BDG23 PRELUDE Fall 2019

eams, ironwork and stone fireplace. Says Carter, “I feel
like this property has soul.” So, after pouring his time and
talent into a series of renovations, including reorienting
the house to frame water views, and creating a two-story
drop in the heart of the home, The Lodge has become the
place where he and Rousseau, their dogs, horses, friends
and family can disconnect, recharge and entertain.
“What makes this house so special is that it encapsulates a
time and place gone by,” he offers. For a few years it had
no indoor plumbing, and it still has no TV (“we’ve never
missed it,” says Carter) or cell-phone service. What it does
have is an “intangible,” muses Carter; a hard-to-pin-down
air “that, once you’re there, you can sense and smell.”
How, then, did he go about selecting very real items—
furnishings, finishes, art, accessories—that further this
mystique? “You use the edit button,” answers Carter, to
accentuate the wood, stone and ironwork that give the
structure its charm, and fill the home with one-of-a-kind
pieces with meaning—antiques passed down by his aunt,
furnishings his uncle crafted by hand, items repurposed
from the general stores of yesteryear, finds from the
Brimfield Fair. “Items that have a certain soul,” says Carter,
to say nothing of ingenuity. The designer had great fun
“using interesting things in an atypical way.” In the kitchen,
an old-fashioned meat scale, weighed down by sacks of
flour, finds new life as a chandelier, while an old piano leg
turned upside down becomes a lamp for the living room.
The grounds beyond The Lodge’s rustic walls are as
essential to the spirit of the home as its interiors. As
much as the setting is “back to basics,” it is also “back
to nature,” shares Carter. He and his guests enjoy
vintage canoe rides, horse-drawn carriage rides and
simple pleasures like sitting in one of the many rocking
chairs on the oversized porch, sangria in hand. True to
its provenance, in a way The Lodge is still a party house,
laughs Carter. “It’s a ball,” he says, “made for celebrating,
family reunions, gatherings and holidays.”
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