The Woods Barn: Award Winning “Not So Big” House
At a total of 1200 sq. ft., this post & beam “Not So Big” home was the brainchild of our clients who live in New York City during the week and spend long weekends in Essex, Connecticut. As passionate antique car collectors, they wanted to create a special-purpose workshop or “garage gallery” for their antique cars combined with a guest home for visiting family and friends.
Thus, the “Woods Barn” was born! This one-bedroom home was built as a collaboration between our clients and us to design a space that would accommodate the mixed-use of the home and a “garage gallery” to showcase their unique collection of New York
memorabilia and artwork.
Custom-built cabinetry was featured throughout the home included a wall of built-ins for a food pantry, a “hideaway” refrigerator cabinet, and a cubby for coats and shoes. The main living area features an entertainment center and a custom-built bar with antique brass rails and period brass bar stools.
The most unique aspect of this home, however, is the “garage gallery” which does double-duty as exhibition space and a fully-outfitted auto mechanic workshop. The combination of dark walnut double garage doors with the design elements of painted beadboard walls and dark-stained post-and-beam framing provide the perfect back-drop for the vintage cars and the myriad of car-themed antique signs, tools and artifacts hanging on the walls. The space is so handsomely configured that one hardly notices that it is also outfitted with the essentials of a working garage: steel-cased commercial tool cabinets, fluorescent work lighting, tools & equipment, wash sink, etc.
