Permanent Vacation

Ever wish your summer getaway could last a little longer—forever even? Here's how a city-dwelling couple turned a weekend retreat into a year-round refuge.

- RHONDA REINHART

Kari McCabe and Nate McBride took their previously moss-green Connecticut home from dreary to cheery with a healthy helping of white paint. The front door is now Kari's favorite color, blue, and the window frames are natural wood with a clear finish.

Interior designer Kari McCabe (karimccabe.com) grew up spending her summers in the quiet seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut. Settled in 1649 and situated in the southeast corner of the Constitution State, Stonington sits on a peninsula (Kari remembers being able to walk two blocks to either side and jump in the water) and teems with charming old houses from the 17th and 18th centuries. “It’s really a magical little town,” she says. “It was kind of heaven, especially for a kid from New York City.”

Nate McBride and Kari McCabe with labradoodle Huckleberry on the deck, which overlooks the pool and what Kari calls the "borrowed landscapes" of the surrounding fields.

When Kari met her now husband, architect Nate McBride (mcbride-architects.com), he too fell hard for the historic fishing town, and the then New York-based couple continued to visit Kari’s family’s vacation home whenever they could. In 2018, however, the design-minded duo found their own summer getaway a few miles outside town.