As Airbnb becomes more popular, you have to set yourself apart. In my local area of West Michigan, the lakes are the main draw. A few years ago when we rented our own property it was located across the street from an inland lake, with access a public boat launch nearby and Lake Michigan just a mile or so away. …
Why Should I Rent My Vacation Home?
I had an interesting conversation with a colleague the other day. He has a family member with a house on a lake. He purchased it before the housing market exploded, so he got it for an affordable price. However shortly after purchasing, he was transferred out of state for work. He plans to retire in his lake house, but that …
Airbnb Design~ Brand Identity/Part 2; Coastal Style Bedroom
As I said in my previous post, each room identity morphed into something a little different. For the Great Lakes bedroom, it changed into things we do on the lake. Boating, fishing, swimming, etc. So this bedroom has a coastal style which is an obvious choice in a lake house! I didn’t include anything that relates to ocean coastal. Such …
Blog Series: Airbnb Design~Brand Identity for Guest Bedrooms/Part 1
When taking on a design project for an Airbnb, I like to decorate each bedroom differently. But they also need to be cohesive with the rest of the house. Instead of using themes (because that sounds cheesy:), I give each room a brand identity. In a recent vacation rental home project, I gave my clients a few different brand identity …
6 Simple Changes to Update Your Kitchen without Renovation
This Lake Michigan home was a bit too bright and overwhelming for it’s new homeowners. We believe it was used as a short term rental, so the fun decor made sense. But for a vacation home that will be used in all 4 seasons, we needed to take it from tropical coastal to Michigan coastal. All we did is change …
Lakehouse Bedroom Renovation
Wow has it been a long time since I posted! Everytime I write something I tell myself I am going to post more….. oops. In the winter we work on our own home in addition to working on our clients homes. But in the spring, summer and fall we put our own projects on hold. So nothing new to show …
Michigan Coastal Style
So I’m not sure if this is a new style name or if I just made it up, but I have come to discover that this term suits my style as well as many of my clients. And it was by total accident. I recently met with new client’s and they were explaining what they want in their vacation home. …
Dining Room Progress…
If you follow me on Insta you may have seen my post that says Beauty is in the Progress. And here is a great example!! What a difference in our dining room! All I did was paint the windows, trim and walls. This room faces the south so it already had great light, but now it’s even brighter! I just …
What’s on the other side of the new wall?
Closing this wall off has also affected the dining area and foyer. I plan to paint all of the walls white, which are all currently blue. Its a pretty color but it is very similar to what I had in my last house as well as our airbnb, so I am tired of it. It is also eeevvveeerrryyyywwhhheeerrreee. It’s in …
Home office planning phase..flooring and storage.
One of the things I hated about this house was the berber carpet. It was in my office, the living room, the stairs to the second floor and the upstairs hallway. For how old it was it really wasn’t in bad shape. I just really hate carpet, especially berber. Just before all of the stores non-essential areas of the …
My home office progress..
I believe the last time I wrote about my office, we were in the planning stage. Well it’s like 8 months later and we are still in the progress phase. Mostly my fault, partly because I didn’t want to “waste the summer” working on it. Summer’s are so short here in Michigan and so we spent as much time as …
Master Bathroom Layouts
Ok, back to the master bathroom. This is the current layout. Click here to read the post about the problems with the room. This next layout, which is the least expensive, is a pretty good option. The total square footage of the bathroom would increase from 58 sq ft to 116 sq ft. Exactly double the space we had …
My home office~Before
The next room I’m looking at is my office. Which will probably be the first one to be redone because construction wise, its the easiest of my top 5 list. And the materials we need are considered “essential” for building so we will be able to get them from our local lumber yard. Before our local home improvement stores closed …
Master Bathroom
In my last post I mentioned our house was move in ready. Thank goodness. But, almost every room is gray or blue. I’m so over gray and white. Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful. I’m just tired of it. To me it has no personality. I absolutely love the black and white look, however it’s also becoming what everyone does, …
Designing My Own Home
Shortly before this horrible pandemic, my husband and I bought a “new to us” house. It was built back in 1989 or 1990. Luckily it doesn’t have any of those crazy 90’s angles (good thing or I never would have bought it), and some updates have been done by the last owner. I don’t love everything they chose, but it …