House of Whimsy
In the style of Earl Young, Charlevoix home overlooks lake and town
By Beth Anne Piehl
Photography by G. Randall Goss
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Do you ever have that dream where you’re exploring your home and you discover rooms or even an entire wing that you didn’t know existed?
That’s what Lowell and Sharon Blossom’s house is like.
On Thistle Down in Charlevoix, it even looks like something out of a fairy tale, designed and built in 1958 by the late Virginia Olsen, daughter of Charlevoix’s most famous and eccentric builder, Earl Young (the Weathervane Restaurant is the most visible of his buildings around town).
“Early Mother Goose,” is how Sharon describes her home’s style. Everyone in the room on this given day nods in agreement; some throw out the words “mushroom,” “hobbit” and “storybook.” Whichever is the best word, for the Blossoms the home is surely a dream come true.
The Blossoms used to live directly across Round Lake, on the marina-heavy side, in a condo they’d owned since 1985. They’d sit outside and look across the water at the quirky house on the water’s edge that is unmistakable in the Young-ancestry line of design: Rounded roofs, huge boulders and stone work throughout, old barn wood and walls that jut and guide visitors like they’re touring an attraction at Disney World.
“It came up for sale and we had always admired it from afar,” said Sharon, whose nickname “Wowie” suits her like carrot-top fits a redhead. “But we weren’t looking to buy, and we thought it was too small.”
The house was built in 1958 and by the time the price was right for the Blossoms to buy it, in 1997, “we knew we were going to have to do some work,” said Lowell.
What makes this Charlevoix home extraordinary is not necessarily its size, it’s the expanse as it meanders up levels and around corners.
After living in it for a short amount of time, the 2,100 square feet proved to be too small, so the Blossoms set out on an addition that would bring the total on paper up to 4,500 – and a feeling that it’s even much bigger than that.
The couple left no stone unturned in ensuring the new portion fit with the style of the rest of the house, which is set with a lower, “crouchy” scale, Lowell said.
After meeting with a couple different builders and architects, they realized the style would be too hard for an outsider to properly duplicate. So Lowell called Olsen and she agreed to help design and oversee the addition.
Overgrown landscaping was torn out and redone with quite literally thousands of flowers, all the window were taken out and replaced, and, because boulders and stone were so integral to the style of Olsen and her father, the addition included 200 tons of boulders and the driveway was done with brick pavers — 65,000 to be exact.
The result is a seamless continuation of one heck of an interesting house. I couldn’t even find the kitchen on my first go-around. Various rooms occupy the main level, including a comfortable porch-like sitting room and a living room with a small bar carved into the stone wall.
A stairway leads to up to the master bedroom overlooking Round Lake, with a sweep of the signature rounded roofline visible. Two bedrooms, a bath and office are upstairs in the original section of the home as well.
Back on the main level, after rounding the corner from the living room, the original house ends and the new addition begins in a “oh, wow” moment, with a spacious dining room and elaborate stone staircase.
The doors were open as we ascended the home’s levels and the sounds of a trickling stream running downhill accompanied an aroma that was island-like with the masses of mature flora.
Which brings us to the décor.
The original portion of the house was pretty dark, given the amount of brick and wood work, the low ceilings and the design style in general.
Sharon contacted Kathy Bradway at Periwinkle Lane Interiors in Petoskey for interior designing assistance and they instantly discovered similar tastes.
“Sharon came in the store in her yellow glasses and lime-green toenails, and I thought, Oh my God, I just found someone I know I can work with,” said Bradway.
Since the Blossoms love boating to warm, tropical islands, sometimes for months at a time in their 50-footer, it inspires their home décor in paintings and art pieces. Yellow-and-white check fabric with fuchsia flowers covers dining room chairs and couches and other furniture are decorated in lime green and pinks. The walls are done in plaster with straw pieces, making it feel like a beachside hut — if it weren’t so stylish.
“I thought the house should be as bright as Sharon,” Bradway said. In all Periwinkle reupholstered 37 pieces of furniture.
She said the mix of colors and eclectic style Sharon displays looks especially pleasing offset with the barn wood beams and ceilings, calling the look “rustic whimsy.”
“It’s eclectic done right,” Bradway said.