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PSD's Warm Welcome front façade.

Warm Welcome

One of Cape Cod’s most beloved oceanfront boulevards is home to estate properties, a historic resort hotel, and large traditional houses in an array of styles. Over the years, PSD has designed and built several new or renovated homes here. Warm Welcome sits on a plateau at the highest ground of the neighborhood. It is a commanding site, and the house was designed to fit the symbolic needs for such a location.

The view looking across the road and out to the ocean from a second-floor window at PSD's Warm Welcome.
Seaside
Scope of Work Architecture, Construction
Finished Space Above Grade 6,205
Guest House Finished Space Above Grade 734
Photography Brian Vanden Brink, Nat Rea
A straight-on elevation view as seen from the street of PSD's Warm Welcome.

The design of Warm Welcome makes a large house in this historically important location endearing through the manipulation of scale and rhythm.

Windows, columns, shingle coursing, weathervane, trim details, and more are all robust—large in size, but not necessarily large in scale relative to the overall. These exist alongside accent elements like small windows squeezed between others or into small rooftop dormers. Adding to its friendly nature, the balanced asymmetry of the street-facing façade allows for a classical composition without overwhelming formality. The front porch mitigates its horizontal stretch with a column bay repeat diagram (moving left to right, ABBCBBBA, where C is the entry and A are the diagonal ends). The off-center front entry tower is counterbalanced by a second-floor window and rooftop dormer that sit, non-classically, above the solid mass of the column between the two bays to its right. Overall proportions invoke a hunkered-down stockiness as the house takes on a balance between the historic and the contemporary.

The front porch at PSD's Warm Welcome.
The fan light over the door is a super-scale version of traditional fan lights. Openings run through, creating shadow patterns in the porch and, through transom windows, in the  entry hall.
Outdoor dining at PSD's Warm Welcome occurs in a small courtyard at the back. The grid of openings in the porch is a classic Shingle Style detail.

Inside the main house, there is a combination of open plan flow and traditionally enclosed rooms.

The high first-floor ceilings allow for transom windows that contribute to the brightly sunlit spaces. Complex ceiling shapes and details add character and definition to the spaces on both levels. Family and living spaces have soaring ceilings because there is no second-floor living space above them.

At PSD's Warm Welcome, the main stair occurs in the entry hall. The opening to the study is to the left.
The living room has a tall fireplace, high ceiling, and a balcony that wraps around a portion of the space. The screened-in porch and backyard are beyond.
Living, dining, and kitchen spaces are open to one another but defined by ceiling shapes or coffers and jogs in the exterior walls.
In PSD's Warm Welcome kitchen, coffers in the ceiling define the space above a large mahogany topped island. There is a view out to the courtyard, backyard, and mudroom entry porch.
Marble counter tops, furniture-style base cabinets, gridded glass upper cabinet doors, and traditional hardware make for a classic kitchen aesthetic at PSD's Warm Welcome.
At PSD's Warm Welcome, a large family room with a soaring ceiling and a large arch-topped window overlook the back yard, guest house, and pool.
The study at PSD's Warm Welcome is right off the main entry and features a fireplace.
Detail of the fireplace woodwork in the PSD Warm Welcome study.

The primary suite occurs at the front of the house and has spectacular views over harbor, outer beach, and ocean.

A sitting space set up for two is in the tower above the front entry. Its projecting bay implies attention outward and widens the view to the sides. It is a magical place to contemplate the world and one’s place in it.

The second-floor landing and view into the primary suite on the second floor of PSD's Warm Welcome.
The primary suite occurs at the front of the house and has spectacular views over harbor, outer beach, and ocean.
A sitting space set up for two is in the tower above the front entry. Its projecting bay implies attention outward and widens the view to the sides.
A special sewing room for the homeowner to craft.
A guest bedroom at PSD's Warm Welcome.

At the back, facing a large yard and woods, an alternate architecture is apparent. Here wings cascade out and forward in Shingle Style fashion.

By stepping the rooms at the back out to the sides, they each receive a view beyond the main mass of the house. Even the living room and bedroom in the guest apartment above the freestanding garage have views due to a slight tilt in plan. A fully enclosed screened-in porch, a three-sided courtyard, and the wide-open backyard and pool allow for different types of outdoor living.

At the back, there is a swimming pool, guest house/garage, and large open lawn.
At PSD's Warm Welcome, the small porch adjacent to the family room provides transition for the mudroom door.

As Seen In...


PSD CC The Islands Fall Winter23 PSD Warm Welcome
Cape Cod & The Islands

Rhythm + Ocean Blues, by Kelly Chase, Fall/Winter 2023.

PSD's "Warm Welcome" project is featured in the New England Home 2018 Cape & Islands issue.
New England Home

Rooms with a View, by Bob Curley, Annual Cape & Islands 2018.