My 6 Week Airbnb Lakehouse Makeover Reveal
Hi friend, you have come on the perfect day because today is the big REVEAL day. Just liking tuning into the last 5 minutes of your favorite HGTV show, you get the see the “Befores” and “Afters”! If you missed it, I have taken you along the process of my 6 Week Airbnb Lakehouse Makeover. Two years ago we bought a small cottage on an all sports lake here in Western Michigan. The location was perfect…the inside was not. And here in Michigan the big “opening” of cottages is Memorial Day weekend. So we spent six frantic weeks gutting the our Lakehouse (which is also an Airbnb rental) in time for the summer season! In this week weeks, I did a makeover on FIVE different rooms!
Because I tackled so many rooms over these six weeks, I already revealed the makeovers of our Kid’s Bonus Room and our Kid’s Triple Shared Bedroom. You can take a peek at those makeovers right here:
See the Reveal: Shared Kid’s Bedroom Makeover
See the Reveal: Kid’s Bonus Hang Out Space
Get the FREE Room Design & Shopping List for all 5 Room Makeovers
Don’t worry…I created a FREE Design & Shopping List for all five Room Makeovers: The Living Room, Dining Room, Breakfast Room, Kid’s Bonus Room, AND my Kid’s Shared Bedroom. They are all hanging out in my FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY, so they are in one easy spot for you to access. You will get a link and password to acess the Free Resource Library 24/7. You can grab it all right here:
And finally…My Coastal Living Room Makeover
But today I’m doing the big reveal of our Living Room, Dining Room & Breakfast Room Makeovers! We did a lot of remodeling on this main floor and I’m so excited to finally show you what we have been up to. This is what we started with. The small Living Room had plywood ceilings, carpet, and a wall that blocked the view of the lake.
The “Before”
The “Afters”
And here is our brand new cottage styling Living Room Makeover!
With the makeover, I wanted to go with a light, bright, and airy Living Room…that would hold up to wet swimsuits and lemonade spills! Since we have a lot of friends and family over, I wanted a spot where everyone would feel comfortable, yet would be durable enough and easy to clean, so that I can be on “vacation” too when I’m here. The last thing I wanted to do was have a Lakehouse that I would have to spend my whole weekend cleaning…nope, this Mama wants to be hanging out on a blow up unicorn floatie with a drink in my hand.
Coastal Living Room Makeover: What We Did
I want to break down what we did with our makeover to change the whole look of our Lakehouse for you. Everything was done on a budget and with in-stock items since we were on a time crunch.
White Board and Batten Walls
When we bought our cottage, nearly all of the walls were covered in plywood. I get it-it was probably a cheap way to finish off walls when the Lakehouse was built. Because we were working on a budget and timeline, we didn’t want to deal with the hassle of pulling off the plywood and drywalling. That would also mean we would have to remove all of trim in the house…something we also didn’t want to deal with. So instead, we worked with what we had!
We kept the existing plywood, and added vertical “battens” over the walls to create this cottage look of “board and batten”. We strategically placed these vertical battens to cover up the gaps between the plywood panels as well. Then we painted the existing trim and the new board and batten with crisp white paint. I used Benjamin Moore’s “Simply White” for a crisp, clean look. I’ll talk about the ceilings a bit later, but we added shiplap to the Dining Room ceiling and painted those in the same white color.
We kept all of the window and door casing (painting it all white), but we did have to add new baseboard since we replaced the floors. We used simple 1×4 trim for an inexpensive, but clean look.
It is amazing how a couple of coats of white paint can bring everything together (and helps hide of multitude of sins!)
Coastal Woven Shades through the Whole Lakehouse
We wanted the most light to get into our cottage and keep the best views of the lake. When we bought our cottage, ruffed valences covered most of the windows. Also, typical to many cottages, there were SO many different sizes and styles of windows throughout the home. So to match everything feel consistent and light and airy, we added the same window treatment to every single window in the Lakehouse.
I chose these inexpensive, off-the-shelf rattan shades from Home Depot. They gave a cottage, coastal look without the fuss of curtains.
Adding Coastal Decor Elements to our Lakehouse Living Room Makeover
Our cottage is on a lake, so I definitely wanted a coastal, casual vibe to the whole house. I went on a shopping trip to HomeGoods and picked up a shopping cart full of inexpensive, coastal items. This coral, distressed wood lantern, and metal lanterns were all HomeGoods finds. And I put them in a Target rattan basic for simple coffee table decor. We also use this tray to corral TV remotes.
