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House Beautiful profiled textile designer Serena Dugan’s renovation of an Adirondack-style cottage on Shelter Island, New York. The project required major foundation repairs and a rebuilt stone fireplace; its broad porch, fitted with two hanging beds and rocking chairs, became a central gathering space.
Textile designer Serena Dugan has renovated an Adirondack-style cottage on Shelter Island, New York, turning a property that needed major structural work into a vacation home organized around an expansive front porch. In a House Beautiful home tour, Dugan describes the renovation, which included foundation repairs and rebuilding the original stone fireplace, and explains how the porch shaped the way she wanted the house to be used.
Dugan, a California-based artist and cofounder of Serena & Lily, first spotted the cottage as a small marker on a Zillow map while considering an East Coast vacation home. A local friend visited the property and urged her to see it in person. Dugan recalled arriving at dusk and being drawn to the waterfront setting, the fireplace and the sprawling porch. She told House Beautiful she wanted a home where visitors could make memories.
The project proved more extensive than Dugan initially expected. The house needed major foundation repair, and the fireplace that had helped win her over had to be reconstructed. The rebuilt fireplace used local stone to match the original, according to the tour. Dugan said her concern was preserving the property’s calm atmosphere while addressing the work it required.
The porch was furnished to suit its scale, with two hanging porch beds and rocking chairs. Inside, Dugan combined textiles and wallcoverings from her own line with vintage pieces and artwork. The tour also describes an opened-up family room connected to the kitchen, performance fabric on the living-room sofas, and a Calacatta Macchia Vecchia marble countertop that Dugan chose despite its potential to stain. She said she was comfortable with the stone developing a patina.
A Porch Designed for Gathering
The porch is more than a visual feature in the published tour: it reflects Dugan’s stated aim of making the house a place for visitors to spend time together. Two hanging beds and rocking chairs give the wide outdoor space different ways to be used, while the property’s harbor setting informed the appeal of the home from the start. The article does not provide measurements or claim that the porch is objectively the best; that wording appears in the headline’s subjective praise.
The renovation also illustrates a practical tension in restoring an older home: keeping the elements that give it character while repairing parts that cannot simply be preserved. Here, the fireplace was reconstructed to resemble the original, while significant foundation work addressed the structure. Dugan’s account makes clear that the visual choices came alongside substantial building work, rather than replacing it.
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From Zillow Listing to Renovation
Dugan was looking for a vacation property on the East Coast when she found the cottage online. After her friend recommended a visit, she traveled from California to Shelter Island. House Beautiful reports that the house sits near Coecles Harbor, in a quiet part of the island. The source does not give a purchase date, sale price, renovation timeline or project budget.
The interiors pair custom and vintage details with practical choices. Dugan used lighting from several makers in prominent locations and selected her own fabrics and wallcoverings for rooms throughout the house. She also described using relatively inexpensive online matchstick blinds, upgraded with brass cleats. In the kitchen and pantry, tile, natural materials and coordinated colors connect the spaces. These details show the range of decisions described in the tour, but the article does not establish a broader design trend or provide independent evaluations of the work.
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Project Costs and Timeline Remain Unreported
House Beautiful’s tour does not state when the renovation took place, how long it lasted, what it cost, or who carried out the foundation repairs and fireplace reconstruction. It also does not provide technical details about the structural work or identify permits involved. The article is a design-focused home tour, not an independent inspection or construction report, so it does not establish the condition of the house beyond the details Dugan and the publication provide.
The headline’s description of the porch as the “best” is a subjective judgment, not a measured comparison. The available account also does not say whether the home is rented or open to the public. Those details should not be inferred from the photographs or the design description.
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No Further Project Update Listed
The source material presents the home as a completed renovation and does not announce another construction phase, public opening or planned follow-up. Readers seeking more details about the rooms and furnishings can consult House Beautiful’s original tour. No additional dates, costs or future plans are confirmed in the report.
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Key Questions
Who renovated the Shelter Island cottage?
Serena Dugan, a California-based textile designer, artist and cofounder of Serena & Lily, renovated the property as an East Coast vacation home.
What major repairs did the house need?
Dugan told House Beautiful that the cottage needed major foundation repair. Its stone fireplace was also rebuilt to match the original, using local stone, according to the tour.
What is featured on the porch?
The porch has two hanging beds and rocking chairs. Dugan said she wondered whether the space could fit a hanging porch bed; she ultimately chose two for its proportions.
Is the porch objectively the best?
No independent ranking or comparison is provided. “Best” is the subjective wording of the article headline; the report describes the porch’s design and furnishings but does not compare it with other homes.
How much did the renovation cost, and when was it completed?
The report does not give a budget or completion date. It also does not specify the renovation’s duration or identify the contractors who performed the structural work.
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