Our entry way before was a fairly small room that connected the old 1902 farmhouse to a "new" (1980s) wing.

Before - exterior of front entry

Before - interior of front entry

One of the most significant new build parts of our reno was adding two bedrooms and a bathroom above the entry. The existing entry was of course to small, so it was demolished and a new two story structure, 20' wide by 36' long, was built.

A 36x20 entry hall would be wasteful and boring, so we had to find a way to divvy it up. From front to back we divied it up by creating a vestibule, then the entry hall, and after that a back entry hall and back door.
We also divied up the 20' width with a closet, a cloak room, another closet, a pantry, and by adding space to the kitchen.

The result feels like three rooms from the front of the house to the back, and I think the architect did a good job in making the space work.

Here are some photos of the whole thing:

barn door entry

vestibule

cloak room

main entry hall

back entry hall

pantry

back door

looking back

The table is by Kindel. I have discussed it much on these forums because it was my DR table (with three leaves) in my prior, much more formal house. I was so pleased I could find a way to use it, because it was DH's and I's first purchase and because this type of used furniture sells at a very steep discount to retail.

If you like this type of table, try used, like in the link below.

If you're willing, I'd love to see more of the house and hear some of your 'story' - of course, only if you're comfortable sharing. And I'm trying to figure out your screen name - think I have part of it, but I'm stuck!

Mountain Road Redux = mtnrdredux

It does look like one! It is a kilim from ABC carpet.

The table is too formal for my house, so I deliberately wanted to avoid a formal rug. I would really like an old worn distressed faded antique oriental, but my forebearers were not very thoughtful when they bought rugs and I do not have one! The antique ones I like that I have seen for sale are silly prices (15k and up) for a home that i deliberately made casual and to withstand three young kids, a puppy, and pond and pool traffic.

So, for now, it's the kilim. When the table was my DR table, it was on a needelpoint, also too thin. Drives me crazy but this is it for now, plus i really like the rug.

P.s. Do you have any flooring left?? They won't sell me a small amount:(

I see you have kids, dogs and a pool. I also see your gorgeous floors. Can you please tell me every detail you can about them? If they can withstand your three kids, dog and pool traffic, then I need to hear more about them. We're building and we want wood. I LOVE heart pine but am torn about our kids, dog that LOVES to slide across smooth surfaces and the possibility that we might have a pool. I'd love to hear about your floors...they look site finished. What are they, where did you find them, what stain, finish, etc. did you use? They're PERFECTION.

I'd also love to hear about your exterior paint colors you chose for the barn door and the white you have on your HardiePlank (or whatever your fibercement choice is).

Thanks so much!

Eandhl - that would be fun! The you show me yours and I'll show you mine tour.

Prill - Thanks. I don't think we do. We used it in all sort of places, like our marble which I joked I would use up on chopstick rests before discarding a bit of it. If you don't need a lot, maybe you can find reclaimed stuff? See the link below. We got sinks from this guy but I recall some cool floors.

Thanks CIndy, Gilly, Doonie, Regina and Betsy.

Nini, I can post a before and after or the facade, i think I have that. Will do.

PPS BM's Hampshire Grey. IRL I think they are a bit olive-y. Very happy with the color.

Painter - exactly the look I wanted!

Boys - Thanks so much! That particular vantage point is, of course, staged. Real life is to the left and right in the pantry. Haven't been able to color code dry goods yet!

Steoh, I always wanted double doors for holiday wreaths. I am already looking on Etsy for this year.

Babs - I have posted about my floors before. I will look for that info. and post it again here.

best
MtnRdRedux

EWP is soft. But, as far as I know, it is the only wood that you can get 18" wide planks of in quantity. We felt that the wide plank look was essential to the feel we wanted for our home. Our GC actually warned against it, which I consider a CYA move and aesthetic cluelessnes. We have only been in the house 7 months. It has scratches but nothing that I particularly notice or am bothered by.

As for water, I used EWP in most of my home, including in the kitchen and in my bathroom (where i have a soaking tub). We have a long hallway that leads to the pool area, and there is laundry for pool towels at the end of the hallway. That is all EWP too, and you can bet it gets wet. We have had no issues and are told not to expect any. The floors are mopped with water and vinegar only.

