How to Create a Lakeside Farmhouse on Lake Erie

The rundown ranch looked like it hadn’t seen an update since it was built in the 1960s. Worse yet, it was dangerously close to a 75-foot drop down a cliff into Lake Erie — only a stone revetment had stopped the continued erosion of what had been a backyard. But Terry and Christine, who asked that their last names not be used, were unfazed. The recently retired Ashtabula, Ohio, couple had vowed they would live on Lake Erie one day, and lakefront real estate was hard to find in northeast Ohio, let alone an entire 2 acres.

Terry and Christine were as ready to build a new home as they were to demolish the existing one. Christine had wanted a modern farmhouse from the moment she first saw one on HGTV, a structure that combined traditional architecture with updated design elements. And both husband and wife wanted a pool, pool house, outdoor kitchen and fire pit, amenities they’d added behind their current residence. Architect Michael Caito and interior designer Brittany Chapple of Chardon, Ohio-based Payne & Payne Builders used the couple’s considerable input to create a four-bedroom, 4½-bath showplace, complete with lower-level gym, full bath and rec room, where they could age in place and continue entertaining in resort style.

Caito flipped the locations of the dining room and kitchen in his original floor-plan sketch at Christine’s request so she could enjoy the lake view framed by a bank of windows while she cooked and feel like she was part of any outdoor function. She also asked him to add a glass door to the covered veranda and backyard from the butler’s pantry so it conveniently supplements pool-house refrigeration and prep space when necessary.

“Every cabinet has a custom organizer in it,” Chapple notes. “They even have custom liquor-bottle pullouts.”

Pocket doors were added so the butler’s pantry could be closed off from the kitchen and hall. Other this-old-house features include a built-in hutch in the dining room, built-in drawers in a guest suite over the garage, and a brick sunroom fireplace Christine chose to paint black.

“I wanted not a lot of color but a lot of texture,” Christine says. “The modern farmhouse look [is] a lot of woods, a lot of black and cream.”

To achieve that, Payne & Payne contractors painted the interiors white and covered the floors in hand-scraped acacia. Exposed beams and trusses add rough-hewn warmth to the vaulted kitchen, great room and owners’ suite.

“I love shiplap, so I wanted to incorporate it into every room somehow,” Christine says, noting that it’s everywhere, from the great-room fireplace to the wall behind the vanity in the owners’ bath.

As a foil to banks of quartz-topped white kitchen cabinetry, Chapple suggested replicating KraftMaid’s Rustic Husk finish on the custom kitchen island and range-hood shroud, butler’s-pantry undercounter cabinetry and pocket doors, and hutch in the adjoining dining room.

Christine credits Chapple with guiding her in the choice of tile, as well. She settled on Anatolia’s bold black-and-white Steller pattern for the kitchen and butler’s-pantry backsplash and Anatolia’s black-and-white Lotus design for the laundry-room floor. The Antique Graphite selection from Wow-brand’s Mestizaje Chateau line, which boasts a blue-green cast and different iridescent pattern on every tile, brought Christine’s desired feeling of yesteryear to the gray Jack-and Jill guest bath.

The graphite diamond-patterned tile floor in the owners’ bath flows seamlessly into a zero-entry, white subway-tile shower. One of the most striking features in the house is a glass shower enclosure distinguished by black metal exterior muntin bars. 

“They wanted to bring an industrial feeling to the house,” Chapple says.

The climate-controlled pool house consists of a workshop where Terry washes the couple’s cars and tackles small woodworking projects; a kitchen with a bar and glass garage door that can be lowered or lifted as the weather dictates; half-bath and changing room with stackable washer-dryer; and lakeside screened-in porch with a wood-paneled vaulted ceiling and ledgestone fireplace. Just outside the kitchen, in front of a ledgestone exterior wall, is a gas pizza oven and grill. On the other side of the fireplace is an outdoor shower.

“I wanted it to look like a barn from the front of the house,” Christine says. “So, it’s very long.”

The pool house was roofed in the same metal and sided in the same charcoal-gray Hardie Board employed as an accent on the white Hardie Board house. To add texture, Caito shingled a section of the roof and outfitted the workshop with wooden barn doors. Terry and Christine worked with Blake’s Landscaping in Madison, Ohio, to design the infinity-edge pool and spa. A lift by Inclinator Co. of America lowers family and friends down the cliff to a metal deck at the lake’s edge.

Gone are the days when Terry and Christine invited a hundred people to a party. Today’s gatherings are limited to 10 or 15. But events are scheduled from spring through the holidays. And Terry insists that every room, every feature, on the property is used.

“Once it gets warm enough, we live in the outdoor space,” he says. “The only thing we do inside is sleep.”

New Trends in Home Design

For many years, the trend in new construction has been for an open floor plan, creating a spacious look between a home’s kitchen, dining room and living/ family room. And while that remains popular, says Jeremy Parish, the director of sales for Wayne Homes in Sandusky, Ohio, he notes that more potential buyers are looking for extra dens or offices off the main living space.

“There’s some cause and effect with the pandemic and people working from home,” Parish says. “But families want that extra space for their kids to hang out in. They don’t want everyone retreating to their bedrooms.”

Parish said basements are also being considered for more usable space, either as bedrooms (he notes that more houses are being built for multigenerational living) or hangout spaces for the kids. “We’re finishing basements right off the bat,” he says, noting that they’re usually considered projects that homeowners can put off. “A lot of basements are adding egress now, so they can count that square footage for appraisals.”

He is also noticing an uptick in demand for a formal dining room, in part because of that desire for separate gathering spaces and also because more people are eating at home.

“People are back to cooking at home and entertaining more,” he says. “People are definitely investing in kitchens and bathrooms.”

Parish says the trend in bathrooms is tile showers with benches built in as well as free-standing tubs. “People are looking for places to relax,” he says.

Clare Opfer of S&H Blinds & Floors in Sandusky has also noticed people spending more on their bathrooms, part of what she sees as a trend toward wellness spaces, which can include fitness rooms or even a place for yoga.

“A big trend we’re seeing is shower rooms, where the tub is in the shower itself, as well as steam showers and heated floors,” she says.

Steam showers, just as the name implies, are special showers designed and built with special tile and grouts not for water, but for steam, with a valve that comes out of the wall. “You sit in there and it helps you release tension and stress and toxins,” Opfer says. “Rather than a trip to the spa, you can do this at your leisure.”

Stay on top of everything Lake Erie has to offer — all year long — by subscribing to our free The Splash newsletter. It’s your guide to the best food, drinks, parks, beaches, shopping, festivals, music and more.