“The main volume presents a traditional front and is wrapped on the west and south by a deep porch,” says architect Erin Sterling Lewis. “Living and dining spaces access the porch.” A standing seam metal roof with a Kynar finish and HardiePlank Lap Siding cover the exterior of this 3,000-square-foot home.
A thirty-something couple with two young children envisioned a home in Wake County, North Carolina, that would be practically oxymoronic: simultaneously old and modern, resembling properties of the past but with the clean lines of the present. As an organic farmer and a radiologist, they were already experienced with uniting disparate backgrounds, and they called upon principal Erin Sterling Lewis of in situ studio to find the same balance for their impending address. Naturally, one of the first things Lewis did was study the classics. The couple desired a farmhouse, so Lewis drove around the area until she found longstanding structures made in that style. She and her team kept Historic Architecture of Wake County, a book by Kelly A. Lally, in easy access at the office. She referenced other architects, made drawings of her own, and then unveiled a cohesive vision to her clients. They now drive off a two-lane road to arrive at a secluded homestead where traditional details bolster a modern floor plan. “Two children sleep upstairs, and the master suite stretches towards the forest in the rear of the house,” Lewis says. Two opposing ideas made for one wholesome finish.
