The prospect of waterfront sunsets lured a couple to purchase a 70-year-old cottage just 20 feet from Edge Creek in St. Michaels, Maryland. The dilapidated structure needed work, so they hired Amanda Friend to reimagine it as a welcoming destination for family and friends.

“I wanted to take advantage of the incredible view and close water access,” the designer recounts. “The entire cottage is only 1,000 square feet, so I decided to make the indoors and outdoors one unified space, to allow the owners to host big gatherings. Turning the outdoor area into a ‘room’ meant tripling the home’s square footage.”

Friend replaced the dwelling’s creek-facing wall with sliding-glass accordion doors custom-fabricated by Loewen. She turned the formerly choppy interiors into an open and airy great room by razing a dividing wall and demolishing a section of dropped ceiling to expose the vaulted roofline. A small attic above the bedroom was finished to create a sleeping loft for the couple’s kids. The bedroom was brightened by additional windows overlooking the creek.

The kitchen lines up against the largest interior wall; a massive, quartzite-topped island serves as a hangout big enough to seat six. Removing a large, defunct fireplace made space to expand the nearby bathroom, now complete with a double vanity, roomy shower and soaking tub. “To create uninterrupted flow from the interior to the exterior, I chose a subtle palette that relates to the colors of nature,” notes Friend, “from the soft blue tones of water and sky to the grays and sand colors of the shoreline.”

Renovation & Interior Design: Amanda Friend, Associate ASID, Amanda Friend Interiors, Newark, Delaware. Renovation Contracting: K.H. Carpentry, Federalsburg, Maryland. Photography: Rebecca McAlpine.