The iridescent ribbons of tidewater flowing through Sampson’s Cove writhe and curl, changing their hues to reflect both the sunrise¬—by turns magenta and blue—and the glistening jade marsh around them, creating a tableau of swirls as ravishingly as any Pucci scarf. The dramatic impact of that natural beauty is precisely what made Jennifer and Joe Donovan stop in their tracks back in 2019, when they came upon a “for sale” sign in Kennebunkport, outside a tiny cabin sitting on that waterfront. They immediately walked up onto its deck—forgetting for a moment that they had only just recently finished building a home nearby.
“We took one look at the view from that deck and knew this was really it,” says Joe. “It was impossible not to want to be there.” The setting also felt very private, explains Jennifer. “This was so enclosed,” she says, “it felt like it was all ours.”
All theirs, that is, except for the rest of their big and evolving family—one so close-knit that the couple wasn’t about to live anywhere where they couldn’t all gather. Joe and Jennifer, who’d met and married in their early twenties in Massachusetts before building a business together, now have five grown sons—several of whom still work with them in the business and visit often.
“We started coming to Kennebunkport to see friends after we got married,” says Joe. “We never stopped coming and eventually bought a second home here.”
Fast forward to the moment when they stumbled on that tiny cottage on Sampson’s Cove. They soon bought the place and brought their entire brood up to it. “It was us with our five sons, two of their wives, and five dogs,” remembers Joe. “We tried to have a Christmas there and everybody was piled on top of each other. We just looked at each other and said, “We can never do this again.”
So the following spring they got down to work with a contractor. At first they only renovated and expanded the existing cabin. But before long they were thinking even bigger, and brought on Gavin Studer, principal at Hidden Architecture, builder Nautilus Construction to design and expand the structure, and Jessica Nannery, principal designer at Saltwater Home. Two years later, the seven-bedroom home they’ve named “The Whale’s Tale,” has become a year-round getaway for everyone, a weekend home for Joe, and where Jennifer spends most of her time.
And given the result, few could blame her. “I love the way the house is perched as an outpost and you can view the seasons, the tides, and the birds,” observes Gavin. “The view is always changing.”
That beauty, however, created some initial challenges for his redesign. “Working on the coast there are rules for wetlands and resource protections.” So he used as much of the zone as he could, getting creative with space inside and out. “What is now the living room was just a dining nook,” he explains. “We extended that by three feet toward the water and rebuilt the deck around it to create the wraparound deck, pushing the footprint of the house into it.” There were other space issues to resolve in the main area. “I love to cook and having my family all around,” says Jennifer. “So having a large kitchen-dining area is the biggest thing we built the house around.”
“However, the existing space,” says Gavin, “had an ugly, low-sloped ranch-style roof.” His solution: Tearthat roof off and replace it with a far steeper one and a higher ceiling, lending an airy farmhouse look. Beneath that now sits a chef’s kitchen and a lengthy dining table that rolls into a living room. And all of it is surrounded by either enormous windows looking out to the marsh or accordion glass doors giving a sense of expanse.
“The ideas that Gavin came up with for the flow of the house were incredible,” says Joe. “The high ceilings give you that huge open feeling. And we all spend 98% of our time in that room, he says, whether they’re all cooking together or playing games at the table after dinner.
The home now has room enough for everyone—including a few family additions. “We have one granddaughter and another on the way,” beams Jennifer. Every one of the bedrooms has a different name (there’s “Seaglass Room,” for instance, and “Coral Room”) and design theme—which Jessica brought to life with custom pillows and furnishings from her favorite sources. When it came to the color palette, says Jennifer, “I wanted to bring in bold greens and some blues, and pops of coral and pink.”
Light plays a dominant role throughout the house—from the bedrooms (“Everyone has a unique chandelier or bedside light,” says Jennifer) to the boldly sculptural sconces in the hallways and dramatic chandelier above the kitchen table.
And then there’s the natural lighting enabled by Gavin’s design—the feeling it brings to each room, but most notably the attention it consistently brings to the beloved outdoor setting. “On the sofa looking at the marsh—that’s where you’ll find us with coffee in the morning, or for a glass of wine at the end of the day,” says Joe. “It’s still always the very same feeling as when we first saw the place. ■
