Size: 1,500 square ft

Completed 2002

Cottage | Marin County

This small cottage from the 1920’s could barely be enlarged due to zoning regulations. The cottage was long on charm but short on practicality and desperately in need of updating. A family with 2 young girls asked us to reorganize the interior spaces for a family lifestyle with three bedrooms and two baths and to “connect” the cottage to the very generous rear yard.

The new plan moves the front entry from the original position in the middle of the house to one side. This allowed for a new high ceilinged center section to be opened up for the living spaces, and, in turn, to the front and rear yards. The master suite flanks one side of the big volume and the two girls’ bedrooms are symmetrically located on the other side. The bedroom wings maintain the original interior wood paneling.

Simple, but appropriate furnishings lend a timeless quality to this modest first home.

Photography by Matthew Millman

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