Discover the Story Behind the Traditional New England Style
The quaint New England saltbox home is unique to the area because of crisp autumn foliage, rugged coastlines, and scenic winters. Inherently charming in their simplicity, these historical houses are scattered across the East Coast in the southern and coastal regions of Maine throughout Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Even though the design has historical origins, these houses remain popular now. Learn the background behind this home design (like where the title came out ) and its own identifying characteristics, then observe some of our favorite examples of saltbox-style homes.

What is a Saltbox House?
Constructed through the 17th and 18th centuries, American saltbox homes were called after typically utilized wooden salt containers in the colonial period. Historical saltbox homes can easily be recognized by their signature sloped rooflines and easy colonial facades. They frequently incorporate a symmetrical brick chimney, also.
The design originated as a fast, economical way to add a living room to the rear of a present two-story home. Shortly, these lean-to improvements caused the popularization of this sloped roof design we see now.
Early saltbox home examples in the 17th century have been usually improvements; later assembles were assembled with the sloped roof and extra living area included from the beginning. The sloping roof urged snow to melt quickly from sunlight when deflecting the strong winds common in this area.
Luckily, many saltbox homes are still standing now. A textbook example of a saltbox structure is located at the scenic Pettengill House, currently managed by the Freeport Historical Society at Freeport, Maine. Pettengill sits on a grand saltwater farm close to the Harraseeket River, and also the home appears almost just as it did over 200 decades back.
Shettleworth clarifies that owners of all saltbox homes had”a very simple, rural presence that has been tied directly to the property and the ocean,” he states. “Simplicity of their house itself was reflected from the life that occurred inside it had been very much tied into the seasons and also the struggle of getting through every winter.”
Cases of Modern Saltbox Design
The two modernists and history buffs can discover common cosmetic ground in saltbox-style houses. Design upgraded a customer’s historical saltbox home in Redding, Connecticut, while maintaining the house’s characterful, original components. She aimed to produce the circa-1725 home livable and refreshing when maintaining historical characteristics.
The outcome is a sun-filled, modern space with its first slanted ceilings, fireplaces, and flooring still intact. “Those particulars have a romantic component to them that I would never alter,” Mittleman says, “It’s an upgraded home with its first charm and soul preserved”
As well as fresh windows and mechanical elements, the interior obtained a contemporary saltbox design makeover complete using a whirlpool kitchen, a new mixture of furnishings, along fresh coats of paint. Mittleman utilized Benjamin Moore’s White Dove on all ceilings and walls to get a consistently light and airy atmosphere.
The brand new wall color brings attention to the timeworn beams over, which can be first. Mittleman completed them using an easy whitewash remedy to lighten but additionally conserve. All first floors have been refinished having a wax coat to safeguard them for a long time to come.
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