Ledgemere

Originally constructed in 1902 as a summer residence, Ledgemere was home to the West Bath Yacht Club for over 40 years until is reverted back to private ownership. After remaining vacant for a couple of years, new owners from Maryland discovered this beautiful property at the end of a peninsula in West Bath in 2011. With various out-buildings and a guest cottage, the owners worked on smaller projects before tackling the main house beginning in 2015.

A hands-on approach and festive design meetings with the architect over a couple years allowed the owners to truly understand how they would want to use their summer home and we were able to turn their ideas into reality.

The large and imposing façade was reduced by removing a small unfortunate addition and replacing that with a new entry, mudroom, office and a much more gracious porch. A metal roof wrapped the addition and continued around the screen porch with curved wooden brackets to bring the scale of the cottage down to a more pedestrian level.

Much of the interior finish was retained but rooms were opened up to create more open plan concept. Most importantly, the kitchen was designed to integrate entertaining for family, friends, and cooking with two large islands and purposeful drawers and cabinets. Andirons were recycled into pot racks, and a custom finish on the cabinets was matched from found driftwood.

The large stone fireplace is used to separate the living room from the dining room, and elements like the box window is used to display a large model boat. No gypsum board or plaster was used and much of the wood from the demolition was re-purposed or cosmetically repaired throughout construction.

Ledgemere is a testament to the owner’s taste and touch with their hands-on approach to the design and construction process. Furniture, lighting, and other elements reflect the owner’s talents and skills in repurposing objects like cleats and a sail as a shower curtain, or frames from driftwood found while kayaking.