I just finished our new, well…new to us, cottage on the gorgeous Lake of Bays. Sigh. I love this place and everything cottaging means to my family. We have been two summers without our own so have been begging and borrowing to steal weekends in cottage country for long enough. So nice to have our own address to return the favour.
I spent alot of time thoughtfully planning and plotting my own space, always aware of the spend and with a keen eye on the end result. I wanted a cottage where people didn’t feel they needed to kick their flip flops off or change out of their wet swimsuit. Nothing too precious but still beautiful.
These were my guiding principles:
Look Closely
We inherited just about everything with this sweet waterside retreat – pretty common in recreational real estate sales – but I had decided to keep most of the pieces from our old place so we needed to purge when we moved in. We gifted some, donated others and kept a few select pieces that I felt I could work with. Slipcovers are amazing and crazy practical so look at the bones of a piece before you donate/toss/gift.
Paint it Out
I love mixing painted pieces with wood toned pieces and paint works small miracles on seemingly unsalvageable case goods. If you love the architecture, it is worth the weekend to strip or sand, prime and paint. And you just gotta at the cottage – coolest recycling ever.
Resist the Kitsch
Who doesn’t love a moose? Me. Wildlife belongs in the wild – not on fabric or mounted on the wall or climbing a flipping lamp. Even when I had the store, plum in the middle of cottage country, I refused to sell the cottage predictable. So no beaver, bear, moose anything. Just the way I roll.
Bring on the Colour
I tend to live and design with quiet colour in most of my residential work but love to play with colour waterside. For my place, I selected three colours (plus my neutral) and gave myself lots of room and range around shades making decorating child’s play. The result: the interior feels less controlled and intentional. It is a cottage and cottage design is most effective when it feels tossed together. It also provides me with tons of runway – when I am sourcing and I find something great, I am not concerned with whether or not “it goes”. It does and it will.
Nostalgia Works
Retro is always welcome in a cottage whether in the shape of cool lighting, milk glass, or yellow ware. I have my collections in stacks and piles in my kitchen hutch.