Design
It was a beloved old 1979 gable-to-the-front beach house with dark paneling and a somewhat dreary lower level. But it was just where Carole and Cloyce Anders wanted to be, tucked away in the dunes across the street from front-row beach houses on Atlantic Beach’s Ocean Ridge community and an easy drive from Raleigh. The Anders had owned the house since 1990, their children had loved going there, and the Anders had many fond memories of good times with both family and friends. Today, with more time to spend at the house and a growing number of grandchildren, the Anders had a decision to make. Could the house be remodeled, or should it be torn down to make room for something new?
The Anders went to Morehead City contractor Mark Hannula. “Mark agreed with me that the house had good bones,” remembers Carole, “and encouraged us to work with the house I loved.”
The next call was to Meg McLaurin, a Raleigh-based architect who had worked with the Anders on renovations to their Hayes-Barton house, a Spanish Colonial-style beauty with plenty of room for Carole’s extensive collection of mainly North Carolina art.
The task at Atlantic Beach presented site and construction constraints — challenges that McLaurin, Hannula and foreman Jim Brushwood took in stride. According to Carole, “There was no access to the upper deck from downstairs. The house was built on a slab, so new systems were hard to install. The kitchen was small and obsolete with just enough room to fit in a table, which was the only dining area. Bathrooms were outdated and too few, the whole house had dark paneling, and there was no expansive area from which to enjoy the home’s nice ocean views.”
The Cloycester
After a one-year renovation that brought the cottage to about 5000 square feet, “The Cloycester,” a play on Cloyce’s name, is a serene retreat for the Anders with more than enough room to accommodate their three children and spouses and seven grandchildren, all of whom are under seven — including triplets just six months old.
To provide ample but separate living spaces for the extended family, McLaurin added a wing to the south elevation of the house that provides space for the master bedroom suite, a screened porch and the new living room, all on the upper level. On the lower level of the new wing, McLaurin installed a recreation room with a bar and a sumptuous bedroom suite and storage area. A breezeway leads to the grassy back yard, flat enough for play equipment, and an elevator was installed off the carport to reduce the chore of grocery toting to the upper level.
To unify the two halves of the cedar-shingled cottage, McLaurin included extensive decks across the full length of the façade that include a half-walled outdoor area off the screened porch and an open area with built-in benches on the original side that are accessed by handsome double staircases leading from the lower level. The new wing and the older portion were brought forward to expand the interior space.
The transformation required the insertion of a significant supporting beam in the roof trusses to seam the two halves together. The roof of the older section was raised and connected to the new wing by a series of interestingly angled gables that give the house a Craftsman-like feel. Triple-sliding doors and plenty of glass across the front of the house ensure that the interior is infused with light and the major living areas have grand outdoor views. For practicality, all windows and doors are sheathed in retractable motorized storm shutters by Coastal Awnings of Morehead City. Carole worked with the installer to design a less-obtrusive casing to hide the shutters when raised.
The upper level of the older portion of the house now includes a spacious dining area, functional kitchen with an island situated for eating and conversation, the original living room with fireplace and two guest bedrooms — each with private bath — a powder room, laundry and pantry. The lower level has been redesigned to accommodate a convenient entrance foyer that connects the expanded staircase to the upper level and to the new bar area leading to the recreation room. The original hallway accesses a bedroom with three twin beds — a nod to the growing number of grandchildren — a laundry, bath and additional guest suite with private bath.
The structural elements of the house come together to form a spacious open floor plan on the upper level, but spaces are large enough to give privacy for different activities to occur at the same time. Carole points out that she can enjoy the fireplace living room with a good book during long winter weekends at the same time Cloyce is in the new living room watching golf. The downstairs recreation room has a billiard table and big screen television to occupy a more active crowd.
Inspired Choices
 The successful renovation and expansion of this modest beach house required subtle design decisions and major engineering. But it was Carole, and her longtime associate and Raleigh-based designer Stewart Woodard, who created the retreat she desired.