I think the question is one of formality. We want our house to look and feel very informal. We have a lot of distressed and rustic stuff. As DH says, we want it to still feel like a farmhouse, perhaps after a particularly good crop : )

If I had a formal home, scratches and dings might bother me. But so far I dont really see them, and I love the floors so much I don't think I would care. Perhaps in a few years they will look like they were original!

We are also informal people. I LOVE your floors. I don't mind dings and scratches as long as they fit in with the character of the floor. What I like about the oiled finishes is that it seems like the imperfections that occur blend in with the floor. Whereas when you get a scratch, etc. on a floor with a different type of finish, it's noticeably lighter and more visible. Does that make sense?

I also was wondering about the white paint you chose for the exterior of your home. Can you share the shade of white? We're thinking of white for our exterior and I'm a bit overwhelmed at all the white choices. Yours is a lovely shade.

Thanks so much for your input and for sharing your photos!

I am embarrassed to say I do not know what color white the exterior is! We matched what was there. I will look in the garage to see if i have a name. It is stain over cedar.

Your point about the scratches is totally correct. For example, we moved into a rental while our home was being reno'ed, so that the kids would be in their new schools. The home had very dark wood floors all thru the house. Quite au courant and striking. But the wood itself was much lighter, and so every knick or joint expansion stood out terribly.

One minor point just FYI. We ordered antique reproduction nails from Carlisle. They are shown black on their website. When they are installed, any nail head that sticks up, become shiny metal. They are not black thru and thru, just coated. Not all nail heads will lie perfectly flat. This drove me crazy but I became used to it. I still think it is wrong, though, and I told them they should let people know that the nails will not all be black, but I see their website is silent. When i complained, they suggested I use a black sharpie. On my hands and knees. On all the nail heads. 3,000 square feet of it. Right.

Oh and by the way the floor I fell in love with on Carlisle's site is called 624. when you go under "browse our floors" and choose EWP it pops up first. I basically said "gimme that".

Arapaho,
I appreciate your kind words. We have been having a lot of fun, decorating it and living in it.

We did a lot, without changing the look of the house much.

Before : 4 BR, 3 full BA and 2 half BA
After: 6BR, 5 full BA and 2 half BA, mud room, craft room, greenhouse

BEFORE, back yard view

After, backyard view, additions in blue (triangles are just added dormers)

It is not really possible to get the whole front of the house, because the front of the house is not that far from the road and you can't back up enough since the house rambles and turns, if that makes any sense?

Here you can see to the far left where we added a craft room, behind, out of view, it is the side entry, mudroom and mudroom PR.

I also have Carlisle EWP floors and they're finished in Minwax Dark Walnut stain and tung oil. LOTS of distressing already (I forget to take my work heels off at the door) but we wanted the up to 20" width and a floor that looked "old" so this is what we expected.

I used the square cut finish nails but haven't had trouble with the silver showing through the top. I'll keep the Sharpie in mind just in case!

Keep the pictures coming... so beautiful!

Thanks so much for sharing your lovely home! I love seeing these inspirational photos.

I have never thought of painting my house white until now.

I would love a coat closet like that.

So excited! I've been waiting for interior shots:-) The exterior and the little bits of interior (living room and craft room) you've posted are really, really beautiful! So sorry you've had to deal with GC issues. I hope they are resolved soon, and you figure out your camera issues. Would really, really love to see more.

FYI - some folks have posted photos of their entire house. Do not feel weird about doing that as long as you are comfortable with showing it. I think I speak for everyone here when I say we would LOVE it.

What is the flooring in the vestibule?

I don't know a brand name for the tile in the vestibule. (But I got it at Virtue Tile in Short Hills, NJ). My invoice just says large terracotta brick 20x30. I do know it is very, very thick --- some special requirement to lay it I recall.

I really like the uneven color ... IRL it looks like leather. It is handmade and a little puffed up in the center, which I like too. Maybe you can see in this photo ...

This is without a doubt one of the more gorgeous homes on Gardenweb IMO.

