Inside the Nantucket Home of Best-Selling Author Elin Hilderbrand

The author Elin Hilderbrand purchased a shingle-style, 2,940-square-foot home on the island of Nantucket in 2015 and then spent seven years — and over $2 million — renovating it.

“It was the money pit,” said Ms. Hilderbrand. “I have replaced every brick, stone, stick of wood and shingle on this house.”

Ms. Hilderbrand, 56, has lived on Nantucket, located off Cape Cod, Mass., for over three decades. She raised her three children there and used the island’s pristine beaches, expensive restaurants and the town’s cobblestone streets as the setting for nearly all of her 31 novels.

After publishing her first book, “The Beach Club,” in 2000, Ms. Hilderbrand generated at least one escapist novel every year for 24 years. She has sold more than 20 million books worldwide.