Again, because I want our Lakehouse to be casual and laid back, I wanted everything to be budget friendly…no tears if anything broke.
I wanted to use natural, neutral elements like woods, woven rattans and jutes, and metals throughout our whole Lakehouse Makeover. While I did work with the classic red, white, and blue decor, I didn’t want it to be too over-the-top.
Casual Coastal Furniture That Works for a Lakehouse
Even with all of the remodeling, one of the BIGGEST things on my “To Do” list was to fill up this Lakehouse with durable, easy-to-clean, casual furniture. I didn’t want to be the Mom who yelled at her kids that they couldn’t sit on furniture with their wet bathing suits. They are ALWAYS wet when we are at the Lake (and if they aren’t, our giant Labradoodle Jasper is!).
I knew I wanted to use this Ikea sectional sofa to be the centerpiece in our coastal Living Room. It is really budget-friendly, comfortable, but best yet…is slipcovered. Spills happen, so I also purchased a “back up” slipcover for a mere $100. So when messes happen, I can easily strip off the slipcover and wash, and pop of the second slipcover in the meantime.
Coastal Living Room Area Rug
Luckily we don’t have to deal with sand at our lake, but the kids and their friends are always tracking in grass and dirt. So I wanted flooring that could deal with water and dirt. We replaced all of the existing carpet with budget friendly vinyl plank floors. These are practically bomb proof, and I can easily sweep them off in between trips. Then I added this inexpensive blue and white striped rug to the Living Room area. When you are dealing with such high traffic areas (and lots of kids), I like to use inexpensive rugs that I won’t get upset about if something spills.
Coastal Coffee Table Decor
I fell in love at first sight when I found this galvanized metal coffee table. I loved the bleached wood legs and the smooth metal top would be easy to keep clean. Our three kids definitely will use this coffee table for a lot-a snack table, an art table, a place to dump their beach toys…the works.
Casual Coastal Furniture Ideas
To keep carrying the theme of budget-friendly and durable, I found this inexpensive side table and metal pharmacy style lamp. If this lamp gets knocked over (and it will), it most likely is going to survive the crash. And this side table is going to hide stains or scratches with its distressed finish. A sweet friend gave me this vintage glass vase with a “5” on it since there are five people in our family, as a house warming present!
Lakehouse Living Room Makeover: The Fireplace
Because this is a Michigan Lakehouse, there is a big stone fireplace right in the center of it! Here is what we started with:
“The Before”
The before looked a bit chaotic with multiple colors of walls, and I felt like this was a bit of wasted space.
But most importantly…this wall (with the French doors) blocked the best view of the lake, and it made the room seem really small. One of the biggest things we did with our Lakehouse Makeover was to tear out this wall to the left (but more on that later!)
Creating a Cozy Coastal Seating Area
Instead of the existing loveseat, I swapped in two comfy armchairs. I loved this navy and white buffalo check pattern, and these light weight armchairs are easy to move when we have big groups of people. I also found this large white coffee table, and under it we keep a stash of board games and cards. So the plan is to use this area as a game area…and it is the new perfect spot to sit with a cup of coffee in the mornings and look out over the lake.
This back wall was the only wall of the Lakehouse that had this original stained wood shiplap, so we kept this to honor the roots of our rustic cottage!
Uncovering A Surprise: The Original Lakehouse Ceiling
When we bought our Lakehouse, almost all of the ceilings were covered in acoustical tile…but we were a bit afraid to find out what was underneath. So we were THRILLED to find the original, rustic wood ceiling. I told everyone not to touch it…I wanted to leave it just as it was. If you look closely, you can still see the old nails popping through and construction notes on the ceiling. I loved the character and the history of them. We popped in a couple of these industrial ceiling lights to give some better light to the space, but otherwise didn’t do a thing. These two nautical ceiling lights on either side of the stone fireplace are original to the cottage, so we kept those as well.
Coastal Fireplace Decor
The previous owners had painted the stone of the fireplace, so we kept it as is. I kept the fireplace mantle decor simple with this Etsy print of a canoe, calling homage to the lake out back, and a few sea glass inspired vases.
Coastal Living Room Design
And here is another look at the Living Room! It was amazing what a big different all of the white board and batten made! I feel like the room is so much bigger and lighter than its original dark wood and blue walls. Even though this is a Lakehouse, we knew we would still be watching family movies, so we moved the TV area to a new location. On this new wall, the TV wasn’t blocking the lake view as it originally did. With the new furniture arrangement, we also could sneak in an extra chair (another Wayfair budget friendly find), so this Living Room can easily sit our family of five. Then we can easily pull in chairs from the adjacent Dining Room and Seating Area for extra chairs for guests.
