Welcome to this lake house designed for a set of wonderful clients meant for them to create lasting memories with their family for a lifetime to come. When I started the project it was nothing but a plot of land and a set of architectural documents. From there, everything, from the exterior to the interior, was hand selected selected. My design goal was to create a light and bright modern lake house with refined rustic elements throughout. You will see a lot of features used on the outside of the house brought into the home to create continuity. Layers of whimsical touches keep each space fun and inviting. I hope you enjoy your journey through this wonderful family lake hour retreat.
Welcome to this lake house designed for a set of wonderful clients meant for them to create lasting memories with their family for a lifetime to come.
Because lake lots are expensive and small around this private lake, we wanted to make this heart of the home feel as big and open as possible. When designing an a fully open living space filled with the entry, kitchen, dining room, and family room, it is important to use clever ways of defining the spaces.
The base of the dining table is an x-base taupe washed wood. Indicative of that true farmhouse style. The texture of the rush seats on the dining chairs is fantastic and the metal detailing is amazing.
We all know that everyone congregates around the kitchen and with a large family, it is important to have a kitchen that can accommodate everyone. This fantastic wrap around bar top serves multiple purposes. It is perfect for giving the homeowner more prep space, it allows all of the kids to sit around the kitchen, and it provides a serving spot for food when entertaining.
This kitchen is not lacking in design. The corner range wall creates a fun feature for this home, the detailing in the bead board cabinetry add to that farmhouse country style, and the shades of white, cream, beige, and taupe make this neutral kitchen have so much interest.
Bringing elements that remind us of the lake is important. These metal kitchen pendant lights reminded us of the metal seen on old fishing boats. The perfect detail for such a fun lake house. You can also see how we brought a touch of deep teal into the space along the painted stair railing leading up to the second floor kids area.
A dining room for entertaining! This zinc top farmhouse dining table is large enough to seat up to 10 guests comfortably. We decided to bring a weathered reclaimed wood chair with a gunmetal x-back for detail. Perfectly speaks to the farmhouse style. To bring a splash of color into the space, we put a flat weave rug with a touch of blue.
From this angle you can see the fun vintage boat style light fixture. It also give you a great view of the sea foam blue and green flat weave. Another relax at the lake sign and a wall full of glass doors and windows and we are ready to enjoy lake house living.
In our defined family room space, we were aware that the floor to ceiling stone fireplace would be the show stopper. We also knew that we needed to soften the harshness that comes with so much stone. To accomplish this, we decided to keep the amount of wood pieces in the space to a minimum. One of our favorite pieces in this room is the turned leg cocktail ottoman.
The little details in the furniture throughout the space is what makes this hime special. This is an updated take on a traditional English Armed sofa. The nailhead trimming on the outside of the arm adds an understated detail we just loved. We also layered a strong stripe pattern, traditionally seen in materials by the lake, with a flame stitch patterned pillow.
Around this feature fireplace, we brought the stone used on the exterior of the house inside. We loved how this connected the elements to one another. We decided to build up the hearth to allow for even more seating when entertaining large groups.
A close up of the granite countertops. Light, bright and airy. There are little veins of medium brown throughout to tie in with the hardwoods in the house.
My clients wanted a primary bedroom retreat, so that is what we gave them. They wanted to keep the bedroom side muted and neutral while having the sunroom be a place of bright cheer surrounded in light. We ran bits of lavender color throughout the space to add just enough color while punching a vibrant green to bring the outdoors in.
Layering neutrals in a room adds interest. Don't be afraid to mix it up with black, brown, grey, beige, and all shades in between.
When looking into the sun room off the primary bedroom you can't help but feel invited to come in to enjoy a good book, gaze out of the windows into nature, or enjoy a nice cup of tea. My client is all about have a whimsical chair in every bedroom and to accomplish that in her master bedroom, we took a traditional spool chair, custom painted it a light green.
Contrast is the name of the game in this room. The camel back sofa in a crisp white linen brings an updated traditional feel to this space, while the light green spool chairs add a touch of whimsical. A set of nesting tables allows the client to move them to accommodate any seating space in the room.
Some tin pots with lavender was the entire inspiration for this area of the primary bedroom. It made my client light up and smile the first time she saw it. In this photo you can also see the texture in the sofa, adding another layer of depth. I love adding pig punched in small space!
Upstairs we have a bunk room with four beds for when grandkids come and stay. To add extra storage, we designed a custom build-in bunk system that has drawers under the bottom bed and storage compartments inside each step. A cleaver way to hid the toys! In the bunk room we decided to go with the classic nautical theme to spark imagination with all the kids. Ahoy matey!
Boat shaped wall hook leading into this sweet guest bedroom.
To play off the "Boats and Birds" theme, we chose to play with the colors of blue and yellow. The wall is Sherwin Williams Tradewinds SW6218, which is perfect for feeling like we are sailing off into the ocean. The headboard and nightstand have that shiplap planked design. We kept it light and airy with the white washed finish.
Because these guest rooms are on the smaller side, we wanted to bring as much natural light in as we could by adding large windows. To allow the breeze off the lake to come in, we made sure the windows could slide open. Understanding the need for privacy, we installed custom roman shades in a crisp white linen material.
The second guest bedroom is the "Garden Room." We used a fuchsia pink and minty green combination and a fresh take on the traditional floral print fabrics to bring this room to life. The client wanted to have a space that felt comfortable for her mother when she came to visit but did not compromise on that funky and fun whimsical feel.
Because of the lot size, this room is a little smaller than the previous guest bedroom. We did not have room to put a traditional closet so we designed a custom wardrobe to help with our storage solution. This also crated the perfect corner to put our accent chair for guests to sit back and relax in.