Britt and Anthony, pictured with their kids, Charlie, 12, and Hadley, 10, took a yin-yang approach to their home’s color palette, cladding the exterior in charcoal board-and-batten–style siding to contrast with the whitewashed interior.
By Sara Anne Donnelly
Photos by Dave Waddell
From our September 2023 issue
“Construction was really fun,” Britt Ricardo says, referring to the gabled ebony home she and her husband, Anthony, built in Bar Harbor, in 2021. “All my aunts and uncles, my brother who lives down the street, would come by to check on the progress. Every step was a celebration for the whole family.” A descendent of James Richardson, one of MDI’s original settlers, Britt grew up on the island and moved away after college. When Anthony’s engineering job went remote, in 2020, the couple decided to build on the acre-and-a-half Bar Harbor property (once owned by Britt’s grandfather) they’d bought years before. Britt’s uncle with an architecture degree helped with the design; her mother and stepfather hosted the couple and their two children during the build; a cousin cleared the land; another, Kyle Richardson, served as general contractor; and Anthony’s father helped wire and plumb the place. “There were these moments of all hands on deck that kept us excited about the process, even on the hardest days,” Britt says.
Living Room
“One of the best pieces of advice we got was from my uncle, who said, ‘There’s no perfect house if you’re building on a budget,’” Britt says. “The key is to do a few things really well.” Natural light was a priority, as was an open plan. The living room encompasses multiple seating areas and gives way to a sunroom that beams in southerly light, while a sliding glass door topped with a transom window highlights the 10-foot-high ceiling and frames the sunset. Throughout the first floor, polished-concrete flooring and walls in Alabaster by Sherwin-Williams create a neutral canvas for rattan and natural-wood furniture and boho accents, such as hand-printed chairs from World Market.
Living-Room Nook
“We wanted a space that could be fluid, so if we had a bunch of kids playing video games in the sunroom, we could also have quiet spots,” says Britt, who furnished this living-room nook with a mid-century teak sideboard and chairs, framed vintage Hawaiian tapa cloths, and a map of MDI the couple bought to commemorate their 2009 Bar Harbor wedding.
Primary Bedroom
Before construction, “we borrowed a friend’s drone to measure the height of the trees to see if we could get a water view,” says Anthony, who subsequently tweaked the house plan to eke out a winter glimpse of Thomas Bay from the primary bedroom. Sinewy brass CB2 sconces and lacquered West Elm nightstands bookend a walnut bed, also from West Elm, topped with a striped blanket bought on a trip to England.
Kitchen
The Ricardos routinely host 20 or more friends and family members in their kitchen, which centers on a custom six-by-nine-foot island, topped with quartz from Mount Desert Granite and Brick that, Britt says, “is one of the biggest my cousin had ever put in.” A friend plugged their house design into CAD software, allowing the couple to revise the kitchen layout in 3D, and Anthony’s uncle, who worked in a cabinet store, gave them a break on Shaker-style Waypoint cabinetry. Woven barstools from Target and wicker pendant lamps by Kouboo warm the snowy palette.
Kitchen Nook
“We love sitting here with a cup of tea while the kids are having a snack or working on homework at the island,” says Britt, who outfitted the area with a Moroccan-style rug and pair of mid-century chairs, the mustard one inherited from her grandparents, the other by renowned Norwegian furniture designer Sven Ivar Dysthe, bought from a neighbor. A sculptural Urban Outfitters console displays kids’ artwork and travel mementos.
Sunroom
Before breaking ground, the family mapped the home’s footprint with stakes and rope, reorienting as needed to maximize light, especially in the sunroom, which has three walls of windows. The Ricardos furnished the space with hand-me-downs, including a Persian rug and vintage Henredon nightstand from Britt’s father and stepmother and a pine lamp from her great-grandparents. “With all the support from our family, I feel like we were able to get our house right on the first try,” Anthony says.
