Decorating & Design
The Lakehouse: See The Inspiration Behind Lynda Reeves’ Latest Project
Updated on November 28, 2023
This is my story of designing our renovation of a century-old lakehouse in Ontario. Each month, I’ll offer a new chapter on the challenges and solutions, and a peek at our progress. You’ll be able to see the actual house come together on new episodes of our video series The Lakehouse. The first episode is now live!
The minute I walked into the great room of our lakehouse, I could see the potential and knew exactly what I wanted to do…. I wish! The truth is, I fell in love with the grace and scale of this wonderful house with its patina of age. Its rooms tell a story of the grandeur of another time, when families would decamp to their summer homes with their whole entourage and settle in for the season…. I loved its quirky nature, with its
11 tiny bedrooms, each with its own sink, its beautifully preserved russet-colored oak floors, miles of fir panelling and, of course, the wonderful views of the lake.
That was it. No vision. Just ideas swirling around in my head for months while we worked out the practical complexities of winterizing a one-season cottage (that’s for another chapter) and faced the challenge of working through stay-at-home orders (that’s for a whole book!).
Along the way, I searched for a vision, which is what you must do before you launch into the design phase of any project. I struggled. I did what we all do. I made files of inspiration photos torn from magazines, pinned and pinned until I couldn’t find a thing, sketched from my mind’s eye, and then settled on a few key images that would drive the vision.
Finding your vision is the most important — and, of course, the hardest — part of every project. For me, there are three key things to consider: First, the structure. The architecture always defines the potential of the house — good and bad. Second, the light. Where is it coming from, and how do you preserve or enhance it? Third, your style. In the end, whatever you do must reflect your personal taste and lifestyle.
It also helps to know what you don’t want. In my case, I ruled out English country style, even if the house did cry out for it, and the whole rustic log cabin look, which doesn’t suit me.
I was still looking, casting around for how to reconcile all those wood-clad rooms in a fresher and more modern way, when Emma Reddington emailed me photos of a fabulous house in Marin County, California, by Commune Design. It was also built in the 1930s and had been renovated to its now cool, relaxed, refined style.
Of course! Mid-century modern furniture mixed with old woven rattan and wicker, and contemporary-meets-quirky bathrooms! This was so helpful. The hitch would be the kitchen. I love a true cook’s kitchen, and I hoped I could build one that would look old world but still feel fresh and a bit modern.
Also, I needed an exterior image that would work for our very horizontal house that had classic wood siding — quickly — so materials could be ordered, along with windows and doors. Now, at least, I had a direction. Next was finding a palette for the exterior, and a few key elements for the inside. Take a look — see what you think!
The Exterior
The choice of material for the new horizontal siding that would start pale and then weather to a soft gray was first. I settled on western red cedar engineered siding, in extra-long planks, because it’s sustainable. The roof would be natural cedar shingles that would turn silver-gray, and the fir-framed windows would be painted Benjamin Moore’s Sandy Hook Gray. The new exterior doors would be natural fir preserved with Benjamin Moore’s Arborcoat Exterior Waterproofer.
I wanted to be eco-conscious in our choices of materials. There was a time when I would have rejected knotty cedar in favor of clear. But I learned that the knots signal that these trees are renewable, which, of course, changes everything. Embracing those knots — knocking them back with a bleaching oil that is water-based and safe to use was the solution.
Going Canadian was a big factor in choosing materials and suppliers: B.C. western red cedar siding, B.C. fir windows from a Manitoba company, Loewen Windows, and B.C. cedar shingles give this house’s exterior a “Made in Canada” label that I like a lot. Benjamin Moore also provided technical expertise on how to treat all of the house’s wood surfaces.
Someone convinced me to go with a new cedar roof. I thought we should wait a year and think about it. Boy, was I wrong! The new roof has transformed the exterior. It’s magnificent, as you will see in the video.
As I write this, I’m still undecided about exterior lighting. I can point you to every barn sconce ever made, in every finish… and we’ll have a few. But those key front door fixtures are trickier.
In any case, the material will be aged black metal for the barn-style sconces. Those all-important hits of black in hardware and lighting will help ground the eye.
The Interior
Now, it was time to get going on the palette for the interior rooms. For me, that’s always the next step. Once you find your fan of key colors that will carry the eye from room to room, you’ll carry it with you when you’re shopping for hard materials, fabrics, wallpaper and hardware.
I decided not to paint the main floor, keeping the beautiful fir panelling natural. So, all the accent colors for the built-ins in the kitchen, mudroom and bathrooms would need to contrast beautifully with the rust walls and gray stone fireplaces.
Upstairs, we’re painting! Those charming bedrooms will have freshly painted panelling and furniture. For now, I’ve started to collect fabrics that will inspire those rooms.
My basic fan for the main floor is stone, cream, off-black, green- black, blue-black, taupe and a few great whites. The built-ins will be off-black in the kitchen, inspired by the colors in the natural soapstone counters.
House & Home October 2020
Lynda Reeves