Never let a good crisis go to waste. Physicians Michelle and James Flynn of Bedford had owned the midcentury modern, split-level house in Wentworth Cove on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee in Gilford since 2005, but it took a disaster for them to turn the house into the seasonal home of their dreams.
“It was a massive crisis.
We had a devastating flood in February 2019, right before the COVID-19 pandemic. We were going to use the house for the week of February vacation for a family ski trip. Then the day before, somebody told me there was water gushing from the inside of the house to the outside. I have no idea how long it had been going on, but I found 5-foot-long icicles hanging in my screen porch and 6 inches of ice encasing the objects,” Michelle says. “Our furnace failed. Pipes burst. Our house flooded and was completely destroyed on the inside.”
The catastrophe proved to be the catalyst for a complete restoration and renovation of the fourbedroom, three-bathroom house the Flynns bought for its lot and the proximity to the Big Lake rather than for aesthetic appeal.
“Frankly, I found the house ugly on the inside, but I had so many little children that my priority was making sure they were safe around the water,” says the mother of nine, now ranging from ages 29 to 10. “It wasn’t until the last few years when my littlest was safer in the water that I looked around and said, ‘This isn’t a pretty house.’ It was a useful house. I didn’t take the time to decorate it or make it look lovely.”
Opportunity had knocked, but Michelle was so overwhelmed by the extent of the damage that now she was frozen. So she called Emily Shakra, the owner of Emily Shakra Design of Bedford.
“I had worked with Emily on my house in Bedford, and we all know she is a genius. I told her just call me when it’s finished, even though we didn’t do that,” says Michelle, who is also the pet parent of two dogs, five chickens, five ducks and a guinea pig. “The funny thing was, when Emily came to the house, she loved it as if it were her own. This wasn’t a job; it was her passion project.”
Passion was only part of the plan. “The critical ingredient in a successful project is to assemble a team from the onset that comprises an architect, a designer and a builder,” Shakra says. “This will merge many creative minds, and bring the project to a process that blends the homeowner’s vision, our experience and craftsmanship.”
Other elements necessary for success are finding the right materials, furniture, artwork and accessories, Shakra adds.
The house needed to be gutted down to the studs, and all the electrical, plumbing and heating systems needed to be replaced. So the first hire was Dan Hughes, the co-owner of Capital Kitchen and Bath in Concord, as the general contractor.
A top priority was to marry function with beauty. What had been just a utilitarian space was to be transformed into a welcoming and familyfriendly place. Most importantly, it had to be a home that now would function for this household of uncommon size.
“The main things Michelle wanted were a more efficient mud entry and foyer, a revamped laundry room, a repurposed and re-created fireplace, and an updated kitchen that was much more functional,” Shakra says. “We changed the footprint of the home, but not much. We wanted balance, style and efficiency, while making it aesthetically beautiful and suitable for a large family.”
At the same time, it was important to keep the natural beauty of the lake and the lot at the front and center. The dark brown exterior of the home was repainted with Benjamin Moore’s Creekside Green to blend with the woodsy landscape that frames the long driveway. A naval blue color was chosen for the front door.
After these changes, the interior was still dark and dreary, and felt confining. To make it open, airy and bright, Shakra suggested they take a risk and paint all the interior woodwork and ceilings white.
Michelle was aghast. “I felt that the home should keep its traditional elements of the stained wood and the original redwood so that [idea] was a shock,” she says. “You don’t paint the stained wood. But it ended up being the best thing we could have done to lighten up the space, and make the house look totally new and fresh. Now it’s a joy to walk into this light space because it was so dark before.”
Next came the choice of color that would serve as the home’s unifying theme. Blue is Michelle’s favorite color, so the team decided on the calming, tranquil tone of Stunning by Benjamin Moore. Shakra, who is assisted by Carol Colella, sprinkles this shade throughout every room in the home, starting with the revamped front entry.
“The foyer was closed in and so small that you couldn’t get more than one person in there at a time,” Shakra says. The space also had an oldfashioned, tiny sliding-door closet and an unattractive, wooden staircase railing.
