Nothing says New England charm quite like a Shingle Style house. Although these homes can be found across the country, the style, which blends traditional design with weathered materials, calls to mind the East Coast, particularly the seaside escapes of the well-to-do— Cape Cod , Nantucket, Newport. It rose to popularity during the late 19th century and borrows elements from architectural styles of the past, including Queen Anne and Colonial Revival. Shingle Style homes are distinguished by their wood cladding, asymmetrical façades, gambrel roofs, and welcoming verandas. Classic yet informal, the look remains popular for country homes and beach retreats, with current architects adding contemporary influences to the historic aesthetic. Read on to discover beautiful Shingle Style homes from the AD archives and see why this type of architecture is as appealing today as it was in 1880.
Shelton, Mindel & Assoc. refreshed a family’s shingle-clad East Hampton, New York, home , which was built by architect Robert A.M. Stern in 1993.
For the exterior of this Hamptons beach house , architecture studio Ike Kligerman Barkley employed a variety of traditional Shingle Style touches, such as fieldstone chimneys, fanciful variations in shingle pattern, and rounded pilasters.
The formality of decorator Alex Papachristidis's family home in Bridgehampton, New York —with its traditional cedar shingles and Marvin windows—is offset by an Ugo Rondinone tree sculpture that dominates the front drive; Edmund Hollander designed the landscaping.
Former Chanel president Arie L. Kopelman and his wife, Coco, renovated the house of their dreams in Nantucket with the help of architect Lisa Botticelli of the local firm Botticelli & Pohl. Entirely rebuilt, the dwelling’s four-story rear addition features a veranda and a balcony.
Architecture and design firm Ashe + Leandro devised this Martha’s Vineyard house for an art collector. The residence is composed of three interconnected structures clad in weathered shingles and outfitted with windows by Marvin Windows and Doors. The sculpture is by Thomas Houseago, and the landscape was designed by Stephen Stimson.
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A 19th-century windmill provides a charming complement to a couple’s Long Island house, renovated by architect Andrew Pollock.
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On Nantucket, Massachusetts, a couple commissioned Botticelli & Pohl Architects and interior designer Elissa Cullman to create their seaside retreat.
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Perry Sayles and Stephen Harvey enlisted architects Taryn Christoff and Martin Finio to reconfigure and refine their shingle-clad summer house in Sagaponack, New York.
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Porches and balconies lend a summery look to an East Quogue, New York, house devised by Robert A.M. Stern Architects and decorated by design firm S. R. Gambrel.
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Architecture firm Shope Reno Wharton built a Shingle Style weekend house for a family in Southampton, New York.
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Proportion and scale are at play in a shingled New Jersey house by Shope Reno Wharton.
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Traditional elements and contemporary attitude come together at a Shope Reno Wharton–designed retreat on Long Island Sound.
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Architect Oscar Shamamian, of Ferguson & Shamamian, collaborated with New York–based interior designer Victoria Hagan on an 8,000-square-foot Shingle Style summer house overlooking the water on Nantucket for a couple and their three children.
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At a dazzling harborside site on Nantucket, Jacobsen Architecture reimagined the island’s residential vernacular in an extraordinary compound of modest, ingeniously planned cottages.
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With gracious gabled façades and water views from nearly every room, a Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, house by Ferguson & Shamamian catches the late-day sun. Victoria Hagan oversaw the interior decoration.
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Thad Hayes was hired to transform a couple’s Hamptons house designed by architect Eric Woodward.
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Clients of Shelton, Mindel & Associates called on the firm to handle the interiors of a Peter Rose–designed beach house they’d acquired on five Martha’s Vineyard acres.
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This 11,000-square-foot Shingle Style house, designed by Nantucket Architecture Group, offers views of the sound from every room.
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For their residence on an island off the coast of South Carolina, a New England couple hired architect Mark P. Finlay to design a sprawling Shingle Style retreat.
On a two-acre Hamptons bay-front site, architect Peter H. Cook conceived a 9,000-square-foot Shingle Style residence for a couple.
With its Shingle Style front portion and attached barnlike structures in the rear, a Wainscott, New York, residence designed by architect Frank Greenwald is an unusual combination of formal and informal.
“We knew we would have lots of work to do, but we didn’t care, because we fell in love with its shape, the land, the view,” Roseline Glazer says of the shingled cottage on Martha’s Vineyard, built by Roger Allen in 1930, that she shares with her husband, Bill. Architect Joseph W. Dick helped renovate the structure, one of several on the property.
Architect David DiGiovanni designed this 12,000-square-foot Shingle Style house in Quogue, New York. Decorator Penny Drue Baird did the home’s interiors.
Former Banana Republic president Jack Calhoun and attorney Trent Norris restored and renovated their 1905 Shingle Style home in San Francisco. Save for the enlargement of the gable windows, the exterior architecture was preserved.
The main entrance of a Southampton, New York, home originally designed by architect Francis Fleetwood is distinguished by a wide porch and an eyebrow roof.
Architect Gregory J. Bader designed a Shingle Style home on Lake Washington in Seattle. Antiques dealer and decorator Axel Vervoordt devised the interiors.
