Imagination Captured
Cape Cod Home / Early Summer 2016 / Home, Garden & Design, People & Businesses
Writer: Kate Bavelock / Photographer: Brian Vanden Brink
Imagination Captured
Cape Cod Home / Early Summer 2016 / Home, Garden & Design, People & Businesses
Writer: Kate Bavelock / Photographer: Brian Vanden Brink
Sunny disposition
The second major element of the house’s design involved meticulous attention to how natural daylight plays on the site. The house is oriented to the southern exposure so that light pours through the home from front to back. The kitchen is open to the living area to capture that good southern light but also opens to the east and west for daylong sun. “In the dining room the morning sun is beautiful,” the homeowner says. “After breakfast we like to sit there and do puzzles because everything is so much clearer, the colors are brighter, it is such a happy place to be.”
Unexpected touches, such as small side windows on the dormers, enhance the cottage charm, but also extend the length of time the rooms get sun. “These windows expand the time the room gets direct light, make the rooms feel bigger and brighter, plus reduce glare,” DaSilva explains. “Light from one direction can feel harsh. Mixed light from the west, east and south provides warmer, gentler light all day.”