No Decorating Rules

Georgia and David with Caroline, 5

georgia Carlee and her husband, David, hadn’t planned on uprooting their family of three to move to the shore of Lake Martin in Alexander City, AL. For 15 years the Carlees had been perfectly content with their life in

Santa Rosa Beach, FL. But after their daughter,

Caroline, was born, they began hunting for a weekend/vacation house in the Lake Martin area, a four-hour drive from their Florida home.

That’s when Georgia became enamored of the family-oriented community. It wasn’t that the 2,200-square-foot condominium was in turnkey condition. In fact, the space hadn’t been updated since it was built in 1982. “Other buyers didn’t know what to do with it,” says

Georgia, a designer who owns her own firm.

Although the unit had 27-foot ceilings (amazing, right?!), its two bedrooms and two bathrooms felt scanty considering the square footage. “I’m guessing people thought it was too small, but

I knew we could get another floor in there,” she says. They also added shiplap to the walls and ceiling  ––  plus plenty of modern touches that make it feel like a stylish year-round home rather than a rustic weekend retreat.

“I purposely did not decorate it like a typical lake house,” says Georgia. “There are no ‘What happens at the lake stays at the lake’ signs here!”

living room

Because the condo’s living spaces are one open expanse, Georgia kept the color scheme minimal: White Dove by Benjamin Moore on the walls, some of which she whitewashed, and Heritage Red by Benjamin Moore on the interior doors. A leather Lee Industries sofa and a rattan Palecek chair with houndstooth cushions sit on a cowhide rug layered over an old multicolor striped rug. The room also holds a prized antique find: a 14-foot-tall bamboo ladder, which for the first time ever Georgia can display vertically. The white column lamps are from Pizitz Home & Cottage in Seaside, FL.

kitchen

The old kitchen was small and dark, so the Carlees gutted the space, knocking down a wall and adding windows with front-and-center views of the lake. The island and the perimeter cabinets are topped with brownish gray quartzite, and the island’s base is painted the same shade (Heritage Red by Benjamin Moore) as the home’s interior doors. To counter the oil-rubbed-bronze knobs and pulls from Restoration Hardware, Georgia chose white opalescent tiles for the backsplash. The white faux-leather barstools are from LexMod. An antique “Rollercoaster” sign “describes our life in a word,” Georgia says.

master bedroom

Georgia and David chose the smaller bedroom on the first floor because of its private deck overlooking the lake, then added a pair of windows above the Oly caned headboard to bring in more natural light. The rest of the room is a blend of new and old: The yew wood dresser beside the bed was snapped up at a fire sale in North Carolina, the Waterford crystal lamp on top of it belonged to Georgia’s parents, and the rope-and-wood bench is by Four Hands. The throw pillows are a mix from CB2, Serena & Lily, and Pine Cone Hill.

guest bedroom

This room boasts the house’s only colorful wall (Heritage Red by Benjamin Moore). Georgia had the headboard made at Ava’s Attic, a store near Destin, FL, that constructs furniture out of repurposed wood. The mirror next to it, with a peeled and chipped tin frame, is from Reclamations, a favorite furniture shop in Highlands, NC. The deer silhouette resting on top of the antique pine dresser is from Pickle Patch Market in Sylacauga, AL.

I design a lot of coastal homes. I see so much blue that I wanted the opposite in my home—I needed red!

—Georgia

caroline’s bedroom

“Caroline is a girly girl who also likes to pick up worms,” says Georgia. The pink duvet and pillowcases satisfy the sweet, while the hand-me-down pine bed and the pale yellow vintage dresser give the room a slightly rougher edge. Georgia bought the Every Day I Love You wood print when she was pregnant with Caroline. The cubbies to the left of the hooks were built to max out the space, but they've turned into a favorite hangout spot. “Kids fight over who gets to be in there,” says Georgia.

There isn’t a closet in here, which is fine. We just added hooks and chests for her things.

—Georgia

bathroom

Most of the ceilings in the house are shiplap stained Provincial by Minwax, but Georgia flipped the script in this space, staining the walls and painting the ceiling. A pebble-tile floor and a quartzite countertop add a little luxe to the room. The portrait of Georgia’s late mother, Judi, is for straight-up comic effect. “My mother had a big personality, and she always used to try giving this portrait to David with the joke that he could throw darts at it,” she says. “I’d like to think she’d find it hilarious that I hung it above a toilet.”

deck

This space just off the kitchen gets more foot traffic than any room in the house. “I’ve had friends tell me, ‘I’ve never been in your living room,’ ” Georgia says. The Summer Classics wicker chairs have cushions covered in red Sunbrella fabric and are paired with royal blue patterned pillows from Lacefield Designs and Loloi. The coffee table (it used to be a horse trough!) stores the cushions and pillows at night, and the outdoor rug is from wayfair.com.

