Wendy Killeen Photography by Greg West

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After 21 years at the helm of the Ocean View bed and breakfast on Kennebunk Beach in Maine, Bob and Carole Arena decided a few years ago to retire. But what to do with their beloved “painted lady?”

Their three sons, who grew up working in the inn, had families and successful careers of their own. And Bob and Carole couldn’t face the prospect of anyone else operating it.

Enter Tim Harrington of Atlantic Holdings, a real estate investment and development firm in Kennebunk, Maine.

“Tim was an acquaintance of ours and he always loved Ocean View,” says Bob. So when it went on the market, Atlantic Holdings bought the 13-guest-room inn with plans to turn it into a private, single family home.

And Bob and Carole couldn’t have been happier. “We didn’t want to drive by it and have someone running it as an inn who didn’t have our philosophy of inn-keeping,’’

M.L. Norton and Brett Johnson of Windemere Studios – Interior Design in Kennebunkport, Maine, were part of a team that transformed the Ocean View bed and breakfast into a spectacular single-family home.

says Carole. “Now, we can smile when we drive by.”

A colorful history

In the 1940s, when the railroad brought summer visitors from the cities to the coast of Maine, Ocean View was a guest house. After several decades, however, it became run down.

When Bob and Carole bought the house in 1985, “it was not nice,” says Carole. “We started from scratch and developed it into an inn with nine guest rooms.”

There also was a two-story building, connected to the main house by a small porch, that included two apartments, one on each floor. Bob and Carole transformed those into four “junior suites,” each with its own entrance and patio. Every room faced Kennebunk Beach and the open ocean.

The exterior was designed in the style of the whimsical and colorful “painted lady” houses Bob and Carole fell in love with on a trip to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

“We sat down with pink and blue pencils and designed it ourselves,’’ Carole says of Ocean View’s signature façade. “We were emotionally tied to that building,” Carole explains. “It was our fourth child.”

Understandably, many people ask how they feel about Ocean View’s transformation. “They think we will be upset,” says Carole. “But it’s the opposite. We think it’s great.”

From inn to home

Tim, of Atlantic Holdings, says there’s a trend in the luxury market of buying inns and turning them into private homes.

“I always have my eye open for properties,” he says. And Ocean View, he explains, was full of “good energy” and “so many wonderful summer memories.” Of course, there’s the amazing ocean view.

Atlantic Holdings bought the inn in October 2005, and quickly got to work. “The day after the closing Tim was in there tearing things apart,” says Bob.

During the next six months, the main house and the “junior suite” building were gutted, reconfigured, and decorated as a spectacular beach house. “The transformation couldn’t be better,” says Carole. “It’s beautiful.”

A team effort

To carry out his vision, Tim turned to a team he works with often, including architect John Einsiedler of Kennebunk, Maine, landscape designer Ted Carter of the Carter Design Group in Buxton, Maine, and M.L. Norton and Brett Johnson of Windemere Studios–Interior Design, in Kennebunkport, Maine. “When he decides to do something, he brings in the people to get the job done,” says Bob.

The goal was for the house to be top quality, but have a relaxed, beach house ambiance. “It’s all in the details,” says M.L. “There is nothing that wasn’t really thought out for comfort, entertainment, luxury, and just a great casual feeling, but yet the very best.”

The exterior has all new windows and shingles. “But,” says Tim, “it retains the beautiful original design.”

Asphalt near the house was removed to create gardens. “The challenge was to break up the public space and create a sense of inner sanctum, moving from public space to private space,” says Ted, the landscape designer.

He used trees to define the perimeter of the front yard, and form an outdoor room. In front of the great room are bluestone walkways, native grasses, and plantings. In front of the house is a hedge and lawn and, close to the porch, hydrangeas which “do beautifully on the ocean,” says Ted.

On the kitchen side of the house, he included a stone, circular terrace to “draw people out into the landscape.” And the lawn behind the house is perfect for a swing set.

A look inside

The house has dark pine floors throughout, and a blue, white, and beige color scheme. “Every time you go to the house and look at the water, it’s a different shade of blue, and those colors are represented,” says Tim. “All the colors of the sun, the sky, and the sand are in the house.”

Furnishings and decorative items are a mix of antiques—mostly from Maine dealers—and newer pieces. And there are many nautical touches, from paintings of ships to displays of shells.

“It’s not over-decorated, just comfortable,” says Tim. “We wanted it to have a lived-in feeling.”

While the rooms are large and airy, there are lots of nooks to retreat to, from a small sectional couch in one corner of the living room to a soft wing chair in the kitchen.

“It makes you want to curl up with the Sunday paper, and that to me is a beach house,” says Tim.

