Why Hopkinton
Tall Foyers, Big Arches, And The Sun That Comes Through Them
Drive the newer streets off Main Street and through Legacy Farms and the pattern repeats. A front door with sidelights, a half round or palladian window above it, and a foyer that runs up two floors so that window throws light all the way to the second floor landing. It is a beautiful feature at eight in the morning and a heat lamp by noon on a west facing lot.
A shutter for that arch is built to the measured curve, and Kevin makes a template on site because no two arches from the same builder come out exactly alike. The arched panel sits above the rectangular panels in the same louver size and paint, so the finished piece reads as one run of millwork rather than a covering.
The rest of the house is easier. Family rooms with a wall of windows to the yard take 4.5 inch louvers and a hidden rear tilt so the view stays open. Bedrooms upstairs take the same louver in white. A whole house in matching shutters is the most common Hopkinton order, and plenty of clients do it in stages, foyer first.
Out toward the marathon start and Hopkinton State Park, the older homes have smaller divided panes and want the 2.5 inch louver instead. Either way, shutters are a fixture that conveys with the house, and in a town where people buy for the long haul that carries weight.
