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There are few places as beautiful as New Hampshire’s Lakes Region in autumn. Nature provides abundant colors—flora adorned in radiant reds, warm golds and fiery oranges—and crystal-blue skies mirrored in the stunning waters of the majestic Lake Winnipesaukee.

Now imagine a home overlooking that picturesque lake that combines the warmth of natural wood, the light of windows that bring the outside world into each room and the artistry of an interior design that captures the best of autumn’s beauty. That is exactly what Flanders Enterprises, LLC, and All in the Details Design have achieved with their award-winning Meredith Bay home.

With Lake Winnipesaukee as this property’s nearest abutter, Mark Flanders took advantage of the gorgeous waterfront location by creating a floor plan that is laid out so that every room has a view of the lake.

“The second you step through the door into the entryway you can look right through to the lake,” he says.

Windows abound, but they are anything but ordinary in this stunning home.

“One detail that makes this home unique is the diamond windows,” Mark says. “By simply rotating a square window 45 degrees we were able to create a lot of visual interest in the stairwell and the upstairs guest suite.”

And that inspired elements in other parts of the house as well, with the diamond motif repeated in the large rectangular picture windows in the great room and loft.

“We even carried the theme into the tile in the entry,” Mark explains.

The entry also features barrel vaulted ceiling and posts, made of Douglas fir, with concealed lighting at the edges of the barrel—details that make the entry especially stunning in the evening hours—while the kitchen, dining room and master bedroom have Douglas fir tray ceilings, also accented with concealed uplighting.

“The extensive use of natural wood throughout the home helps give the house a warm, cozy feeling,” Mark notes.

And while no one can view this house without noticing the beauty of that natural wood, there are unseen building elements that are also key Flanders’ design.

“As with all our homes, this home is Energy Star-rated. We used ICFs (insulated concrete forms) for the foundation and a combination of spray foam and blown in fiberglass insulation in the rest of the home to make the home more comfortable and efficient,” he explains. “We also used high efficiency heating and cooling equipment and a heat recovery ventilator.”

The property also features a whole house automation system integrating the lighting, audio, home theatre and alarm systems.

“The system is completely customizable so that literally any light in the house may be controlled from any keypad (switch) and all systems may be controlled from any of the several touch-screen panels located throughout the house,” Mark said.

Flanders Enterprises LLC has been building and remodeling homes in the Lakes Region for a quarter of a century, and at the 2008 Cornerstone Awards the company received the Gold Award in the category New Homes $1 to $1.5 million as well as the Best of Show award for the top project from among the Gold Award winners in all categories for the Meredith Bay property.

“I am particularly proud of receiving the Best of Show award,” Mark said, adding it is “especially significant since the judging for the awards is done by peers from the Builders Association of Greater Boston.”

The Meredith Bay house was sold through last year’s New Hampshire Parade of Homes, held over two weekends during the autumn of 2007. The house was completed that October, and both the sights of the season and the home’s location influenced its award-winning interior design.

Patti Phelps and Ann Marie Finn of All in the Details Design worked with Flanders to showcase the house for the Parade of Homes, which Patti explains was a different approach to design than what she and Ann Marie usually undertake. Their company’s philosophy is of design being akin to art—a personal choice that should reflect just who the homeowners are. In this case, however, the goal was to create an interior design to enhance the details of the house itself, rather than to meet the particular desires of a family or individual.

“It was so beautiful. We’ve been lucky enough to work with Mark Flanders on a couple more houses since. He just has such a wonderful way of using woodwork… It brings a lot of warmth into the home,” Patti explained.

Inspired by the beautiful Douglas fir woodwork throughout the house, Patti and Ann Marie decided to minimize the use of window treatments in an effort not to obscure the detail of the natural wood elements. And, too, Patti says, there was that unparalleled view of the water in autumn, inspiring a color scheme to blend with the natural surroundings of the property while balancing the neutral tones of the natural wood interior.

“What we tried to do was to bring some color into the home with the furnishings, the area rugs and the artwork,” Patti explains. “We pulled a lot of our color schemes from the surrounding area, which also happened to be a color scheme that we really enjoy using.”

Using earth tones, All in the Details was able to create an interior palette enhanced by the change of seasons, coordinating rather than competing with the views supplied by the home’s many windows.

“You want to keep in mind what the color the trees around the house are going to be at different times of year and the water of the lake,” Patti said.

With five bedrooms to design for the Parade of Homes tour, as well as living and dining spaces, Patti and Ann Marie worked with Company C to borrow rugs and bedding and accented those elements with furnishings—including custom pieces like the pillows for the living room sofa, perfectly coordinated with the dining room chairs—as well as specially selected artwork with the help of Sarah Chaffee of McGowan Fine Art, and just a few window treatments to soften such areas as the master bathroom and the kitchen. Those who visited the property during the Parade of Homes repeatedly spoke of the warmth this house exudes.

“We did, as a result of this, branch off into a new field, which is luxury home real estate staging,” Patti says.

And, like Flanders Enterprises, All in the Details has received accolades for this project, being honored with the Cornerstone Award for Residential Interior Design.
“It was a great experience all around,” Patti says.

She added that All in the Details has been fortunate to continue working with the home’s owners to further match the interior elements to their particular preferences.

“It’s just a wonderful house to spend any amount of time in,” Patti says.