Hopefully, you aren’t getting sick of my summer project. You’ve seen the bedroom and the dining room so let’s move into the living room. I wish I had taken better after pics before we closed the house up, so I’m sorry this won’t look like an issue of House Beautiful or even Cottage Life but check it out anyway.

At the end of the summer in 2019, I started measuring and taking before pics. My sister-in-law and I decided that we needed to start over with all new upholstered furniture. If you sat on the old sofa you almost hit the floor, and the rug had so many lumps it wasn’t even safe. It was less than ideal for an octogenarian couple but in true Yankee fashion, they just learned to live with it. When I showed my mother in law the after, she asked why I didn’t do it 10 years earlier. She cracks me up!

BEFORE

It’s an adorable little camp, but it just needed a little love and furniture that you can actually get out of.

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The Floor

When we removed all the furniture – (by we I mean the teenage posse) we noticed that the last few times the floor had been painted they just painted around the rug. Crazy – right? Well, apparently not that crazy for a lake camp. Well, I decided to go big and paint the whole floor. You can just pick up a good floor and deck paint at your local hardware store and roll away. It is definitely a little trickier with a dog around!

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It’s looking brighter already! I originally wanted to paint the knotty pine in white. The first problem was that apparently painting knotty pine is quite controversial. The boys wanted to leave it as is and my sister-in-law and I wanted to paint it. Ultimately, we ended up leaving it, mainly because I didn’t want to spend most of July painting. However, I did paint all the trim around the doors and windows and that did a lot to help add some brightness and also took a fraction of the time.

AFTER

Now the fun part – furnishing it!

I wish I had taken better pictures and “staged” it a bit more but you are getting the lived-in look complete with a sheet on the couch for the occasional dog jump. I was planning on getting rid of the TV, but due to a super long summer, we enjoyed quite a few cozy movie nights!

What we bought

• Farlov Sofa – Ikea – We were hoping for a color other than white, but they’re just weren’t fabulous color choices this year.
• Farlov Chair – Ikea
• Agen Chair – Ikea
• Smith and Hawken for Target Basketweave indoor/ outdoor rug – I love this rug and use it in both lake houses. You can get most stains out easily. If it is out on the website, just be patient and it will come back in.
• Jaden Woven Pouf – Opalhouse Target – I love this pouf it’s great for a footstool or an extra seat.

The pillows are Pier 1 so unfortunately you can’t get them anymore.

We are almost done with the lake house re-do! Stay tuned for the porch! My favorite part of the house!