Second Wind

After decades of raising a family and building a life, Virginia and Rob set out to create something different: a home on the water in Old Saybrook, built around the outdoors they’d spent a lifetime immersed in; a house that welcomed a full table of family and friends, and one that felt just as good when it was only the two of them.

We designed around that duality. A remote-controlled trapdoor in the ceiling conceals the living room TV until it’s needed, keeping the space open to the water view the rest of the time. Virginia has a light-filled office of her own; Rob has a barrel-vaulted, mahogany-lined sunroom for reading, cocooned and quiet. But the room that got the most excitement wasn’t for the adults at all. Upstairs, off the party room, a woodland-inspired playroom for their four grandchildren is reached only through a hidden hobbit door, climbed up and over the back of a sofa.

The best part? Every grandchild who visits finds that door before they find anything else. Photography: Ed Bermudez