Some of the best details in a custom home aren’t part of the original plan.

At 115 Reserve Way, one of our favorite features began as a series of windows.

Todd Rice Architects originally designed the opening between the dining room and living area with interior windows—a way to create a visual connection between the two spaces while still giving each room its own identity.

It was a good solution.

But as the design developed, architect Todd Rice, interior designer Kendall Bourgeois, and the Metropolitan team of Stuart Beken, Brad Carter and Clayton Langhoff and I began exploring whether that opening could become something more.

That conversation eventually led us to a pair of antique stage doors from Old World Antieks—and to a feature that says a great deal about the way 115 Reserve Way was designed.

Designing a Home for Round Top

From the beginning, the goal at 115 Reserve Way wasn’t simply to build a beautiful new house in the country.

We wanted it to feel like it belonged in Round Top.

That can be surprisingly difficult to achieve with new construction. Round Top has a wonderful mix of old and new—historic buildings, farmhouses, barns, architectural antiques, contemporary design and beautiful new homes. The best spaces here often don’t feel as though everything arrived at the same time.

We wanted some of that character at 115 Reserve Way, without trying to artificially make a new house look old.

The solution wasn’t a particular architectural style. It was layering in elements with. history and character where they made sense.

The opening between the living and dining spaces became one of those opportunities.

Finding the Right Doors

Once the idea of replacing the planned windows with antique doors began to take shape, Kendall went looking. There was an obvious place to start.

Kendall headed to Old World Antieks and began working her way through their extensive inventory of architectural antiques.

Eventually, she found the stage doors.

They had the scale and character the space needed, but finding beautiful old doors was only the beginning of the conversation.

The next question was more interesting:

Should they actually open?

Beautiful Wasn’t Enough

We could have installed the doors as fixed architectural elements.

They would have created the visual connection originally envisioned by the architect and added age, texture and character to the new construction.

But everyone involved kept coming back to how the house would actually be used.

Round Top is a place where people gather.

Friends come for dinner. Family comes for the weekend. During the Antique Show, houses can fill up quickly. A quiet evening can turn into a much larger group, and the way people move between rooms suddenly matters.

So the decision was made to make the antique doors fully operable.

Closed, they help define the living and dining areas while still providing that visual connection between the spaces.

Open, they change the way the rooms function together, allowing people to move easily between them and creating a much larger gathering space for entertaining.

It was a relatively small design decision that made a significant difference in how the house lives.

The Best Houses Are Collaborative

The story of the stage doors also illustrates something we think is important about the design of 115 Reserve Way.

No single person designed every element of this house.

Todd Rice Architects brought the architectural vision. Kendall and Nancy Rae Interiors brought another perspective through the interiors, furnishings, materials and antique elements. Metropolitan Custom Homes brought the builder’s perspective—how those ideas could be executed and how the house ultimately needed to function.

The stage doors came from a conversation among all three.

The architect’s original windows established the relationship between the rooms. The collaboration led to the idea of using antique doors instead. Kendall searched Old World Antieks for the right pieces. And then the team worked through the practical question of whether they should be decorative or operable.

The answer wasn’t based solely on what looked best.

It was based on how we imagined people would use the house.

That’s when collaboration in custom home design works particularly well: architecture, interiors and construction aren’t separate conversations. Each can make the others better.

Old Pieces, New Purpose

We liked the doors enough that we went back and purchased a second set.

That has left us with two additional pieces that we’re holding for another project.

We don’t know exactly where they’ll end up yet—and that’s part of the fun.

Rather than choosing an antique element simply to fill a predetermined spot, sometimes it’s better to hold onto something special and wait for the right opportunity to use it.

That’s also part of what we hope will distinguish the homes at Round Top Reserve.

They aren’t intended to be replicas of one another, and incorporating architectural antiques isn’t about creating a formula that gets repeated from house to house.

It’s about finding opportunities to give a new home some individuality and a connection to the character of Round Top.

At 115 Reserve Way, that opportunity happened to begin with a set of windows drawn on an architectural plan.

Today, it’s a pair of antique stage doors that can be opened wide when the house fills with people.

And in Round Top, we can’t think of a better reason to open them.