Dream Home: A Small Country Cape in Vermont

I love a small house that has been thoughtfully designed, and this “petite antique classic country Cape” in Vermont is a perfect example. It was built in the 1820s and needed a lot of work when the architectural firm Smith & Vansant was hired to update it: “The size of the original building was very small, so everything we did needed to respect that scale.”

They made smart use of every corner, niche, and inch of space. Take a look!

A Small Country Cape in Vermont

I first featured it four years ago, and it’s always been one of my faves. When I found some more photos of it, I knew it was time to revisit this gem.

“The house is quite small by today’s standards,” says Pi Smith, the project architect.

“All of the spaces we designed are working really hard.”

This is a house for readers, with built-in bookshelves tucked into almost every room.

They wanted to use “every conceivable nook & cranny as creatively as possible for storage.”

There’s a studio where the homeowner can work on her craft projects:

There’s even a book niche in the small powder room:

A second staircase leads to the kitchen, and more storage was added underneath:

The homeowners requested a new “sunlit, eat-in farmhouse kitchen that would be the center of the house.”

This is what the kitchen used to look like (!!):

The client had been dreaming of a kitchen renovation for the first 15 years she lived here: “While she waited, she filled her barn with collections in anticipation of the day they would rebuild, storing vintage plumbing fixtures, light fixtures, cabinet hardware and antique tiles, among other things.”

“The renovation began with the kitchen, and the kitchen began with this oversized salvaged sink, which had been waiting in the barn for years for its moment in the sun,” according to Houzz.

The laundry and mudroom at the back of the house has a handy pet tub:

The homeowners wanted the spaces to have a better indoor-outdoor relationship.

The back porch gives them an easy way to enjoy their beautiful backyard.

For more information about their work, visit the Smith & Vansant website. (Photo credit: Rob Karosis; GC Ludwig Leskovar.) I would love to have a country house like this. It’s been one of my fantasies since first watching Diane Keaton move to Vermont back in the ’80s!

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by hookedonhouses via Home And Garden