and keep it from feeling too white.
The entertaining space has exquisite millwork and a wet bar. McCloskey used custom built-in cabinets on either side of the fireplace. The cabinet doors have shiplap applied at a 45-degree angle, with each door facing a different direction. This allows the cabinets to subtly stand out from the shiplap used on all the walls.
The wet bar’s upper cabinet doors have metal mesh instead of solid wood panels, which makes the space feel more airy. The lower cabinets incorporate solid wood panels and are topped with white quartzite countertops. Purple glass cabinet pulls add a touch of whimsy to the space.
Finding joy outdoors
To help with the design of the exterior of the home, the homeowners enlisted Cabell Crowther of Crowther Landscape Architecture, Limited. Crowther says he began the design process by, “having a discussion with them about how they live in the home, how they interact with the lake, what activities are important to them, and how the existing conditions impacted their ability to fully enjoy the property.” With the steep descent down to the lake, the topography had to be closely considered. Additionally, the homeowners wanted a space that flowed freely from the interior to the exterior.
Originally, a terrace occupied the space under the deck but it was too small to be functional. Access to the lake and dock consisted of a straight set of concrete steps that divided the lot in half. It made the spaces on either side difficult to maintain. To solve these problems, Crowther designed a large flagstone terrace facing the lake. Supported by a fieldstone retaining wall, the terrace creates more space by claiming a portion of steep bank that was previously unusable. A perimeter planter was built instead of using a railing to preserve the view. The stone installation was done by Kevin Motley, owner of Evergreen Lawn Maintenance. Joy says that, “Motley and his men are masters at laying natural rock and making it look like natural formations.”
Centered on the primary roof gable, Crowther also designed a new grilling area and spa.
Crowther designed curving solid stone steps to connect the terrace to the boat dock. Halfway down the steps, another seating area was created with a fire pit as the focal point. Joy says they enjoy that the view of the lake is different from this level.
Beyond the fire pit terrace, Crowther envisioned the solid stone path being deconstructed into a stepping stone path through a landscape of primarily native plants. Crowther says, “The clients desired a planting scheme to support our native pollinators and to blend the house into the larger landscape. This landscape is a tapestry of regionally native flowering forbs, shrubs, grasses and ferns.”
The homeowners worked with Crowther to provide vegetation to support pollinators throughout their life cycle. They looked for plants with a long season of pollen that produced nectar, as well as leafy plants to support insects during the egg and larval stage. Trees such as sweetbay magnolia and redbud were planted as well as evergreen bushes such as green beauty boxwoods, Otto Luyken laurel and rhododendron. The landscape also includes river oats and switchgrass. Kevin Motley’s expertise was used to install all of the plants.
At the bottom of the steps, a beautiful dock provides areas to both catch sunshine as well as seek shade. The four family dogs love to go for rides on the boat, even though they are not huge fans of swimming. The family was able to purchase the lot next door that had an existing dock, so this provides yet another area to jump in the lake.
The homeowners were lucky enough to find a house that could serve its purpose when initially purchased and still be able to adapt when the needs of the family changed. With careful consideration and the help of skilled professionals, their home has grown with them. With a focus on native plants and indoor/outdoor living now, it will be fun to see what the house’s third act has in store in the future. ✦