Once the original pro shop for the Woodland Country Club in Carmel, IN, this home almost begged for a modern update. Designer Gary Nance’s vision provided a map for us to achieve a truly singular renovation, incorporating elements of the original building to preserve its history while adding interest.
The Challenge: Multiple Renovations to a Historical Building
Built in the 1950s as a pro shop for the Woodland Country Club, this lovely milled-timber construction had seen several expansions and remodels over the decades. While much of the original charm of the old structure had been maintained, the house lacked a cohesive vision and felt somewhat patched together, with rooms added as needed (and where there was space) rather than incorporated into an intentional flow.
Our clients bought the house and each of the lots on either side, planning to create a private space for their children and grandchildren to visit. We worked with talented designer Gary Nance to create a solution that built upon and embellished the structure’s historical roots while better suiting our clients’ lifestyle and personality.
Our remodeling goals:
- Create a private, estate-like place to welcome visiting children and grandchildren
- Retain the rustic charm of the original building while harmonizing previous renovations into a more coherent layout
- Add a garage that would not only house the family’s street vehicles but also accommodate a golf cart
The Solution: Harmonize Old and New into a Uniquely Cohesive Style
Bringing the milled-timber exterior indoors as a design feature
Gary Nance’s inspired design not only unified multiple renovations occurring over decades but also ingeniously wrapped the exterior walls into the interior space to preserve them and give them prominence as part of home’s charm.
With the extra lots on either side of the home to provide a buffer, we built a porticoed, three-car garage on one side and converted the existing garage on the opposite side into the home’s master suite and two-bedroom guest suite with its own bath. Then we pushed the front of the house outward, creating a new entryway and bringing the old timber walls into the living space.
Although we wanted to preserve the weathered, rustic appearance of the old timbers, we brightened the chinking between timbers to add a clean, fresh appeal. Coupled with the wide staircase with its white-painted turned railings, the effect is one of warmth and timeworn sturdiness.
Crafting a fireplace to look 80 years old (with a hidden pocket door)
Behind the new garage and off the new entryway, we built a grand, lodge-like great room and tucked a wet bar to one side, with a beer cooler, built-in wine racks, and a small island for sitting and sipping drinks.
The great room’s focal point, however, is a towering fieldstone fireplace. Crafted in a style that echoes the home’s historical origins, this full-masonry fireplace adds a relaxed but commanding presence to the room. It also presented an engineering challenge for us: installing a TV that could be hidden away when not in use.
In order to prevent the television from looking “stuck on” to the masonry, we constructed a shallow stone surround for it and ensconced it in a decorative frame using the same wood we used for the small mantlepiece. We then engineered and crafted pocket doors that fold back into the masonry — no small feat here, with no margin for error. The result is both beautiful and functional.
Bringing country lodge dining to the suburbs with a timber dining hall
Gatherings for our clients’ growing family require an expansive space for gathering to share meals. With its high ceilings and rustic beams, their new dining room brings a touch of country lodge to the suburbs. Elegant candelabra chandeliers provide decorative illumination while recessed lights in the tongue-and-groove ceiling ensure diners have the light they need to enjoy their food’s presentation. Distressed pine flooring — carried throughout the home — is oiled to a high, tough, easy-to-clean gloss. An understated brick fireplace at one end adds ambience, and large windows and glass-paned doors let in natural light. Each element blends with the others to create a stateliness worthy of dinner parties without losing the room’s welcoming warmth.
Details that delight: railed sleeping nooks, a sweet kitchen hearth, and covered porches for enjoying the view
This whole-house renovation overflows with charming details that make it homey as well as functional. On the second floor — which offers a small sitting room, arts & craft space, and a spacious office — cozy sleeping nooks with removable safety rails nestle into a cabineted wall, waiting for grandchildren to visit.
One end of the kitchen opens to an understated country hearth where family and guests can gather and chat by the fire, keeping the busy cook company.
On the front and back of the house we added covered porches to allow guests to enjoy summer breezes and to take advantage of the golf course views, while a screened room next to the garage provides escape from Midwestern insects during the hottest months.
Every detail of the home has been designed to give family and guests spaces in which to gather, laugh, and enjoy one another’s company.
