My Houzz: Vintage Charm in a Rhode Island Summer Cottage
Repurposed finds add character to a couple’s 640-square-foot weekend home, which they built with retirement in mind
David Webb and Melinda Green, pictured, shared the dream of one day building their own home. They found a small lot in Little Compton, Rhode Island, and in 2015 built a 640-square-foot cottage that they visit on the weekends from their primary residence in Massachusetts. They designed it with the idea of eventually building an addition and living in the house full time. “This is queued up to be our retirement home in a couple of years,” Green says.
She and Webb set some basic criteria to keep the project manageable. The criteria included limiting the house to a single story that was under 1,000 square feet and consistent with the local architecture. The couple also wanted to keep the budget under $180,000.
They spent a great deal of time researching plans for small houses, browsing photos on Houzz for inspiration and looking at nearby homes.
She and Webb set some basic criteria to keep the project manageable. The criteria included limiting the house to a single story that was under 1,000 square feet and consistent with the local architecture. The couple also wanted to keep the budget under $180,000.
They spent a great deal of time researching plans for small houses, browsing photos on Houzz for inspiration and looking at nearby homes.
They made a basic floor plan online and took their drawing to Glenn Buie of design-build firm McLaughlin & Buie Housewrights in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. Buie intuitively grasped the ethos they were going for in their design. “He worked patiently with our out-of-the-box ideas and saved us from ourselves when necessary,” Green says.
Since they plan to add on to the cottage in the future, Buie gave them detailed construction drawings for the initial phase and concept drawings for the future phases.
The homeowners found the three barn light shades on Craigslist and added gooseneck mounts found on eBay.
Since they plan to add on to the cottage in the future, Buie gave them detailed construction drawings for the initial phase and concept drawings for the future phases.
The homeowners found the three barn light shades on Craigslist and added gooseneck mounts found on eBay.
The couple’s goal was to use materials they already had or could acquire at a low cost. The design of the main room took an unexpected turn when they found these metal kitchen cabinets on Craigslist. They had been planning to use beadboard-style cabinetry for a country coastal aesthetic, but when Green saw the 1940s cabinets, the sense of potential was all too tempting.
“I found the red spray paint, Regal Red by Rust-Oleum, and a new world opened up for me,” she says. Green spent a few days spraying and polishing the cabinets to their current shiny red finish. The one challenge she and Webb ran into was lining up the plumbing.
To further the vintage feel of the space, they chose an inexpensive laminate countertop inspired by the cracked ice finish from the 1940s. They added fluted aluminum edging from Eagle Mouldings as a finishing touch.
“I found the red spray paint, Regal Red by Rust-Oleum, and a new world opened up for me,” she says. Green spent a few days spraying and polishing the cabinets to their current shiny red finish. The one challenge she and Webb ran into was lining up the plumbing.
To further the vintage feel of the space, they chose an inexpensive laminate countertop inspired by the cracked ice finish from the 1940s. They added fluted aluminum edging from Eagle Mouldings as a finishing touch.
After learning that painted floors are common in beach cottages and old farmhouses in New England, Webb and Green decided to forgo traditional flooring and instead sanded and painted the oriented strand board subfloor using a gray acrylic latex floor paint. Green also spattered the floors with paint to give them a bit more interest. The textured floors give their three-legged cancer-surviving dog, Lulu, a firmer grip so that she doesn’t slip.
The couple delayed getting a dishwasher and installed a counter-depth front-loading washing machine in the space where a future dishwasher will go. When they build their addition, they plan to add a laundry area to the master bedroom suite and install a dishwasher where the washing machine sits.
Retractable bug screens: Genius Retractable Screens; Royal acrylic latex porch and floor paint: Ace Hardware; counter-depth refrigerator: Summit Appliance
What Lies Beneath That Old Linoleum Kitchen Floor?
The couple delayed getting a dishwasher and installed a counter-depth front-loading washing machine in the space where a future dishwasher will go. When they build their addition, they plan to add a laundry area to the master bedroom suite and install a dishwasher where the washing machine sits.
Retractable bug screens: Genius Retractable Screens; Royal acrylic latex porch and floor paint: Ace Hardware; counter-depth refrigerator: Summit Appliance
What Lies Beneath That Old Linoleum Kitchen Floor?