....Jane

You are one very lucky woman with excellent taste. Yes, it was a bumper crop all right. :)

Flyleft, Loribee, Gr8day, Justgotabme, Newdawn, Dianalo, Kelly and Cindy, Thank you all for your wonderful comments. It's nice when people "get" your decor and choices.

Eandhl - Don't be silly. Schoolhouse? Custom-rusted nails? Your project sounds right up my alley.

Prill - I bought two sinks there and a wonderful opaline doorknob that won't work anywhere.

Doonie - Thanks! We are amazed and delighted how unchanged it feels despite the addition of a lot of square footage. We went out of our way to save trees, in one case shaving a corner off a powder room.

Kitchenkelly - i agree, there is no choice, it has to be white. It has so much going on and so many flourishes it needs toning down. No shutters, no color.

Gscience, A friend of ours had an old Victorian with a cloak room, and since then we've always wanted one. The workmen kept trying to put a door on it.

Jterrilynn, You are mistaken, they are exactly as per my diagram, crazy-glued in place.

Steph, We have a cute little pondside shed (root cellar? smoke house? servant qtrs?) I hope to make into a guestroom. Right now it has a gravel floor and about a 7' ceiling. It's on my wishlist!

That barn door in the entry is just so cool. The floors, the ceiling, the furniture...all of it. WOW!

It has that wonderful feeling of really fine quality things, but without being stuffy or formal. It's got that elegant casual vibe that I think is so comfortable to live in or visit, but *so* difficult to pull off.

I don't know if anyone has asked this yet, but are you a designer? Did you hire someone? Has it all just evolved into this? If it did, well then, you just nailed it. It's calm, serene, uncluttered, unfussy, but without being stark or cold or boring.

If my dh and I lived there, he wouldn't come indoors, and I wouldn't go outdoors! lol

How many sq. ft. is it? If this is too personal of a question, don't worry about answering,but how many people live in your home?

The barn door is simply amazing. Ready for more pictures! ;)

My teeny-tiny request: a room-by-room tour of the house. Don't leave out anything. I want to see everything. Every.thing. Including the greenhouse. The landscaping. Garden bed closeups. The mudroom. The garage. Heck, I'd like to see where you store your garbage cans...or the basement...attic stairs....all of it!

You know how it is....People post pics of their houses or rooms, and I rarely react. Not a reflection on the decorating schemes; just not my taste. Your house is to my taste, and 100% so. I'm a major gawker at open houses and house and garden tours (every real estate agency in the county probably has a poster on their wall with my face and a big, fat X through it...."Warning! She only wants to gawk!"), and I can't wait to gawk some more!

Where is it, if I might ask? (Be as general as you like.) It has that East Coast feel that I'm so comfortable with.

tina

807 Newtown Rd
Villanova, PA 19085

It's a better shot to look at it on GoogleEarth that you download (for free), instead of online. You can see all the neighboring homes, from top or sreet level.

Saw the movie just last week. DH watches it about once a year.

Off to PA. !

Falling, Thank you - I reluctantly give my architect credit for the barn door idea. But only after i said no to a single door with sidelights and some antique doors that were all too fussy. And even then she wanted to make some elaborate custom craftsman looking glass design on the barn doors. I am so glad i followed my gut. I finally dictated it myself. 4 panes for the barn doors, 8 for the locking front doors, and, then toward the view, a glass door with four big panes. I wanted as little as possible to obscure the view, but our house has millions of mullions and I felt they were needed.

TinaM, thank you!

Lynxe, The link is below for the lanterns. I liked them because they sort of disappear, kwim? As for a tour, I really love my home and have put hours and hours into decorating it, so I do like to share! But I don't see people post whole homes here. I can't see posting my reams of photos. I will gladly post a photo in response to a question, and I have often posted photos when I need help. But I don't want to like, take over, the site. I have a website but it isn't designed for the public ... practically has GPS coordinates. I might fix that.

Oakley - living in a spot like this has changed the way we live. My kids come home from school and kayak or catch frogs. This setting was why we bought this house, totally out of the blue in a place we'd never been and with no prior intention of moving! I think it is 7400 square foot. We are a family of five. I don't think you would find the rooms gargantuan, it just kind of sprawls and the PO put in an indoor pool which is a lot of sq ft.

