In case you missed my lake house bedroom before and after, I spent most of June giving my in-laws lake camp a bit of a refresh! My mother-in-law no longer wants to spend the full summer in Vermont so we are spreading out. We will be at her house this summer and then move back to the other house next summer. It is an adorable little camp, but it just needed a little love and color.

One of the rooms that needed some of this love was the little dining nook. It has great light and windows, but it was full of raw wood that just needed some primer and a coat of paint. It is also somewhat sinking and the floor is split, but that kind of fix is above my pay-grade and involves lifting the whole house. Such is life on the lake.

THE BEFORE

A little fun story about this room. When my in-laws moved into this camp my mother-in-law wanted a little more light in the dining room, and in true fashion, my father-in-law found a sledgehammer and went to work. (Those of you who knew Jimmy know what I mean).

Here is the dining room when we arrived and started to move in.

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PREP WORK

Never my favorite part of the job, but the key is always the prep work, that means taping and primer. On a project like this, you want to make sure that you use a primer that blocks wood stains. And not going to lie, prepping, and painting windows is not my favorite.

Clare Paint

I am definitely a sucker for good marketing and had been seeing Clare’s ads on Instagram. I was definitely curious. Clare is a fairly new paint brand and a Black-owned business started by interior designer Nicole Gibbons. It is a premium paint with zero VOC and is certified as an environmentally friendly paint. They are also focused on sustainability. All this and it has fabulous colors too!

One of the things I loved about Clare paint (besides the fact it’s green), was that they sent large paint samples and that it was all shipped right to my door. Very important during a pandemic, and honestly there was no more room in my car!

I ended up going with one of their most popular colors, Headspace. I used the trim paint.

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VERDICT

I have to say I am a big fan of Clare paint and will definitely use it again! The coverage was amazing and I love their branding. I used Clare paint in the bedroom as well.

AFTER

The job took a little longer than I wanted due to many coats of primer that were needed on the raw wood, and the windows… man I hate painting windows. But it was well worth the effort.

It’s hard to see, but I also took the window hardware and spray painted it navy for a fun little detail. (I wanted to also do it on the door hardware, but maybe I will save that for another summer).

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THE FURNITURE

The existing table fit the small space perfectly, and I loved the pendant light, but other than that it was time to start over.

My father-in-law had found some upholstered chairs somewhere, but they were dark and bulky, and I wanted something bright and more to scale. As with all of my lake house re-do’s, I didn’t want to break the bank, so I found these white chairs from Ikea. It was also in desperate need of a new rug so I went with my lake go-to rug from Target.

I am pretty happy how it turned out … it definitely brightened the place up!

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Stay tuned for more of my re-fresh!