With a weekend house, showiness is not the point. Take, for example, the big island in the kitchen/dining room of Danny and Katie MacNelly’s Scottsville getaway. Deceptively simple, it provides workspace, eating space, and enough extra room for a puzzle in progress. It’s a focal point, but its materials are not luxurious.
“We talked about granites and marbles, but it seemed too formal,” said Katie, who heads Richmond-based Architecture Firm. Rather, the island top is made of beams salvaged from the converted warehouse where Danny works as a director at the design firm 3north. Milled into 2″ planks, the heart pine brings a minimalism and warmth to the center of the house. Any water damage or irregularities in the wood are part of its appeal—and, said Danny, “It’s easy to sand it down and start over. Nothing’s that precious.”
That attitude sums up the house. In designing a place for themselves and their three sons, ages 4, 7, and 9, to spend weekends, the MacNellys wanted to create an environment the family could revel in—a building to match the ruggedly beautiful site they’d selected on the south bank of the James River. As Danny put it, “It needed to be durable and useful, not a monument to architecture.”
The two UVA grads, now based in Richmond, knew they loved Albemarle. And while they wanted their weekend spot to be near water, Danny said, “I don’t want to own a boat.” This bluff over the river fit the bill.
Elements
In pondering the house’s basic scheme, the MacNellys first imagined a long bar shape. The bluff, though, has a rounded form. Eventually they settled on a collection of separate volumes, arranged in a rough semicircle—“like rocks around the campfire,” said Danny.
What began as a single cabin is here broken into three parts. Two are connected by a glassed entryway, while the third, housing guest quarters, stands alone on the far side of the wedge-shaped deck. Some distance away, a fourth building—the garage—complements the house in finish and form.
The home’s exterior reflects the couple’s minimalist taste, which they were able to fully indulge here (in contrast to their Richmond home, an older house in the Fan district). Each of the house’s three parts has a single-slope roof, with the center volume growing taller toward the river and the other two sloping the opposite way. Nearly all the windows face the James, so that on the driveway side, the blank walls enclose an informal patio centered on an outdoor fireplace.
Made of Buckingham slate, the patio echoes the color of the exterior walls, made of shiplap cedar stained black. “It feels like something you just encounter,” said Katie, “with the blackness of the volumes and the blankness of the façade, minimizing the entry.”
Spaces to gather
If the house seems modest on approach, it allows a measure of drama within the center volume, where the kitchen and living spaces are found. Big windows face the river, and sliding doors to the deck can be opened to create a room that melds indoors and outdoors.
The woodsy view—including, in winter, sightlines along and across the James—stand in relief against the interior’s stripped-down, modern flavor. Whitewashed cedar covers the walls and ceiling, lending an unassuming texture. A simple Carrara marble fireplace surround and white fireplace bricks build out the palette of pale hues, contrasting with dark-stained oak flooring.
The kitchen is deliberately minimized in every detail. “We wanted it to be functional, easy to use, but not make it look like a kitchen,” said Danny. Cabinets, arranged in a single bank, are made of the same material as the walls, and there are no upper cabinets. The fridge is hidden in the pantry, and the stove hood is recessed in the ceiling. Baseboards are eliminated; heating vents are camouflaged in the floor and the island.
Such careful detailing allows the views and a few select interior elements—a gold-framed landscape painting and a modern light fixture—to shine. The space draws guests, flowing easily onto the deck.
“People gather here,” said Katie. “Usually it’s kind of a loud place. We like the energy of that.”
The private areas are near, but quite separate. The master bedroom overlooks the river, and both bathrooms are lit by skylights, their tall walls covered in white subway tile (with dark grout for easier maintenance).
The boys’ room packs in the sleeping space for 10—four sets of bunk beds and two trundle beds —to welcome tons of friends. “We figured we’d sleep them like in a submarine,” said Danny. The bed frames, built of humble 2x4s and 2x12s painted white, are stylish and sturdy, and they flank a single vertical window that turns the woodsy view outside into a kind of living artwork.
Builder Peter Johnson finished the house in May 2013, and the MacNellys have settled into a comfortable weekend routine of tubing on the James, shooting hoops in the driveway, and letting their boys explore. “They’re so much more adventurous now,” Katie said.
And they already envision another possible structure near the existing ones. “It’s fun to think about the next 20 or 30 years,” said Katie. “There’s plenty of room to keep doing things.”
The breakdown
Architect: Architecture Firm
Landscape architect: Serena Nelson and Architecture Firm
Builder: Peter Johnson Builders
Square footage: 2,200
Structural system: CMU foundations, engineered lumber floors and roof, wood stick frame wall construction
Exterior materials: Stained cedar
Interior finishes: Stained cedar walls, stained oak floors, custom butcher block counters and dining table, custom stained cedar millwork
Roof materials: EPDM membrane roof
Window system: Western Window Systems multi-slide doors
Mechanical systems: Air source heat pump, underfloor supply and return
Other notable, custom, or innovative features: Custom furniture pieces by 510_fabricators in Richmond, Virginia