Construction Diary: How Japanese Minka Homes Inspired a Designer’s Coastal Cabin in Maine

Designer Scott Stultz waited a long time for the opportunity to design and build his own house from scratch—in many ways, it’s the culmination of his 30-plus-year-long career. Trained in environmental design and architecture, he has conceived custom kitchens, furniture, baths, and residential interiors as the founder of Scott A. Stultz & Associates, and as a consulting designer for other brands.

Scott and his partner, Ina Schonberg, started looking for a place to call home together while they were living in Pennsylvania and the Washington, D.C. suburbs, respectively. They initially considered upstate New York, but as Ina was visiting her son in Maine, she came across a 12-acre wooded parcel for sale on Cape Rosier, near Penobscot Bay.

Coincidentally, it was just a mile away from the camp Scott’s children had attended for seven consecutive summers. The couple bought the property shortly after discovering it.

Scott knew he wanted to design the house. The son of a Japanese immigrant, he drew inspiration from the traditional minka (or "people’s houses," built from the 1600s-1800s) he’d fallen in love with on his first visit to Japan as a teenager—and he and Ina named the project Shinrin No Ie, which is Japanese for "forest home."

By coincidence, Scott was in talks with the custom cabinetry company Dutch Made about collaborating on a new kitchen series, which became known as the Katachi collection. It draws inspiration from both Japanese and Scandinavian design principles, and Scott designed Shinrin No Ie to showcase the line’s myriad possibilities. Read on to learn how the couple’s dream home came together.