A pint-size Cape Cod cottage maximizes joy per square foot. / By Bruce D. Snider, Remodeling Magazine


BUILT TO SCALE
“The existing cottage was essentially one room with a loft,” says Budd, who expanded the sense of interior volume by developing functional areas—kitchen, sitting, dining—while minimizing the physical barriers between them. The island, with its pair of nesting stools and recessed bookcase, serves as a visual and functional bridge between the kitchen and the living space.

“The living room goes into the island a little bit, so it’s not a complete barricade,” Budd says. The resulting combined space, while compact, is still scaled to the human body. A cathedral ceiling over the living room and a view to the loft ceiling above “give you longer interior sight lines than you would ordinarily have in such a small space,” he notes.
Strategically deployed, low-slung cabinets handle clothing storage in minimal volume and with total discretion. “There’s no coat closet in the entire plan, so I had to buy something with hanging storage in it,” says Budd, who scored something of a coup with a sliding-door cabinet that hides in plain sight amid the living room’s midcentury modern furnishings.