Come Together

Ocean, family and friends animate a minimalist vacation home on Cape Cod.

With a primary residence in Boston not large enough to accommodate seven children and their families for holidays, a successful couple—a doctor and a scientist—built this contemporary home on the beach in Cape Cod where everyone can flock together any time of the year. Eco-conscious features make it an even happier place to be with geothermal heat, a solar array, bamboo floors, and a birch veneer ceiling that gradually tapers upward to open the aperture to the ocean.

Both spouses cook but for him it's a passion, so he was very involved in the design process, making sure the kitchen became the home's social epicenter. "I did their Boston kitchen the year before so we borrowed what worked really well there as a starting point," says designer Stephanie Horowitz of ZeroEnergy Design, who shares design credit with her colleagues Ben Uyeda and Donna Venegas. "He knew he wanted a larger range and he selected the Wolf 60-inch dual fuel with griddle for cooking up large breakfasts."

The open kitchen's laid-back vibe seems right at home in this relaxed, beach-combing community. Surfaces with minimal joint and zero grout lines are meant to appeal to the couple's lab sensibilities. Counters share a stainless steel finish with the Sub-Zero and Wolf, and a back-painted glass backsplash produces an ever-changing reflection of guests against the ocean horizon. Glass-covered doors on the recessed pantry echo the backsplash in the same clean aesthetic. "Insetting the cabinet gives a modern look and visually decreases the size of the kitchen," says Horowitz. "Why disguise the size? Some large kitchens can be a bit monotonous and jarring visually. Changing materials and the way cabinets and appliances are set into the space can give it a light and airy feel that really changes the way you experience it."