The homeowners came to Slate to expand a beloved stone Tudor-style cottage in Falls Church without losing the character that made them fall in love with it. Our addition doubles the home’s usable footprint with a two-story rear expansion — including a light-filled top-floor studio wrapped in clerestory windows — while preserving the original fieldstone facade, steep gable roofline, and mature landscaping. The finished project reads as if the addition had always been part of the house.
We hand-matched new fieldstone masonry to the existing veneer so the first-floor extension reads as original, then transitioned to cedar shake siding and painted lap siding above to give the second story its own quiet identity. A new covered front porch with stone columns and a slate landing anchors the entry, and a standing-seam metal roof cap crowns the upper studio. Throughout construction, the existing backyard greenhouse, hardscape, and gardens were fully protected — a critical piece of the scope for homeowners who had spent years restoring the property.
As one of the leading home addition contractors serving Falls Church, Fairfax County, and the greater Northern Virginia market, Slate treated this project as a design-build partnership from day one — architectural planning, structural engineering, hand-set masonry, custom millwork, and finish work all delivered by a single team.
Project Highlights
- Second-story studio addition with wraparound clerestory windows
- Hand-matched fieldstone masonry to preserve original cottage character
- New covered front porch with stone columns and slate flooring
- Cedar shake and painted lap siding on the upper level with standing-seam metal roof accent
- Chimney rebuilt and extended to the new roofline
- Existing backyard greenhouse and mature gardens fully protected during construction
- Two-story rear expansion that doubled usable square footage
Homeowner Vision
Our clients wanted to grow into their home rather than out of it — adding a light-filled upper studio and expanded main-floor living without erasing the historic stone cottage they’d spent years restoring. The goal was a seamless, character-preserving addition, not a modern box grafted onto a beloved property.
Challenges Solved
A seamless two-story addition that preserves a 1930s stone cottage’s original character.
- Sourced and hand-set new fieldstone to match the existing 1930s-era veneer so the first-floor extension reads as original
- Engineered a two-story addition on the rear elevation without disturbing the original steep gable roofline
- Rebuilt and extended the original chimney to meet the new second-story rooflines
- Protected the existing greenhouse, mature gardens, and hardscape throughout construction
- Blended three exterior materials — stone, cedar shake, and painted lap siding — into a single cohesive elevation
- Added a covered front porch that reads as original to the home, with hand-set stone columns and a slate landing