“And there are lots of places to be quasi-outside,” he adds, including the large front porch, perfect for sitting in a rocking chair and watching the ocean and visitors along Beach Avenue.

“Who would not want to have a summer cocktail on that porch?” says Bob.

The house, with a large kitchen, dining room, and great room, is also designed for entertaining. “We all know when you have a house on the coast of Maine, you have lots of company,” says Brett, of Windemere.

All the contents—including furnishings, decorative touches, linens, and dishes—come with the house, if the buyer so wishes, for an additional price.

“You’re getting a house that you can turn the key, have a party that night, and go to bed,” says M.L. “It’s ready to go.”

Cooking and more

Just through the front door is the living room. A gas fireplace is framed by candle-lit lanterns and built-in bookcases displaying a collection of conch shells.

At the opposite end of the room from the sectional couch is an area to sit and play backgammon. Just beyond are the kitchen and dining room.

“We had a phenomenal kitchen and we couldn’t believe it was taken out,” says Carole. “But, again, this one is better.”

“The flow is incredible, in and out,” says Tim.

The kitchen is spacious, about 30-by-20 feet. It has pine floors, white cabinets and tile, and white marble countertops. The appliances are a Viking professional stove, and sub-zero refrigerator in stainless steel.

There’s a large wooden island in the center. And there are several areas for eating—a peninsula with high chairs, and a country pine table that can seat ten people.

From the kitchen, a door leads to a side yard. Nearby is a bathroom with a shower and washer and dryer, “so you don’t have to track sand through the house,” says M.L.

The dining room is a little more “moody” and “seductive” than the rest of the house, M.L. says. It features a long, mahogany table that seats ten, with dark blue wing chairs and dining chairs. There’s an Oriental rug and a lacquered bamboo chest, where blue-and-white china, shells, starfish, and coral are on display.

Heading up

The second floor includes a master bedroom and two guest rooms. And the third floor has another guest room. Each has its own custom-tiled bath, with a walk-in shower.

In the front of the house, the master bedroom has four large front and two side windows. “I think it’s one of the best ocean views in the world. It’s just fantastic,” says M.L.

The colors are all cream, taupe, and white. The wool carpet, a beige and white interlocking pattern, “looks like sand,” says M.L.

The master bath features a vanity that is an antique dresser with a marble sink and a shower with a seamless and frameless glass door. It is “a real escape,” says Tim.

One guest room has a green-blue theme to match the tile in the shower and its ocean-wave border. Down the hall is another guest room with twin beds and decorated in khaki and blue, which M.L. describes as “more masculine.” There is also a second floor laundry, with a washer and dryer.

The third floor bedroom is yellow and white, with a yellow-plaid carpet. The bath features bright yellow and purple tiles. Large windows look toward the ocean.

A Great Room for the single-family home was created by gutting four “junior suites” at the former Ocean View bed and breakfast on Kennebunk Beach, Maine. It features a 20-foot-plus vaulted ceiling, beams, cast-iron chandelier, cultured-stone fireplace, and floor-to-ceiling bookcases.

A truly great room

The most dramatic transformation was also the biggest challenge.

“With every project we have the ‘big idea,’ ” says Tim. In this case, it was how to deal with the “junior suite” building.

The small porch connecting it to the main house was enclosed to provide direct interior access between the two buildings.

It was then gutted and turned into one huge room—a combination library and family room, with a twenty-foot-plus vaulted ceiling, beams, large cultured-stone fireplace, and raised hearth.

“It’s my favorite part of the house,” says Tim. “To get a room like that on the beach is unheard of. It’s great in all seasons.”

In summer, glass doors open to a patio, with the gardens, beach, and open ocean just beyond. In winter, there can be a roaring fire inside, while waves crash outside.

“The room is magical,” says Carole.

One wall features floor-to-ceiling, built-in bookcases filled with hundreds of titles. Another displays three paintings of blue herons.

A couch and four chairs covered in white linen sit on a blue and white patterned rug. In the center of the room hangs a cast-iron chandelier that came from a turn-of-the-century club in Boston.

The stone fireplace is about ten feet high, with a forty-eight inch opening. The raised hearth, M.L. says, “is perfect for sitting near the fire.”

The room also has a wet bar and refrigerator. “We wanted to make it a room that is great for parties,” says M.L.

On the ocean side there are high windows and glass doors leading to the patio. “The natural light is incredible,” says Tim.

He envisions Ocean View as a summer home for a family, or perhaps retirees. “Two people could live there comfortably, or eight,” he says.

Whoever it is, Tim adds, “If they owned it, they would be very lucky. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime home.”