Email
Print
del.icio.us
digg
Comments
FeedSunny Sojourn
A Plymouth family’s near-town retreat combines the best of both worlds
By James Walsh
Photo by Susan Gilmore
Just one thing is unexpected in this idyllic scene: This modern lodge of luxury and seclusion, far from the traffic, noise, and crowds of the city, sits on the shore of Lake Sylvia on the outskirts of Annandale, just an hour west of the Martinsons’ primary residence in Plymouth.
“We don’t like to be gone all weekend, every weekend,” says Dan. “Our three kids are all active with sports in the winter and summer, and we wanted to be close to home. This is a place that I can come for a couple hours during the day or that we can bring our friends for a week. It’s perfect.”
Dan, whose family had a cabin outside Webster, Wisconsin, when he was growing up, had a specific vision for the perfect lake home: contemporary, yet swathed in and out with the glow of natural wood. He also wanted a home with clean lines built with high-end materials that will grace the surrounding woods 100 years from now.
“It has the feeling that I wanted,” he says, looking out at the spring-fed lake. “I wanted it to be all wood inside but I didn’t want a log home. That didn’t feel right. We’re not Up North.”
Photo by Susan Gilmore
“I think all Minnesotans understand what it means to be ‘at the lake,’” Larson says. “I am really proud of this project.”
The stunning dining area and kitchen, with 16-foot-high ceilings and Douglas fir interior walls and cabinets, open to the great room that evokes a Norwegian wooden chapel. Its exposed beams support a vaulted ceiling that runs the length of the house. No plasterboard walls or painted surfaces interrupt the glow of the windows and wood. Tigerwood floors run throughout the cabin, from the three-season screened porch on the lakeside of the home to the wraparound deck that faces the lake and marsh. A wood-burning stove on the screened porch allows the family to use the space well into November. “There are really only three materials in the house: wood, stone, and black iron,” Larson says. “The palette had to be simple to give the space its quietness.”
A Douglas fir and steel stairway leads up to a second-floor office/sanctuary where the kids can hang out and Dan and Heidie can read, work, or even star gaze from the small deck. Larson and Dan wanted a seamless transition between interior and exterior spaces. To help accomplish this, interior designers Liz Schultz and Randy Heinrich, owners of Heinrich+Schultz in Edina, emphasized this flow with textured fabrics and sun-toned leathers to add warmth to the home while complementing its contemporary feel.
“We knew what we didn’t want,” says Schultz.
“No antlers,” adds Heinrich. “More of a contemporary Up North feel.”
“Nothing kitschy,” says Schultz.
Photo by Susan Gilmore
Above all, the design works with the family’s lifestyle. The Martinsons are just as likely to escape to the lake home with the kids for a quiet weekend of playing Wii or relaxing in the sauna as they are to invite a group for snowmobiling and pond hockey.
“It should be comfortable for two, and comfortable for 25,” says Larson.
The lower level is made for play, with a full bar area, billiards room, large stone, wood-burning fireplace, slate tile floor, sauna, and a walkout to the hot tub, boathouse, and beach. No worries about trudging through sand in the summer or slush in the winter here, Dan says. “This is a family home. We built it to hold onto and pass down. It was made to be used.”
James Walsh is a St. Paul freelance writer.
For more information on featured products and suppliers, please see our Buyer's Guide.
11 ISSUES (1 YEAR)
Comments may be edited for length, clarity, or appropriateness.