Tim Cuppett and Marco Rini are native Texans who live in Austin and have no connections to New England. That said, after a thorough search up and down both coasts, they landed on Oak Bluffs as the ideal seaside locale for a vacation home. Cuppett, an architect and interior designer, and Rini, a landscape designer, now spend elongated summer seasons in an 830-square-foot gingerbread cottage. The home is part of the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association, a community that began as a collection of tents during the religious camp meeting movement of the mid-19th century.
The couple collaborated with local design/build firm South Mountain Company on an extensive renovation. Their goal? To bring the Victorian-era cottage into the current century while retaining its character and sense of place. Despite its tiny size, the cottage was quite a project. “The house was on the market for over a year and such a mess that nobody would touch it,” Cuppett says. “It was leaning on the house next door.” Yes, the houses are that close to one another.
In addition to straightening the listing structure, South Mountain Company insulated it, rebuilt the windows and doors as well as the decks and porch, and hand dug a basem*nt for the new, high-performance mechanical systems. It’s now extremely energy-efficient, exactingly executed within the district’s strict historical preservation requirements.
The team also renewed the floors. In the front half of the first floor, that entailed pulling up the boards, refinishing the underside, then reinstalling them bottom side up. Where boards could not be salvaged, they filled in with pine reclaimed from century-old chicken coops. Artifacts they unearthed during the process include a Revolutionary-era bottle, toys, and newspapers from John F. Kennedy’s presidency.
Cuppett and Rini furnished the cottage almost entirely with inherited heirlooms and found vintage pieces. An exception is the living room’s contemporary Gervasoni sofa, made cozy with a floral coverlet. Across from it, a drop-leaf table that belonged to Cuppett’s grandmother sits under a midcentury modern Louis Poulsen pendant; vintage chairs with new rush seats woven by local artisan Sue Tonry of Wicked Martha’s surround the table. A gallery wall featuring family photos is the backdrop. “Most of what’s here is from our ancestors,” Cuppett says. “We wanted the cottage to feel like it had been in our family for generations.”
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A newly cut passageway connects that front room to the study, where generations of snapshots are tacked up on the shingled wall. Old history books bought on the island and curiosities abound, including a vintage typewriter that Rini uses to write thank-you notes. A built-in bed lets the room double as an extra place for guests.
At the back of the cottage, Benjamin Moore’s Marblehead Gold paint sets the kitchen aglow, a nod to Rini’s unfulfilled desire for a fireplace. Cuppett pulled the color from the vintage bark cloth curtains that picture the village of Menemsha. The fabric, an Etsy find, was the first thing the pair purchased for the home. “This funny fabric became a touchstone for everything we did,” Cuppett says.
The kitchen feels, appropriately, assembled over time. South Mountain Company built the free-standing sink cabinet and island from sinker cypress, old growth timber that sunk to river bottoms in northern Florida and southern Georgia around the turn of the last century. A butter yellow Big Chill fridge feels more authentic than kitschy, and sets of dishes from both men’s grandmothers are displayed.
A mirror hanging above Rini’s grandmother’s desk, now painted the same yellow as the walls, bounces light into the dark space. “Light from the study goes through the bathroom’s glass door and an interior window transfers it into the kitchen,” Cuppett says. On the other side of the room, by the staircase, South Mountain Company inserted plexiglass panels into the ceiling to pull light down from the guest bedroom above it.
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The cottage retains its original steep stairway to the second floor, but includes a new hand-carved barley twist handrail, a surprise from Ken Leuchtenmacher, a woodworker at South Mountain Company. The rope effect fits nicely with Lindsey Adelman’s nautical sconce on the adjacent wall, a splurge. “We live small so we can have some expensive things we really love,” Cuppett says.
The back bedroom, painted Benjamin Moore’s Valentine Memories, is outfitted with twin beds that belonged to Rini’s grandmother. In the primary bedroom, Cuppett designed the headboard affixed under the eaves based on shapes from the gingerbread trim on the front of the home. Vintage watercolor seascapes by local artists speak to the view. “We get the quiet of the campground, but between the buildings we can see to the bustling harbor,” Cuppett says. “Most of the other cottages here face inward; the view makes this one special.”
Resources
Architectural and interior designer: Cuppett Kilpatrick Architecture + Interior Design, cuppettkilpatrick.com
Project architect and builder: South Mountain Company, southmountain.com
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Marni Elyse Katz is a contributing editor to the Globe Magazine. Follow her on Instagram @StyleCarrot. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.
