Beach/House, Fall 2024

6 | Provincetown Independent | BEACH / HOUSE | Fall 2024
One of two kitchens in the house. Braunwyn Jackett is the in- house interior designer and Nate McKean the in- house builder and woodworker. (Photos by Agata Storer)
In Truro, Memories of
Old Provincetown
At home with Nate McKean and Braunwyn Jackett
By Abraham Storer
Braunwyn Jackett and Nate McKean describe their North
Truro house as having an “old- school Provincetown”
aesthetic. “This is how we grew up,” Jackett says. The
couple have deep Outer Cape roots. They dated when they
were students at Provincetown High School and then went
their own ways. McKean developed his construction chops
in San Francisco and then Colorado, where there was a vibrant
alternative building scene. He worked on everything
from straw houses to post- and- beam construction and
stucco buildings. After reconnecting out West, the couple
moved back to the Cape 22 years ago and ended up making
their home in Truro.
When Jackett first walked into the house that she now
shares with McKean, she knew it had potential. “Everyone
thought we were crazy when we bought this house,” she
says. “It needed a lot of work.” A friend had been living
there and maintained an open, spacious floor plan. “It was
a big hippie house,” says Jackett. “That’s why I wanted it.”
Jackett and McKean have been renovating the home since
2006, guided by a desire to preserve the feeling of that initial
encounter.
Burdened with mortgage payments, the couple didn’t
have much of a budget for renovations or furnishings. But
McKean, who is a contractor, was doing remodeling work
in Provincetown and kept an eye out for discards and offcuts.
“I was the dumpster diver guy,” he says.
Working with found wood, McKean started out with
simple projects: a coffee table and then a bed. The massive
bed is constructed with large beams and an intricately
carved headboard that he found at the swap shop. “It’s a
challenge whenever it needs to be moved,” says McKean.
“I love that it’s not perfect,” adds Jackett. “It tells a
story of salvaged things.”
Gradually their projects became more ambitious. “I
give Nate ideas and he goes to town,” says Jackett. One of
her ideas involved found tin, which McKean used to create
a coffered ceiling by framing the tin in a tiered wooden
grid. Another ceiling was constructed from the subfloor
of a home on Montello Street in Provincetown. The thin
Nate McKean and Braunwyn Jackett at their Truro home.