Acadian Plantation Home

Aurora Award: Best Kitchen in the Southeast

Our clients, a young golf-pro family with children, asked for a home designed for grand entertaining in the Southern tradition while also accommodating many non-traditional amenities: a 2-story family room, spacious contemporary kitchen, master bath, exercise room, and game room/home theatre. Generous display cases were required for golf trophies, as well as oversized "travel-ready" master closets.

Our 11,550 square foot design solution sets the two-story family room as an extension of the traditional, grand staircase entry. The entry serves also as the trophy display gallery, around which the more traditional rooms are gathered. The less traditional rooms occupy the outer wings and the basement. Though the gracious, open family kitchen and the master bedroom suite exceed the traditional scale, they remain pleasantly in context with the rest of the house. The butler's pantry is fully traditional, and the adjacent square stair is designed so that it can be replaced by an elevator.

The lake side opens with two-story glass for an expansive view of sunsets and storms across a broad, tilted balcony, where wrought iron stairs lead to the garden and basement patio below. The family game room, bar and home theatre are located in the basement to effectively separate them from the traditional upper floors.