Who hasn’t dreamed about having their own private island getaway? For the lucky owners of this Harsens Island second home, that dream is now a reality.
Designer Nicole Withers worked with the Marine City-based homeowners, Vince Cataldo of Infuz Architects, and South Channel Homes on the project. Withers, of Jones-Keena & Co. in Troy, began working with the couple more than 20 years ago after Cataldo introduced them, when the architect and designer worked on the couple’s primary residence. “We’ve all basically grown up together,” Withers explains.
With an enviable 300 feet of St. Clair River frontage, the second home’s site on South Channel Drive offered “a unique opportunity to create a campus feel,” according to Cataldo, a Port Huron and Detroit-based architect. The property consists of a private island, requiring a bridge to reach the main residence. The architect’s website explains: “A large boathouse and ‘fish shack’ are located on the primary parcel. The design solution was to create three separate buildings … allowing privacy for the owner.”
Surrounded by water on all four sides, the 4,600-square-foot main house, known as the River House, is accessed from the other structures by a bridge. The homeowners purchased the land in 2014, and built the boathouse first. With upstairs living quarters that includes five bedrooms, 3.5 baths, a full kitchen/bar opening to the great room, a game room, and a roof deck with an additional bar/kitchen, the homeowners were able to use those accommodations initially, although they always intended to expand. The fish shack, which Cataldo calls “a funky little building,” came next.
“Visually, the plan always was to make the compound look architecturally connected,” he explains, adding that the three segments “have the same vocabulary” and a “Coastal Michigan” aesthetic. which is reached by a ferry and bridge. The extra permits and approvals added “a lot more red tape,” the designer explains, and the site had to be elevated to make it easier to build on, Cataldo notes. “The scale the client went to, (in order) to get it right, was impressive,” he says.
The result is a three-bedroom escape that all parties agree was well worth the extra work and the wait. With views from every room, it’s everything the owners hoped for, Withers says. “Every window you look out, you see water.”
The homeowners’ priorities include “making everything comfortable,” the designer explains, adding that “it was also really important that it be family-friendly.” To achieve that, she and associates Rachel Hartung and Gabrielle Estes used performance fabrics in the great room and dining room, and incorporated a lot of texture so that “even if it wasn’t perfect, it would hide things.”
While the designer was inspired by the expansive blue horizon beyond, she used the color sparingly in the home’s interiors. The palette was drawn from the dining room rug, which features hints of orange and blue, and the Moroccan Tulu rug in the great room. “We wanted it to have a more California, beachy feel,” Withers says. “There are two rooms with blue accents, but it’s pretty subtle.
“The house is more about texture than color,” she continues, noting that they added color in the artwork, accessories, and in some surfaces, including the powder room walls, which feature a Detroit Wallpaper Co. design that resembles a sunset. A nod to blue is also seen in the primary bedroom and bath, which grew from a porcelain tile chosen for the shower that’s reminiscent of a geode, Withers says. The white-painted mirror, meanwhile, calls to mind driftwood.
The homeowners’ goal was to create a quiet getaway, yet Withers says they don’t often find themselves alone. The compound attracts their grown children and grandchildren, as well as neighbors of all ages. Local children love the built-in pool. “They’re all about entertaining,” the designer says. “They’re the most generous people and it’s a large boating community, (so there are) often gatherings at their house.”
The property is used two-and-a-half out of the four seasons. “The beauty of Harsens Island is that if you’re a boater, it’s close and you’re not spending hours in the car. For my clients, it’s really all about the boating,” Withers says. “They’re there as soon as they can put the boat in the water.”
