One of the north’s most talented design-and-build teams completes a classic shingle-style cottage on Walloon Lake in time for the loveliest of occasions.
This article first appeared in Traverse Northern Michigan. Find this story and more when you explore our magazine library. Want Traverse delivered to your door or inbox monthly? View our print subscription and digital subscription options.
In the late fall of 2019, Brian and Brenda McKeen bought a lot on Walloon Lake with a sweeping vista up the body of the lake. The purchase was the culmination of a long-held dream to have a cottage on that lake—a dream they’d often spoken about with Lucy Earl, of Jones-Keena & Co., the designer who’d helped them renovate their circa-1920s home in Bloomfield Hills. Given the McKeens’ strong working relationship with her, they looked to Earl to guide them through the design and building process of their new cottage. It was a task Earl took on with gusto, knowing that there was deadline: The McKeens wanted the cottage finished in time to celebrate Brian’s parents’ 70th wedding anniversary in the summer of 2021.
Photo by Beth Singer
Earl launched the process by introducing the McKeens to architect Nick White of the Petoskey-based firm White & Liebler Architects. Over his three decades-plus career, White has developed a signature cottage style (particularly evident in the homes along Walloon Lake) that draws on the characteristics of early 20th-century summer homes in the Great Lakes and Northeastern Coast. That résumé jibed perfectly with the shingled exterior and lovely wrap-around porch that the McKeens envisioned for their new cottage. “We thought that Shingle style would be very fitting in Northern Michigan,” Brian says.
Photo by Beth Singer
While White and his managing partner/principal Nick Liebler tackled the blueprint, Earl and the McKeens set off for a home-furnishing buying trip to Atlanta in January of 2020. “I tell every client that there are three things for me that make a house: great rugs, great art and great antiques—these give a house soul and a rich background,” Earl says. Among the trio’s finds on that trip was a large, four-panel fabric-covered wall piece embossed with depictions of Revolutionary War soldiers. Earl saw it at once as a thematically anchoring feature—bringing out the home’s spirit of vintage Americana as well as the shades of blue the McKeens wanted threaded throughout their home.
Photo by Beth Singer
Even as the treasures from the Atlanta trip had been shipped North, and just before ground was to be broken for the new cottage, the Covid-19 shutdown took effect. The team, which now included contractor Richard Collie of the Harbor Springs–based Collie Construction, didn’t lose heart. Even when hammers couldn’t ring, they kept planning through a steady stream of Zoom meetings.
Photo by Beth Singer
Despite the setback, there are many happy endings to the story of this cottage, one being the camaraderie that developed between the homeowners and the entire design-and-build team. A standout was the opportunity for Earl and White, both of whom are nearing retirement, to work together: “Working with White & Liebler was a pure joy. Nick White and I are basically the same age, so as senior architect and designer we have lots of experience,” says Earl, adding that managing partner Nick Liebler was also a big part of the project. “We had a grand time creating this house.”
But by far the grand finale was the wonderful 70th anniversary party held in the cottage for Brian McKeen’s parents, just 18 months after the team broke ground. While there was some finishing on the lower level to complete, the upstairs was ready to house the whole family. “We built that entire house in record time,” says Earl.
Photo by Beth Singer
Home Resources
- Architect: White & Liebler Architects
- General Contractor: Collie Construction
- Interior Design: Jones-Keena & Co.
- Landscape Architecture: Environmental Artists
- Cabinetry & Kitchen Design: O’Brien Harris