Belfast, Maine
A former worker's cottage in Belfast, this small house was completely gutted and reworked. The plan was manipulated to relocate the stair to the center and provide for three bedrooms and two baths on the upstairs level. There was one simple rule made for organizing the house materially: all short walls in the house, or walls that went east to west, were clad in wood siding that was salvaged from the existing house; all the long walls, north to south, were sheathed in drywall. This means that most of the art is on the long elevations and the wood walls are art in and of themselves. All the furniture and fittings have been in the family’s life for some time, there were very few items that were “bought” for the house. The art is primarily the work of the owners with some work from family and friends. The house is an archive of the family's life, the organizational decisions are meant to enable one person to feel comfortable in the house alone as well as having privacy when the house is full.
Photos by Caleb Crawford