Drawing on an idea Michelle found at an Aspen, Colorado, hotel, Shakra reimagined the space with an asymmetric wall unit, storage bench and wire railings. “The unit was custom-made by Dan Hughes to my specifications with a bench for seating, and storage and hooks all along the wall. When nobody is there, it looks so clean and open. Because it’s a seasonal home, a lot of the spaces can be used but then they become beautiful when there aren’t 11 people there. It’s not just a small, closed closet, and that’s the key. It’s become a beautiful space,” Michelle says.
The foyer leads straight up the steps into the new upper level and its open-concept kitchen, family room and dining room.
“The kitchen was designed to marry balance, style and efficiency for a large family,” Shakra says. “Light maple cabinets on the bottom and hickory wood floors bring warmth to the white kitchen.” On the lower level where there’s more wear and tear, vinyl flooring mimics the hickory wood floors used upstairs.
“We bathed the lakeside kitchen island in Benjamin Moore Wedgwood and used the nautical colors throughout the entire home,” Shakra says. “We took inspiration from the undulating waves of the lake, and layered color in different patterns and textures.”
She chose rattan—which is trending because it’s lightweight with lean and exciting designs—for the dining room chairs and island bar stools, and had J Rivers make the dining table to match the kitchen cabinet bottoms. On the other side of the kitchen, Shakra added a custom piece with pop-up cabinets to double as a morning coffee bar and evening dry bar.
The hearth has always been the center of a home, so the living-room fireplace redesign was essential. It’s no longer a tired, old red-brick. Shakra added white shiplap, and had shelving installed on either side with a grasscloth back to give more texture, warmth and interest to the spaces. Once Fireplace Village ran a propane line and the glass doors came off, the result is an open, gas log fireplace.
Each of the four bedrooms has its own name—loon, owl, mushroom, and canoe— and themed design with customized furnishings, bedding, artwork and accessories to match. To create the illusion of larger space in each bathroom, Shakra had mirrors extended to the ceilings at the wall angle and light fixtures installed directly into them.
The
fireplaced, lower-level family, TV and game room— with its live-edge
wet bar custom made by Chic and Antique in Meredith—can be pressed into
service as an overflow bedroom.
Michelle says her family is overjoyed with the renovation, which took more than a year to complete. The new, lakeside mudroom and laundry room are her favorites.
“Before, the laundry room was small and dysfunctional. It was not useful at all for a large family. It didn’t even have a sink. There were just cabinets. After the flood, we changed the house’s heating system: the units go outside. We carved out some more space from one of the downstairs bedrooms, and it works beautifully,” she says.
The room is unique thanks to the blue sink Michelle requested and—what may be one of the most intriguing pieces of all—a map of Lake Winnipesaukee that covers an entire wall and was custom-made by Sullivan Framing in Bedford. The location of the Flynn home is marked with a heart.
“For me, the mudroom and laundry room are the best things that happened. I cannot express how wonderful the change in this space is. A lot of women like a beautiful kitchen, but I’m a mudroom girl. That was a triumph for me. This is the most useful part of the house,” Michelle says. “It’s the heart of the house.” NHH
RESOURCES
Apotheca Flowers • (603) 497-4940 • apothecaflowershoppe.com
Capital Kitchen & Bath • (603) 225-8300 • capitalkitchenandbath.com
Chic and Antique • (603) 937-4485 • chicantiquellc.com
Company C • (603) 226-4460 • companyc.com
Emily Shakra Design • (603) 661-4969 • emilyshakra@aol.com
Fireplace Village • (603) 472-5626• fireplacevillage.net
J&R Langley Co. • (603) 622-9653 • jrlangley.com
J Rivers Custom Furniture • (802) 272-6636 • jriversfurniture.com
Mavrikis Upholstering & Furniture Designs • (603) 883-6868
Sullivan Framing • (603) 471-1888 • sullivanframing.com
The Lighting Showroom • (603) 471-3299 • thelightingshowroom.us