Fairy Tale Gatehouse at Minnesota

Fairy Tale Gatehouse at Minnesota

The owner of this home knows how to get around — she loves traveling to Europe, wintering in Arizona and even moving from place to place in this four-acre Lake Minnetonka property. The grounds include the main house, carriage house, boathouse and now this new gatehouse, which she uses as guest quarters and a place to sneak away for quiet moment. She’s also an avid antiques collector, so the majority of the accessories, furniture and architectural elements came from her collection.

“My customer has done a lot of traveling in Europe and has a keen interest in English and French architecture,” states Jeff Murphy of Murphy & Co.. Design. The house “resembles a stone cabin seen in France or England.” To get the look, he studied the facts, proportions and massing of English cottages from the 1600s to the 1800s. He used reclaimed stone, brick and dog-eared cut slate on the exterior and mirrored beams, ceiling boards and floors indoors, all accented by the client’s antiques.

at a Glance
Location: Deephaven, Minnesota, on a wooded site on Lake Minnetonka
Size: 860 square feet

Murphy & Co.. Layout

Long before the proprietor had the house, she had the antique chimney pot and a stash of limestone for the facade, recovered from pilings from the 1889 Lake Street bridge in Minneapolis.

Copper accents outside comprise the patinated bucket, the rain string and the ridge cap. The first two are antiques; the zoning cap “was something that the builder, Bill Ziegler, and I worked on to get an older-looking design, but with all the ventilation requirements for the attic,” Murphy says.

Murphy & Co.. Layout

A 1744 French fireback gives people a hint about the antique finds that wait inside. “When my customer sees something that she enjoys, she buys it, even if she does not have a location for it. She keeps each of these antiques and architectural bits in a garage, then picks and chooses from them when she is doing a project,” says Murphy.

Murphy & Co.. Layout

The house has a gorgeous pond and wildlife supporting it, all set in rolling forests. Cable railings keep the view of the pond available for diners to enjoy. The occasional fox sighting gave the house its name, Fox Hollow.

Murphy & Co.. Layout

“My customer is an avid gardener, and the property looks like an arboretum,” says Murphy. On this side of the house, the operator’s green thumb and collecting skills match — roses grow an old French orangerie window. A weeping spruce adds its own distinctive profile to the site.

Murphy & Co.. Layout

“Since the proprietor is very into gardening and landscaping, she devised a design for front brick courtyard and plantings,” Murphy says. The bricks on the entry terrace were recovered from the streets of Minneapolis.

Murphy & Co.. Layout

Even though the windows are fresh, “We given authentic wood Marvin windows to give it a more authentic appearance, along with the non-crank-out casement kind, which are push-out and have hinged wood displays on the inside,” Murphy says.

The timber lintels beneath the windows are recovered, as is almost all of the wood inside the house and out.

Murphy & Co.. Layout

“It is not hard to find the reclaimed timber; there are several distinct dealers that specialize in this,” Murphy says. “They will often find other architectural items when they tear down a building, like the old slate shingles … the builder discovered these at the timber dealer’s lawn.” The roof, using its rare dog ear-shaped shingles, arrived in the 1810 Pennsylvania barn.

Murphy & Co.. Layout

Inside, the vaulted ceiling and open design make the “great hall” feel larger, while reclaimed materials allow it to feel older.

“The owner actually has a fantastic sense of interior design and style, and also did all the interior decorating herself,” says Murphy. She bought the French baker’s rack several years ago, and Murphy designed the windows so that it would fit perfectly between the them.

Murphy & Co.. Layout

Most of the timber came from mid-19th-century barns. The bamboo ceiling timbers came from a Minnesota barn built in the 1860s; the walnut planks, from the other Minnesota barn built in the 1870s. The flooring came from a Wisconsin barn built in the 1880s.

“The combined details were something that our workplace investigated and drew in the facts of our architectural drawings, according to old traditional timber framing details,” says Murphy.

Murphy & Co.. Layout

Murphy & Co.. Layout

This vignette comprises more widespread finds; the sailboat within the fireplace is a pond sailer from Seattle. The stone fireplace surround came from a quarry in Derby, Iowa, while the firebrick traveled all the way from Italy. The owner bought the steer hide rug from a street vendor outside Scottsdale, Arizona.

Murphy & Co.. Layout

The kitchen contains an antique butcher block table, sconces from an early 1900s Wisconsin cottage and vintage copper pâté molds from France on the wall.

Murphy & Co.. Layout

Murphy positioned the breakfast alcove to take full advantage of morning light. The leather sheet seats are from Vermont, and also the vintage stand came from a French drugstore.

A couple of unexpected modern touches keep the space fresh, such as stainless steel kitchen counters, an Eames lounge chair and outsider art.

Murphy & Co.. Layout

Reclaimed materials continue in the bedroom the proprietor discovered these distinctive doors in France about 20 decades ago. The bamboo millwork came in the 1870 tobacco barn in Winchester, Kentucky.

Just for fun: The builder hid a filled white mouse somewhere in this room for the proprietor to find. Can you see it?

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