For many Chicagoans, the villages of southwest
Michigan’s Harbor Country arc but a blur in a frantic
drive up the coast to the resort towns of Grand Haven,
Ludington, or Traverse City. Jeanninc and Frank ten
Brink took the road less traveled to Harbert, one of
those villages, 15 years ago and fell in love with its
humble, early 1900s foursquare-style cottages built
on large wooded lots.
“We couldn’t afford anything back then,” says
Jeanninc, “but we’d always drive around, dreaming,
then I’d go back home and clip pages out of magazines.”
The ten Brinks leaped to buy this 1,700-square-foot
house, even knowing they’d have to shore up its
foundation, tear down walls, and move rooms around.
Under designer Robert Zuber’s guidance, a first-floor
bedroom became a country kitchen that’s open to the
living areas, and the former kitchen was reworked into a
master suite. Since the heart of every summer retreat is
a porch, Zuher designed a new one on the home’s south
side. With its wide-plank paneling and exposed beam
ceiling, the new space looks like it’s always been there.
After the remodel, Jeanninc brought her vision
of an old-fashioned lake cottage to life. She chose
slipcovered sofas and sisal rugs that can take three
teenage children and constant traffic to and from the
beach in stride. Then she shopped catalogs and antiques
shops for wicker chairs, wooden tables, and accessories
in red, white, and blue—colors of the Stars and Stripes
and the flag of Frank’s native Netherlands.
“I wasn’t looking for anything special or fancy,” says
Jeannine, “just casual and comfortable.”
