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The inspiration for Amy Studebaker’s stunning design of a lakeside Missouri vacation home couldn’t be clearer. “In the spring of 2014,” she says, “before any work started, I took a trip with the client to Nantucket and Cape Cod to get a look and feel for the Eastern shore.”
As she toured, Studebaker took note of details: the grayed-out cedar shingles in which the homes are clad, the clean shiplap construction of the walls and ceilings, the board-and-batten hallways and staircases. She studied the architecture of Dutch colonial gables and the multiplicity of windows that enhance views of the water and the shore.
In the clean sunlight of ocean and beach, she memorized the colors of sand and shells, of driftwood and of once-bright paints weathered by water and light. For their project, the client and Studebaker chose a palette of basic white with pops of color—some strong, others muted—and returned to St. Louis to begin work on the 6,500-square-foot home. The project took nearly two years to complete.
Today, passersby see a conventional façade. A Dutch gable and portico sit center front, flanked by side gables. A high tower, visible from the street, hints of less conventional spaces. By design, the house discloses itself to the viewer in stages.
“The back of the house opens up to the water with tall windows everywhere,” Studebaker says. Dramatic reveals, framed by architectural constructs, are hidden throughout—for instance, in the space just outside the master bedroom suite.
“I used a simple mirror framed in bright-yellow driftwood over a classic gray loveseat [at] the entry to the suite,” Studebaker says. “When you turn into the bedroom, there are windows and views of the water on three sides.”
Studebaker commissioned Martin Goebel to craft two handmade wooden showpieces for the house: a dramatic canopy bed of Western cedar and white oak and a dining table crafted from a single slab of spalted elm. (Spalting is the process in which various colors—in this case, blue and green—develop when a piece of wood is exposed to fungus.) The undulating live edge of the mammoth plank underscores the natural character of the wood.
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In the great room, Studebaker used stone to construct the floor-to-ceiling fireplace, another reference to the natural world. Triangular trusses counterpoint the extensive use of shiplap in the room. “The sofa and chairs, with the curved wood frames, add a feeling of ‘Grandma’s house’ to the room, while the white slipcovers make this a relaxing, family-friendly space,” Studebaker says.
Throughout the house, Studebaker used shiplap to create horizontal and vertical movement, as in the barrel-vaulted ceiling in the dining room. She enhanced those rhythms by choosing striped rugs and textiles of varying designs and colors. “The stripes are also a nautical motif,” she says. “The patterns are comfortable for men and women both.”
Natural details—such as the fan of coral that sits atop a weathered green chest in the entry and the oversized open grapevine basket that hangs in the living room—serve as accents.
Other surprises include a step-up from the kitchen to the breakfast nook that affords some privacy, says Studebaker, and the clever use of space in the master suite that doesn’t disrupt the lines of the bed. “We mounted lamps in the cove, and we built nightstands into the shiplap to make that work,” she says.
For Studebaker, the greatest satisfaction on the project came when she and the client walked through the finished house: “She had been out of town throughout the construction; I had been making all the design decisions. Oh my gosh, it was so thrilling to hear her excitement!”
