Room of the Week: A Lake House Library in the Trees

A bibliophilic couple creates a serene office and library space with views overlooking an adjacent lake

Annie Thornton 19 November 2014

Houzz Editorial Staff

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Two years ago a couple found their perfect lake house retreat, a home built in the footprint of an old camp on Lake Champlain, Vermont. They were drawn to the simple, well-executed architecture of this house in the trees. So when they decided to add a garage and two more bedrooms, they turned to the home’s original architect, Don Welch, who had built it for the previous owners 12 years ago.

With the addition, the homeowners realised they now could convert their existing two bedrooms and bathroom into a master suite. They had an extensive book collection and loved to read. That led them to turn one of the original two bedrooms into a library-office — a dedicated reading room with a view of the lake.

Room at a Glance
Who lives here A cardiologist with a passion for woodworking, and his wife, who helped keep the room focused and functional
Architect and Builder Don Welch of Don Welch Architecture, Dan Clar of Clar Construction
Location Colchester, Vermont
Size 11 feet by 19 feet (3.6 by 5.8 meters)

Don Welch Architecture

Don removed the second bedroom’s fourth wall and opened up the space to the bathroom and master bedroom that lie just beyond the doorway opening. He raised its 8-foot ceiling up to a 14-foot peak to match the master bedroom’s ceiling.

The husband is an accomplished woodworker — he built the library ladder seen in this photo — and Don wanted to incorporate this reverence for craft into his design. He wanted the shelving to be a piece of furniture the homeowners would appreciate for its fabrication and complexity, in addition to its being a home for their books.

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Don Welch Architecture

The library-office is in the far left corner of the main house; one of its windows is beneath the small gable. Walk 50 feet to the left of the house and you’ll be at the lake. The garage-bedroom addition is on the right.

Don Welch Architecture

Don used cherry and maple for the bookcase. The dark cherry grounds the piece, while the light maple brightens the room. The maple’s clean grain doesn’t compete with the books and highlights them as the room’s most important feature. The two materials meet in a wave that undulates around the room like the waves roll across the lake outside. Small cherry inlays appear throughout the shelving unit to create the effect of a solid piece of furniture. Everything is coated with a finish by Vermont Natural Coatings.

The homeowners’ collection is extensive, but Don didn’t want to overwhelm the room with wall-to-wall books. ‘The room is as much about displaying the books as it is a space where the homeowners can sit, read and enjoy their dream house from the lake’s other side,’ says Don. He designed the main wall to hold the majority of the library and wrapped the shelves around the room’s perimeter. He added window seats to break up the expanse of shelving and give the homeowners a place in which to cosy up.

Don Welch Architecture

Don and contractor Dan Clar explored ways they could elevate details. ‘We were talking about how these shelves could stack and overlap,’ says Don. They broke up the regularity of the shelving with double-height shelves for displaying art. They carried the lines from the corner shelves and display shelves throughout the wall.

After Don designed the project, Dan and his team figured out construction. ‘The biggest challenge of this project was how to build it,’ says Dan. The room was too small for building the bookcase on-site, so they constructed smaller units off site, carried them upstairs and assembled them in the room. Four units comprise the main wall of books.

‘The shelves would be challenging to build regardless of where they ended up, but building them off-site and having them look like they were built in place was hugely challenging,’ says Don.

Clar Construction

Near the back of the room, a built-in desk projects off the bookcase, repeating the language and many of the details from the bookcase. Sitting in the desk chair, the homeowners can just peek over the top to the room beyond.

Don always envisioned the desk as a substantial furniture piece. The solid desk area frames a seating area for recliners in front of it and creates a cosy workspace in which to sit and focus. Dan says the desk’s complexity and bespoke size made this the project’s most time-consuming piece.

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Don Welch Architecture

This view from the lake shows the house with its master bedroom suite on the top level, including the library-office on the right behind the trees.

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