Back around Labor Day a couple of years ago, we first spotted the Soot House on Instagram: a tiny, charred-black house hand-built by a sculptor turned DIY builder, surrounded by scrubby pines and low-bush blueberries on the island of Spruce Head in Maine. Since then we’ve toured the small but hyper-efficient house (see Conjuring the Ghosts of Old New England on Spruce Head in Maine) and returned to it again and again as a pioneering example of Maine resourcefulness and artfulness in one.
Today, in honor of our Maine issue, we’re taking a closer look at the house’s deconstructed kitchen, reminiscent of the old New England root cellar. Join us.
Photography by Greta Rybus.
![the house, where builder anthony esteves and designer julie o’rourk 17](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/anthony-esteves-soot-house-exterior-3-maine-greta-rybus-733x489.jpg)
![inside, the house is small but economical with space. 18](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/anthony-esteves-soot-house-main-room-greta-rybus-733x489.jpg)
![the high ceilinged living room and dining room give way to a sunken, low ceilin 19](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/anthony-esteves-soot-house-pegs-dining-room-shelves-maine-greta-rybus-733x1100.jpg)
![the kitchen, with the woodstove in question, a concrete floor, and half wall, a 20](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/anthony-esteves-soot-house-wood-stove-maine-greta-rybus-733x1100.jpg)
![a concrete ledge provides a place for display. 23](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/anthony-esteves-soot-house-kitchen-light-detail-maine-greta-rybus-733x1100.jpg)
![esteves\2\17;s hand built cedar shelves serve as both storage and room d 24](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/anthony-esteves-soot-house-kitchen-shelves-detail-maine-greta-rybus-733x1100.jpg)
![another moment of economy: unused space beneath the main level floor is used to 25](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/anthony-esteves-soot-house-jars-on-shelf-detail-maine-greta-rybus-733x1100.jpg)
![opposite the woodstove: a deconstructed cook space, with a small cooktop atop a 26](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/anthony-esteves-soot-house-stair-landing-maine-greta-rybus-733x1100.jpg)
![the top of the small set of stairs that leads down into the kitchen. 27](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/anthony-esteves-soot-house-plants-on-shelves-maine-greta-rybus-733x1100.jpg)
![the smeg refrigerator is kept out of the kitchen, in a niche clad with cedar bo 28](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/anthony-esteves-soot-house-refrigerator-nook-maine-greta-rybus-733x1100.jpg)
![the family outside their soot house. 29](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/anthony-esteves-julie-orourke-soot-house-maine-greta-rybus-733x1100.jpg)
We like these kitchens in Maine that draw from old New England, with pragmatism and artfulness in the mix:
- The New New England: A 1754 Cape on Spruce Head in Maine
- The House that Craigslist Built: A Bare-Bones Farmhouse in Midcoast Maine
- Steal This Look: A Luminous Kitchen Renovation in Rockport, Maine
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