Shaw Design Associates

Mar 2006

At the top of a steep hill in Chapel Hill’s Governors Club, where the view reaches all the way to Raleigh, architect Keith Shaw sited the Daphne and Crowell Little residence that, at first viewing, brings to mind an English country cottage. Vines curl over and around the wooden doors of the detached two-car garage. The house, with its steeply pitched hip roof, flared eves, gray cedar shingle siding, and crisp white columns and trim, rests quietly amidst lush landscaping. A perfectly scaled, pedimented portico provides a covered entrance to the double front doors. Just around the corner, a short, columned breezeway connects house and garage, enticing visitors to peak around the corner before going inside. The visual scale of the entrance court, tucked away from view from the street, belies the size and levels of the Little’s home. From that peak, the back of the house steps down the steep hill, providing opportunities for an assortment of outdoor living spaces: upper porches, a lower veranda, and a “grill porch” for outdoor grilling and dining. “Actually, this was not the house I had in my head,” Daphne Little admits. “But the house I had in my head didn’t fit this lot. One thing Keith said early on was, ‘The lot speaks loudly. You have to listen to what it tells you.’ Fortunately, I also had the good sense to listen to my architect.” Crowell Little is a mortgage banker, a UNC-Chapel Hill alumnus (class of 1972), and a diehard Carolina Football fan. According to Daphne, their home becomes “football central” in the fall, filled with fellow Carolina fans who come over to eat and drink and watch the games. To accommodate that crowd, as well as their extended family at holidays, yet keep the interior cozy and comfortable for just the couple, Shaw designed the main, entrance-level floor plan to allow the formal living and dining rooms to be separated from the more casual spaces yet close by enough for guests to easily spill into them when necessary. Throughout this level, Shaw used crown molding to mitigate the lofty ceiling height and clerestory windows to draw natural light deep into the interior. To the left of the rather formal entrance hall is the heart of the home: the kitchen. There, the cottage ambience recurs in recessed-panel white cabinetry and casework – including a custom-designed and detailed wood range hood -- and angled clapboard ceilings, complemented by dusty green walls. Off the front of the kitchen is the Keeping Room, so named in colonial times for multi-use spaces off the kitchen, complete with a fireplace for coziness and warmth. Outside the Keeping Room, a screened porch projects into the treetops as the site drops away below. An outdoor fireplace warms the porch in chilly weather. To the right of the Keeping Room, a staircase descends around the breakfast nook and past a composition of large, cascading windows that fill the interior stairwell with natural light. The stair concludes in a slate-floored lower foyer. Generous windows offer views and natural light on this level, which includes a large family/media room, guest rooms and bath, and a veranda and the grill porch.

Chapel Hill, NC