Green turned a set of three vintage kitchen canisters into pendant lights by rewiring the original socket-style fixtures. Each light cost $25 to make. “Our goal was something we could live with and enjoy that could be upgraded when we built the rest of the house in the future. So that meant putting time into exploring alternatives to standard new construction materials for the interior,” Green says. “These solutions are part of what give our home its character.”
Green’s father made the pine drop-leaf dining table when she was a little girl, and the wooden bowl is one of her mother’s treasured heirlooms.
Door paint: Newport Green, Benjamin Moore; trim paint: Country Redwood, Benjamin Moore
Green’s father made the pine drop-leaf dining table when she was a little girl, and the wooden bowl is one of her mother’s treasured heirlooms.
Door paint: Newport Green, Benjamin Moore; trim paint: Country Redwood, Benjamin Moore
An open shelf backed with a vibrant wallpaper displays a collection of colorful glassware.
To add more storage in the kitchen, Green uses vintage wooden fruit crates and a metal shelving unit. Some of the cranberry crates came from a cranberry farm next door to Green’s grandmother’s house.
The sofa in the living room faces a NanaWall that opens to a patio with large retractable screens. Sitting in the living room feels almost like sitting outside. “We can watch hummingbirds and a pair of nesting red-tail hawks. We can watch the sky, the clouds and any approaching weather,” Green says. “We can smell the Rosa rugosa transplanted from my father’s house.”
A collection of vintage toys and games in the corner of the living room serves as both decoration and entertainment.
“I think our home reflects our laid-back lifestyle, our Yankee frugality, our love of the land around us and our shared love of color,” Green says. Because of its small footprint, the house cleans up quickly and forces the coupleto be thoughtful about what new items they acquire.
“Living in a small home encourages more attention to curating our possessions and surrounds us with the things we love most,” she adds.
“I think our home reflects our laid-back lifestyle, our Yankee frugality, our love of the land around us and our shared love of color,” Green says. Because of its small footprint, the house cleans up quickly and forces the coupleto be thoughtful about what new items they acquire.
“Living in a small home encourages more attention to curating our possessions and surrounds us with the things we love most,” she adds.
“We believe in provenance, even the most humble — a great dump find or trash pick, for example,” Green says. Many objects in the house are meaningful and have stories behind them. For example, the wrought-iron bed was in Green’s grandmother’s summer home throughout her childhood.
Since retiring from her job as an educator, Green has taken up quilting in her free time. The colorful quilt on the bed is one of her recent projects.
Trim paint: Homestead Green, Benjamin Moore
Trim paint: Homestead Green, Benjamin Moore
The couple enjoy spending relaxing summer afternoons in the house quilting, reading and writing. Early mornings and late afternoons are usually spent outside.
Webb works as an engineer and was particularly interested in researching and selecting the heating system for the small home. Radiant floor heating freed up wall and floor space that heating registers, radiators and vents require. Since the home is built on a slab with no basement, a combination furnace and water heater by Navien was installed in a bedroom closet.
Radiant heating: Warmboard
How to Add a Radiant Heat System
Radiant heating: Warmboard
How to Add a Radiant Heat System
The bathroom vanity, a $35 find from Craigslist, was purple and blue when the couple bought it. Green refinished it, and Webb removed some shelves from the interior to make room for the plumbing.
The medicine chest is an old key box with numbered hooks to which the couple added shelves and a mirror from the craft store.
Vessel sink: Decolav; Monterrey faucet: American Standard
The medicine chest is an old key box with numbered hooks to which the couple added shelves and a mirror from the craft store.
Vessel sink: Decolav; Monterrey faucet: American Standard
Clear jars filled with rocks serve as doorstops around the house.
Vintage wooden berry crates add storage in the corner of the home’s only bathroom.
The couple absolutely love the location of their summer cottage, with the scent of the ocean nearby and the small town feel of Little Compton. The lush green landscape provides a beautiful habitat for wildlife, including birds, butterflies, fireflies, frogs and foxes.
See more photos of this home
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. Share your home with us and see more projects.
More home tours: Apartments | Small Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | All
See more photos of this home
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. Share your home with us and see more projects.
More home tours: Apartments | Small Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | All
Who lives here: Melinda Green, David Webb and Lulu, their 11-year-old Catahoula Leopard dog
Location: Little Compton, Rhode Island
Size: 640 square feet (59 square meters); one bedroom, one bathroom