Franksmom, I am going to print out your post and look at it when I having a "bad house" day. Wow, you are so kind. And you get exactly what I had hoped to do.
And, no I am not a designer. I have a finance background. But DH and I designed 90% of the house. Because no one cares as much, or is as obsessed enough, or seemed to understand what we wanted. Our GC/designer and architect always offered the most expensive choices, and often things that were too fancy for the look we envisioned. My DH had the great idea of using a potting shed bench to hold a vintage sink in a mudroom powder room. They submitted drawings for an $18,000 built in that looked like a potting shed bench. Absurd, and off point.

Cooper - yes, making a family home was paramount. We have three young kids and a puppy. We didn't want any rooms we would not use. Been there, done that. Thank you!

Kiki,Caminnc, Sujafr, thank you!

Oldhouse - how sweet of you! We are far South of Mystic, closer to NY. CT does seem to have cornered the market on rocks, hence stone walls everywhere. Hope you found some goodies on your trip.

Pollyanna, Oh yes, we have help. It is the last luxury I would ever give up. In the real world, decorating is less important than cleaning! I would love a separate guest studio, how nice for you. I don't have a blog. My style is pretty derivative, there are many folks here with a lot more of value to say. But I am always happy to answer questions and share my enjoyment of our home.

Is your house located in Short Hills? My guess would be by the Navisink in Rumson or Morristown.

Thank you!

I don't know much about houzz. I used to use shutterfly, then moved to photobucket to post here, and not sure I want to add a third!

Lynxe, Long ago we had agreed to be featured in a magazine when we were done. My interior photos are just awful (maybe I need to read the camera instructions) so Id rather post a professional's. But now that i may be serving time for strangling my GC, the last thing I want is a glossy feature where they take credit. The ideas and research were almost entirely our own, and often contrary to the overdone, over the top, things they suggested. So there may never be professional photos anyway.

BTW, my whole house can fit in your entryway. Part of the reason I have never posted my befores and afters.

Suddenly old threads are reborn! Thank you all so much. As many of us here know, these big projects take so much time and effort and resources that you can really sour on them by the end. So it really, truly, makes you day when someone likes what you've done. Thanks.

Andi K, The link below is for the lights. I really love them. I wanted two lights because i wanted them over a rectangular entry table. But when you enter, the hall goes straight through to the back patio and the pond, and i didnt want the lights to obscure the pond view. These are so airy! (BTW I would imagine they can be found in less costly versions, although at the time I could not find the size I wanted anywhere else and I caved for these. I can't say they are great value, though they are great quality)

Lake Girl - my kitchen is STILL not totally finished, and I am waiting for that before I post. Let's just say it now involves courts, sigh. Someday I will give in and post it anyway.

Polly, thank you! I am very proud of them because from the time we started our 2+year whole house project I felt the choice of front door was important. In then end I overruled all sorts of fussy ideas from the professionals and chose these doors. I think they fit my vision for the style of the house, which I call "farmhouse, after a particularly good crop" and DH calls "Shaker, but without all the frills". Funny though, I guess we don't have too many farmer friends or equestrians. When confronted with our front door, they never seem to know how to unlatch it. They just slide the whole thing over ...

Do you have more photos of the grounds? I see things peaking out here and there and I'd love to see. Maybe it was in another post?

Who sells those kinds of barn doors? Are they identical to "real" ones? I assume they cannot be weatherized?

Thanks is advance.

I'm up for a full on tour, and it sounds as though everyone else on this thread is, too!

Thank you, Binsd. The setting is not to our credit --- all we do is try to make the house what we want without messing it up!

Tinan, Thank you. I tried to look it up, but all I could find on the invoice was "Lg. Terracotta Brick 20x30". I do recall that it is handmade and unusually thick (like 1.5" or so?). They were either from Virtue TIle in Summit NJ or SHort HIlls Tile and Marble in Short Hills, NJ (we picked a lot of stuff out before we moved to CT).

Kswl, Aww, that's so nice. If/when we get professional photos, I will be back. In the meantime I just need to get my own photos in order and maybe post a link.