Growing up on a cattle farm in rural Ohio, Greg Dutton saw and loved a lot of timeworn houses. But the 1920s cottage at the edge of his family’s property held particular fascination. “We would drive by, and my mom would always say, ‘Oh, that would be such a cute little family guesthouse for people to stay in when they’re in from out of town,’ ” the architect remembers. Call it manifesting: Decades later, when the neighbor moved out and abandoned the house, eventually putting it up for sale, mom got her wish. Greg, now a principal of Midland Architecture, based in Columbus, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, and his wife, interior designer Liz Dutton of Liz Dutton Interiors, set about saving the property.
“There’s a certain wisdom and intelligence in the design, even though it’s a ramshackle cottage,” Liz says, pointing to the simple two-bedroom layout that required no reinvention, and to the position of the house on the land. “You open up a window, and a nice cool breeze sweeps in. Everything automatically slows down.” As the front porch was falling in and the front roof was failing, those had to be rebuilt. But inside, less proved more.
Without taking the house down to the studs, the couple added insulation and salvaged the original wavy glass, single-pane windows. Peeling up four layers of linoleum flooring, they found original heart pine boards. “It had this beautiful kind of pinkish hue, so we used that as a touchstone throughout,” Greg says. “The cabinet color plays off of it, as do the terra-cotta tiles on the bathroom floor. The house had such a nice patina, so it was more about, How do we turn up the volume on that?”
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New board-and-batten ceiling paneling, “just plywood and strips of red oak,” Greg says, evokes the old architecture. A few vintage and antique accents dot the rooms. “We were pretty intentional about having these little pockets of filigree, and then also letting the space show itself off,” Greg says. Used as a guesthouse, just as his mom had hoped, the cottage is now much more than the sum of its parts. “When someone walks in the door, it’s not just functionally a place to stay,” Liz explains. “It’s warm and welcoming, and it breaks your heart, just a little bit.”
Exterior
“In Ohio, there’s a wildflower called goldenrod,” architect Greg Dutton says. “That’s how we picked the color for the house. Spring through early fall, it blends in because there are specks of yellow all around it.” The porch, newly rebuilt, catches the same afternoon breeze it has for a hundred years.
Living Room
Strips of plywood and red oak add interest to the ceiling. The Duttons discovered a fireplace under the plaster wall and restored it. “Ohio has four seasons, and they’re all extreme,” Liz says.
A patinated old cabinet stows bedding and sun hats. “The quiet and peace of the space, and the texture and integrity of all the material choices, we didn’t want to cover that up,” Greg says.
Walls: Lime Wash #101, JH Wall Paints (left), and Tyler Gray, Benjamin Moore (right). Antiques: Jayson Home (chairs) and The Rural Society Antique & Garden Show (coffee table).
Kitchen
Removing a floor hatch to the basement improved flow and made room for a breakfast table.
Tile: Zia Tile. Range: Bertazzoni. Antiques: Springfield Antique Show (chair) and Threadgoode Vintage (table).
The original pantry cabinets inspired the new kitchen.
Walls and cabinetry in Renwick Beige by Sherwin-Williams draw out pink tones in the woodwork. Sink: Signature Hardware. Sconces and taps: deVOL.
Bathroom
An old cast-iron tub from Columbus Architectural Salvage shines on the inside, thanks to “a lot of Magic Erasers and Bar Keepers Friend,” Liz says. The exterior was left as is.
Shower curtain: Parachute. Floor: Clé Tile.
Bedroom
“You’ll wake up and see a half dozen horses just sitting there by the fence,” Liz laughs.
Bed: vintage Jenny Lind, Etsy. Rug: vintage, Swoon Rugs.
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