Living on Vineyard Sound

We all have our secret spot, the place we go to decompress and feel the weight of the world a little less. A place that puts a smile on our face just knowing it exists, that makes us long for time spent there, if only for a bit.  If you know me, you know that place is Martha’s Vineyard. 

I’m going through some serious Vineyard withdrawal lately, wishing I could escape work and make a getaway up the coast for a few days.  Alas, it doesn’t appear likely right now, but I did have a transporting moment recently while flipping through the February issue of Architectural Digest.
  

One look at this house perched on a bluff at dusk and I knew in an instant where it was.  My secret spot!  The light and landscape along Vineyard Sound is like nowhere else I’ve been.  As soon as I saw this picture, I recognized the coastline as the same one I’ve spent many heavenly days walking and sailing along. 

I would happily live in a shack to have this view! Clearly that is not necessary for the fortunate family that really does live here.  Designed by Ferguson & Shamamian and decorated by Victoria Hagan, the house is grand and formal, not at all what I consider Vineyard characteristics.  Leave that on Nantucket, please!!  But still…the home is an elegant beauty with a mellow Yankee vibe.  Yes, it’s fancy, but it’s New England fancy, not Hamptons fancy, if you know what I mean.
 

What I love most about the interiors is the warm-colored oak wood used throughout and how the rooms all have views of Vineyard Sound.  That is, after all, what I love most about the Vineyard: being surrounded by nature, embracing the water and the woods.

Photographs by Scott Frances