now get the look

mirror

Elegant Triangle-Shaped wood and iron mirrors with jute rope handles, $93 for a mixed set of 2 (large is 36" x 20"), overstock.com

art

Deer Silhouette 9" x 12" wood sign, $27, junkyarddaisies.etsy.com

dining table

Cresent Furniture Waverly 78"W x 39"D x 30"H wood dining table, $840, allmodern.com

pillow

Loloi P0136 18" x 18" cotton and rayon pillow in grey and red, $79, houzz.com

chair

Crosley Bradenton polyester and wicker outdoor chair in sangria, $420, bedbathandbeyond.com

rug

Pergamino 6' x 7' cowhide rug in palomino and white, $275, ecowhides.com

chandelier

Creative Co-Op Simply Natural Driftwood 20"-tall wood and metal chandelier, $226, allmodern.com

tiles

MS International Pebbles 12" x 12" meshmounted marble mosaic tile, $10 per square foot, homedepot.com

art

Every Day I Love You by Sugarboo Designs 25" x 17" wood print with grey wood frame, $250, jackandjillboutique.com

rug

Surya Lagoon LGO2000 2' x 3' recycled polyester-yarn rug in denim, $133, hayneedle.com

sofa

Worthington 85"-wide leather and wood sofa, $1,799, article.com

paint

Heritage Red by Benjamin Moore

pillow

Lacefield Designs Tile 20" x 20" polyester outdoor pillow in harbor, $200, zincdoor.com

coffee table

Bella 18"H x 34"-diameter glass and metal coffee table, $199, homedecorators.com

decorating rulesh er e

Learn the secrets of do-your-own-thing design from this clever-thinking Austin, TX, homeowner.

living room

Merrilee doesn’t limit herself to one style—and definitely not one color palette. “I need pops of color everywhere,” she says. So she painted her wall-spanning bookcase pink grapefruit (for a similar look, try Mineral Red by Pratt & Lambert), hung dandelionhued chinoiserie drapes that date back to the ’80s, added a pair of vintage navy armchairs, and put down an antique area rug featuring every color of the rainbow. Subdued details like a gray velvet sofa, which belonged to Merrilee’s grandmother, and a seagrass rug help balance out the vibrancy. The modern sputnik light is from Practical Props in North Hollywood, CA.

errilee McGehee’s home is in a constant

Mstate of creative flux. “One time my husband, Pittman, came home, and I’d swapped the living room and the dining room,” she says. “He may have been thrown when he walked in, but he’s gotten used to change.” In short: Merrilee, an interior designer and artist, likes to keep it fresh. She’s constantly coming up with design surprises  ––  kooky wall murals, unpredictable paint colors, and brave pattern mash-ups  ––  to keep her clients (and her family) guessing. Her own 2,500-squarefoot 1940s bungalow in Austin, TX, is a laboratory for her just-do-what-you-love style. “A 1960s credenza, an antique chest, and modern art in the same room? You bet,” she says. Luckily her family is happy to be along for the ride. “Pittman doesn’t always get my ideas, but he trusts me, even when they’re really out there,” she says. “And the kids love that our home is never boring.”

Merrilee and Pittman with Clementine, 6, and Finnegan, 10

living room

Merrilee, who got a bachelor’s degree in fine art from the University of Texas in Austin, created this 5-foot-by-6-foot piece using more than 5,000 colored pencils glued to wood. She started by painting the wood glossy black—the spaces left blank create the letters. It hangs in the living room above a rosewood credenza found at an antiques store in Austin.

dining room

For this room, Merrilee wanted something unplanned and abstract, so she picked a quirky assortment of paint colors, mapped out a plan in her head, sketched the lines on the wall, and painted a mural of crisscrossing stripes. Then she peppered the space with some of her favorite vintage finds: a travertine pedestal table found on Craigslist, Bauhaus-style chairs from Uptown Modern in Austin, a gilded mirror that she picked up at the Round Top Antiques Fair in Texas, and sconces pilfered from her mother-in-law’s garage.

kitchen

Replacing the existing cabinetry was beyond her budget, so Merrilee kept the cabinet boxes and swapped out the doors and the drawers, then coated everything in deep blue (New Providence Navy by Benjamin Moore). The countertops are a mix of Carrara marble along the perimeter and butcher block from IKEA on the island. The island base is painted Decorator’s White by Benjamin Moore, and she used the same color on the pine floors in a high-gloss deck and porch formula with epoxy, which makes them super durable. The brass knobs and pulls are from House of Antique Hardware, and the striped runner is from Dash & Albert.

cabinet color

New Providence Navy by Benjamin Moore