“When we bought the house, I used a blue and white nautical theme throughout,” says Carole. “It was fun and very informal. Now that we have more time to spend here, I wanted to do something that was just for Cloyce and me, something that functioned like a soothing spa. “
This concept led to a series of inspired choices about color and materials and a strategy for layering textures, art and decorative detail into a complex whole. The neutral palette Carole chose is a quiet one composed of earth colors throughout. Fabrics in myriad textures and shades of beiges and browns, some with casts of green, and simple patterns drawn from nature adorn the streamlined but comfortable array of sofas and chairs used throughout the upper level. All the sofas in both living rooms are the identical style, varying only in size, and manufactured by Lee Industries, a High Point favorite. The flooring is of randomly laid 5-inch-wide Caribbean pine with only a protective finish, a recommendation made by Hannula. Countertops in the kitchen and upper-level bar area are hand-selected granite. In each area the splash backs are glass tiles in a soft taupe.
“The edges of the end tiles were carefully finished to avoid a ragged look,” says Carole, who used Raleigh’s Byrd Tile for the Cloycester makeover, as she has for her Hayes Barton home.
Anders has a practiced eye in selecting new pieces and blending them with old favorites where she can. The dining room table is a piece she has owned for a long time. She had it stained to cover the cherry wood that did not complement her new color scheme. The dining room chairs are a special design by Bluefish.
“When I realized I needed the same style for the kitchen bar stools,” says Carole, “I asked the owner to make them for me. It took a while, but he did.”
Judicious Use Of Art
 The newly expanded living room has a perfect wall for a new Jim Byrne modernist painting in tones of blue that Anders purchased after viewing it in the lobby of the Raleigh Convention Center at the suggestion of Lee Hansley, her art consultant and Raleigh gallery owner.
“The theme of the show was ‘Big Art.’ I suddenly realized I had a big wall to devote to this spectacular painting,” says Carole.
An early George Bireline in gentle reds and yellow hangs over a console and television screen in the new living room. Carole’s judicious use of her art collection also adds color and interest to the adjoining old living room where she has built-ins displaying a variety of baskets, metal sculpture and pottery by notable North Carolina artisans. Billie Ruth Sudduth is the basket maker, Mark Elliott’s metal sculpture is named “Little Sister,” and, of course, there is a Ben Owen III pot, too. As the daughter of a Madison County native, Carole enjoys supporting the work of Rob Pulleyn, a developer-turned-ceramicist who organized a movement to adapt the old Marshall High School on the French Broad River to an artist’s cooperative now named Marshall High Studios.
Carole’s blending of old and new is especially charming in one of the newly redesigned guest bedrooms where iron beds, from the little village of Cameron in the North Carolina Sandhills, are paired with an antique chest.
“Every bedroom has a distinctive chest,” says Carole, who avoids matched sets of bedroom furniture. Of particular note are the beautifully pieced quilts that cover each bed. “Cloyce’s mother made those quilts, 15 in all, to give each of her three children. I rotate our collection to use them according to color and season,” says Carole.
The other guest room suite harkens back to the earlier blue and white nautical theme with sea urchin-shaped bed table lamps chosen from Calypso Cottage, a distinctive shop occupying two small houses on the edge of nearby Beaufort’s historic district owned by a former Tiffany’s jewelry designer.
The master bedroom suite is entered via a recessed niche that showcases another fabulous piece, a bamboo console with a lovely yellow marble top. This one is set with a scaled replica of an English Pond Boat purchased from Acquisitions, Ltd., located at Raleigh’s Five Points. The view into the sleeping area reveals a bed and two unadorned bamboo tables from another favorite beach emporium, McQueen’s furniture store. A lovely view of Montford Avenue in Asheville hangs above a loveseat.
“I purchased that painting at the Blue Spiral Gallery in Asheville because my mother and I used to walk to a neighborhood grocery that is the subject of the painting,” says Carole.
The Cloycester is all that owners Cloyce and Carole Anders wanted. It exemplifies the love of family and place that North Carolinians treasure. And saving of the original house adds to its quality as a nurturing retreat.
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