Oyster Harbors Family Enclave

A 6,200-square-foot single-family residence in the gated community of Oyster Harbors, Osterville, completed in 2022. The brief was a year-round house that could absorb a steady flow of summer guests without losing its sense of intimacy when the family was on its own.

The plan is organized around a central kitchen and great room that open directly to a screened porch and pool deck — the working core of the house in entertaining season. The first-floor master suite is pulled away from those gathering spaces, giving the owners privacy without isolating them from the rest of the home. Secondary bedrooms are tucked further into the plan, separated from both the master and the public rooms. Above the garage, a finished hangout space gives kids and guests somewhere to land on a rainy day.

Ceilings throughout the main level are 8 feet, but architectural beams and cased openings make the rooms read taller and define each space without closing it off. The dining room and family room sit just off the kitchen and open onto the backyard, so sightlines run cleanly from one room to the next.

Outside, gathering happens in three different registers. A screened porch off the great room handles smaller, quieter evenings. A bluestone deck wraps the pool for sun. A pergola off the pool cabana shelters twilight dinners. The front facade is white clapboard; the rest of the house transitions to traditional cedar shingles with white trim and colored shutters. The chimneys are veneered in Boston Blend stone, and the cupolas carry illuminated carriage lights.