Understated Modernism In Connecticut Farm Country

LAKEVILLE The barns were falling down. The little farmhouse was covered with asbestos siding. The views were gorgeous, but the meadow was impassably thick with brambles and high grasses.

"People were afraid," says Pilar Proffitt.

"We got very lucky," says her husband, Robert Bristow.

The two architects, who are partners in Poesis Design designing buildings, interiors and furniture could see past the challenges at the 11-acre site on Lime Rock Road, in the Lakeville section of Salisbury.

Today they live with their two daughters, 13 and 11, and son, 8, in a serenely modern and sophisticated home that is filled with natural light. The open design flows easily, unified by the pale floors in white oak and punctuated by the stylish and sometimes whimsical furnishings that are also the couple's creations.

"It's really pleasant, and it really works for our family," Bristow says. "We wake up happy every day. We had lived in a lot of low-ceiling, small old houses. The sun lights everything here."

One surprise about their inviting house is that to hold down costs, the couple found "another way to build it," Bristow explains. They approached a factory with their design and had the skeleton of their house prefabricated off-site in several modular shells.

"And then we had to work like dogs to make it the way it is," Bristow recalls.

The custom details throughout are thoughtful and practical choices. A massive double fireplace of granite curbstones from a nearby quarry separates the spacious kitchen from the living and dining room, and is cleverly designed with a slender slot at the side that holds about a week's worth of firewood.

"It's something to root us, ground us," Bristow says of the fireplace. "This is the ruin that will stand after the house blows away."

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Understated Modernism In Connecticut Farm Country