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Inspired By: Lake House Style

by | Jun 23, 2017 | Decorating Inspiration

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Inspired By: Lake House StyleLauren Liess

Lake houses feel like summer to me! Most of my life I lived near or even in a house on a lake growing up. My previous house was actually also on a lake (well, right next to it, not ON it). Maybe that’s why I felt inspired to dream up a perfect lake house while I was surfing Pinterest yesterday.

I’d love for my house here to incorporate some of those “lake house” influences I love, too (even though our current house is actually looking over the sound, not a lake, but whatever, ha! Maybe I should just call this look I love “water house style”). I have so many more plans for our house and I love looking for ideas.

Anyway, since it’s now the official start of summer, I had fun rounding up some beautiful rooms to inspire us with a “lake house” mindset, wherever we live! You can also shop from summer house style ideas in the scroll bar at the bottom of the post.

Enjoy and happy Friday, friends!

What are you up to this weekend? 

Inspired By: Lake House Style

Style at Home

Inspired By: Lake House StyleMuskoka Living Interiors

Inspired By: Lake House Style

Inspired By: Lake House Style

Style at Home

Inspired By: Lake House Style

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Inspired By: Lake House Style

Whimsical Bathroom – Traditional Home

Inspired By: Lake House Style

Traditional Home

Inspired By: Lake House Style

 

Shop lake house style with the arrows above!

20 Comments

  1. Michelle

    Gorgeous! Thx for sharing and for the inspiration!

  2. Cathy

    I love the lake house inspiration! I pinned the first photo before I even went any further.

    Although I’ve lived with, and loved, white cupboards for 24 years and thought about trying something different next time, these shots make me think I might want to do white again. It’s beautiful with hardwood floors!

  3. Sandy

    Thank you for sharing such stunning spaces! Love them all.

  4. Diane @ An Extraordinary Day

    You know I’m a lake girl too! I grew up with a view of a large inland lake (think sailing) just a few miles from Lake Michigan where I spent countless hours in the waves and sun. And we have returned and live just 2 miles (right now we can walk a trail through the woods and over the dune to get to the lake instead of driving if we wish) from the BIG lake now. I totally get that feeling you’re after. It’s so very relaxing.

    I just wanted to comment that the white bedroom is everything summer and cottage and lake and the last kitchen totally got me with the arches and curved blue ceiling and walls between rooms. Oh My Heart!!!!

    Have a wonderful weekend my friend…. hope you get to breathe in some of that wonderful air on the shores of The Sound soon.

  5. Jo Jo

    Oh, how I love the lake house photo inspirations! ! Beautiful! I also like to incorporate this kind of ‘ home on/ near the water” feel in my home! Our new home ( we built a year ago) isn’t right on the ocean, but it is close…. 8 miles away. Coastal elements are always finding their way into our home. Love it! Airy, light, and relaxing. What am I doing this weekend? We’re finishing up details for our daughter’s wedding that will be taking place in just 10’days! Excited. ?❤️?

  6. Karen

    Love the Style at Home kitchen!! Gotta save that pic to put in my “dream” folder. :)

  7. Debbie

    That first room!! Everything I adore and more. Thank you for the inspiration :)

  8. Kim

    That first photo is just stunning. All the rooms in your post today are absolutely beautiful. I have a question though. I grew up near the ocean and now I live in a town with two big beautiful lakes, but I do not, by any stretch of the imagination, live ON the lake. There is one lake about 5 miles from my house and another lake is maybe 10 miles from my home. My taste always leans coastal even when I am trying not to go in the direction. I guess it’s just in my DNA. Is it in poor decorating taste to decorate in a lake house/ coastal style when I do not live on the ocean or even on a lake?

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Not at all! I think you answered your own question when you said it is in your DNA! Living near the water has always been in my DNA, too. Even if this house wasn’t near the water, it wouldn’t change who I am so I would still decorate in a similar way. Authenticity in who you are and what speaks to you is what matters most when you are decorating your home.

      I wrote a couple of books about this :), but here are a few things I think about. What colors do you sense put you at ease or energize you? If the colors of water and coastal towns speak to you, then incorporate those memories! What brings back fond memories of growing up or what resonates positively with other seasons of your life? If you lived near the water and you still feel at home near the coast or on a lake, I would definitely incorporate it into where I lived, even if I no longer live near the water. You can represent that style in a subtle way through your color scheme, or patterns, or overall style of furnishings, or a few decorative nods to that season of life that you love.

      You can also take cues from your home’s natural architectural style. This house is so different from any other house I’ve lived in, so while I am the same person, this house is unique so I interpret my style through its’ features. I want to be sensitive to my surroundings, but I don’t have to limit myself to anything. Honoring that authentic mix is what makes my house feel like home to me! I think there are a variety of ways to bring who you have been, who you are and where you live into your home. :)

      • Kristie

        Can you give a specific example of how you “interpret your style through [you house’s] features?”

  9. Chris

    Agree with you wholeheartedly on the water house description. It doesn’t have to be a beach house – lake, river, ocean, bay, sound is irrelevant! I just love the relaxed vibe and soothing color schemes! AND “suggesting” the idea that there is water nearby with decor and colors brings that feel to a home…

  10. sandyc

    Melissa, I so hope Kim takes your reply to heart. It was a post you did on finding your own style back in 2013 that opened up my design eyes to the fact that the country cottage I would see in my mind had a recent source and then a childhood source and that I could achieve it in my Arizona desert home (with some help from a greenbelt with grass and some trees). In addition, I embraced my 30-year-old large dark-framed windows, my one archway off the foyer and my vaulted LR ceiling and the California/Spanish bungalow feel they offered (another deep love) and, even though my home is still a work in progress, I’m happy as a lark with the combination I’ve achieved and the best compliment I’ve ever received from two very different sources (one who knew me slightly and one who had never been in my previous home) was “We love your home, Sandy – it’s so YOU.” Colorist/designer Maria Killam always says your home should make you smile every time you walk through a room and mine does. Go for it, Kim.

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Yay, Sandy! That makes my heart smile to hear about your home. I’m so glad you’ve found a way to create the cottage of your dreams right there where you are and with the architecture you have! It is a freeing feeling to embrace what makes you smile and create a unique place that is all your own. XO

  11. Jo Jo

    I’m glad you answered Kim’s question the way you did, Melissa. I was going to address her question, but she wasn’t asking me. lol. I would still strive for a coastal feel in my home even if I didn’t live in an old ship building town on the east coast just blocks from a river and 8 miles from the ocean, because I LOVE the easy- breezy vibe it gives ( to me, at least). I didn’t grow up on or nearbtoo much water, but we did have a summer cottage on a lake when I was a kid at we always vacationers there. Where I live now is he closest I’ve ever lived near Water, but even if Imdidnt I’d still decorate striving for thatvsame soothing, relaxed vibe of blues and whites. Go for it Kim! You won’t regre it. ?

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      I agree, Jo Jo, it sure is rewarding to create a home that just feels right to us! <3

  12. franki

    I live on a lake right next to the water. Spectacular view out the windows. Now, I live in a…log cabin…I think one really has to go “with the architecture, in my case.” Your photos are really, really pretty!! franki

  13. Carole

    Oh, how I miss my home on the lake! But mine was done in more earthy tones, sage green, rust, peach, cherry woods…I’m not one for all that sterile white. These rooms are beautiful, just not me.

  14. kg

    Those bamboo wingback chairs in pic 1… so amazing.

 

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