The Comfiest Cottage
A breezy style -- combining antiques, colorful accessories, and piquant pairings -- makes this the ultimate relaxed retreat
It takes a jewelry designer to recognize a gem. After months of searching for a Rhode Island summerhouse, Providence resident Donna Abrams considered Jamestown, a sleepy island just a 40-minute drive away. "I got into town and said, 'This is it.'' It was so quaint." She felt the same way when she spotted the cedar-clad cottage with loose shingles and over-grown shrubs. "I knew immediately it was what I wanted." Abrams loved the soft light that filtered into the house, and she embraced the cottage''s quirks. "I liked the fact that the whole house creaked," she says. But, most of all, she and her husband fell for the incomparable view from the backyard -- a rolling 1895 golf course with bucolic, hilly farmland beyond.
Inside, the couple was just as pleased with the efficient layout, offering room enough for weekend guests. The nautically compact use of space in the 2,300-square-foot home is not surprising given the cottage''s provenance: It was built in the 1920s for an admiral from the Naval War College in nearby Newport.
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