photography: Erik Johnson For the dining room, designer Liz Stiving-Nichols ordered a table from Vintage Perkins, a company that utilizes reclaimed wood. The tabletop is "walked-smooth pine" from the floors of a mid-19th-century church.

If you're going to build, Mark says, "You've got to do it right." Together, the architect and his clients ended up constructing an entirely new cottage around the remains of the old one.

"There's a lot of architecture that brings attention to itself," Mark says, "but we wanted this new house to be recessive and modest. I wanted an uncomplicated and strong silhouette, much like the solitary barn bracing itself against the winter weather in an Andrew Wyeth painting."

photography: Erik Johnson Bright colors in the house make it “kid-friendly and more fun,” says Liz. Sliding barn doors here help separate the TV nook from the kitchen, dining, and family spaces.

photography: Erik Johnson In the usually wasted space under the stairs, cubbies keep the kids organized and make life easier: “We’re in a remote area and going to the grocery store is sometimes more trouble than you want,” explains Sydney. “We have all sorts of stuff stored in those drawers to get us from week to week.”

Sunlight filters through copper skylights into the very center of the house, where every wall is covered in horizontal V-groove Douglas fir. "This is a wood house inside and out," Mark says. "I don't think there's a bit of Sheetrock in it." And that's just how the Baths like it. Sydney says, "There were two schools of thought: natural wood versus white-painted wood, but I liked the way the natural wood looked." She took her neutral canvas and, with the help of Hutker Architects designer Liz Stiving-Nichols, punctuated it with bursts of bright color. "We wanted to really appreciate the wood," Liz says. So she found bright blue chairs and colorful rugs to break up the expanses of natural wood grain throughout the house.

Using intense colors can be surprising. "Before putting the orange hand-painted subway tiles in my bathroom, one of the contractors came to make sure it was the right color because it was so bright," Sydney says. "But like he said, ‘This house can take a lot of color. It just gobbles it up.' "

photography: Erik Johnson Built-ins in these areas make the house more efficient. In Sydney and Blake’s bedroom, the fir dresser and desk on the south wall provide convenient, attractive storage.

Mark also designed a built-in desk and dresser for the master bedroom, and cabinets and shelving units in the family room. "We like to accommodate clients' storage needs within the wall spaces," Mark says. "A home should be supporting and enclosing—these are the things that make a house feel more like a home."

Mark's favorite part of the Baths' cottage is their dining room and the way it seamlessly flows onto the back deck through French doors. He also loves the reclaimed heart-pine floor and the treatment the Baths gave it in this room. They painted the floorboards in a diamond pattern then sanded over them to reveal the grain of the wood. This "rug" anchors the dining table and adds an eye-catching twist.

photography: Erik Johnson