We also updated the old brass ceiling fan with these sleek new metal version that give some much needed breeze in the summer.
Coastal Dining Room Design: The Second Lakehouse Room Makeover
I mentioned it earlier, but the BIGGEST thing we did was remove the wall between this existing Sunroom and our existing Living Room. This wall blocked the view of the lake, and this long and skinny Sunroom didn’t provide us a lot of function. There was no Dining Room in our existing Lakehouse, so the plan was to open up the two spaces into an open floor plan, and turn this room into our new Dining Room. This room also had acoustical tiles that hide a very fun secret behind them. Here is what we started with:
“The Before”
The After: Coastal Dining Room Makeover
And here is the our new Dining Room! Since the existing Sunroom also had the same plywood walls, we carried the board and batten into this room, painting it the same shade of white as in the Living Room. We kept all of the same window, and painted the trim white. Our white sliding doors used to stick out like a sore thumb, but now blend right in.
To keep with the budget-friendly and easy-to-clean Lakehouse theme, our Dining Room “table” is actually an Ikea butcherblock top and Ikea desk legs. My #1 priority of our Dining Room was to have chairs that could stand up to wet swim suits as we dragged the kids in from the lake to eat lunch. So these bright red metal chairs are easy to wipe down and stand up great to wet, sandy bums.
Lakehouse Dining Room Updates
Remember those low drop ceiling acoustical tiles? They actually hide the siding of the original house! The siding was peeling and gross, but there were soaring ceiling that we couldn’t hide. So we ripped off the old siding and replaced it with board and batten on the walls, and a shiplap on the ceiling. We encased the two ceiling supports with new MDF and painted it white for these “new” old ceiling beams.
Taking out the wall and exposing these high ceilings were the #1 best thing we did for this small Lakehouse: it feels like we gained a hundred extra square feet…without any type of addition.
With the extra space, I added the small white and rattan bench at the back of the Dining Room. This slider leads out to the lake, so this is where I stash sunscreen and extra towels so they kids don’t have to run through the whole house to grab these.
Coastal Dining Room Chandelier
With our new high ceilings, I could add this new black metal chandelier over the Dining Room table. Since we carried the same white board and batten, new woodgrain vinyl plank floors, and rattan window shades in the main lower level, EVERY room feels bigger and more spacious.
I purposefully didn’t add a rug under the table, since I didn’t want an extra thing to clean because this is such a high traffic area…maybe when the kids are a bit older I can pop one under our table!
Casual Lakehouse Dining Room Decor
The theme of our Lakehouse is “CASUAL” so I found these fun Target melamine dinnerware (which won’t break when dropped, a vital thing when you have young kids helping you set the table!), a Target runner, and melamine glasses. For a fun pop of summer, I added hydrangeas into simple mason jars that we had on hand.
Lakehouse Foyer & Breakfast Room: The Final Room Makeover
And I have one final room makeover to share with you! When you walk into our Lakehouse, there was an akward long and skinny space…that didn’t have a lot of function to it. So we decided to add an extra table to the space. We call it the “breakfast room” but honestly, our kids use this second table as their “craft table”. When they need a break from the sun, our kids love to do craft projects or to draw and paint. So I have a stash of art supplies in a nearby closet and this is the table where their projects can stay out. But when we have guests, we can also easily convert this back to the “kids table” to eat, while the grown ups eat in the adjacent Dining Room.
Adding in some Rustic Lakehouse Charm into the Foyer
Here is the room we started with…an old fashioned chandelier, lacy curtains, plywood walls, and acoustical ceiling tiles. Eeek…not the best first impression when you walked into the Lakehouse. We made a few small updates…
“The Before”
As I showed above…most of the downstairs of our Lakehouse ceiling was covered in acoustical tiles. However, we were THRILLED to find these rustic but gorgeous original wood ceiling in both the Living Room and in this Breakfast Room. I updated the old brass light fixture with this casual bead chandelier.
Then we swapped out the old table to this new, larger dining table. We painted the walls white, and I found this fun Etsy print to give a bold pop of color to this tiny area.
And finally, here are some more HomeGood finds…some Dunn Rae dishes and placemats, and Ikea silverware. Most of our dishes and silverware are all from Ikea-again inexpensive and easy to replace when a child, or renter, breaks something. Easy breezy.
Shop My Whole Lakehouse: Get the Free Room Designs & Shopping List
Look something you see in my Airbnb Lakehouse Makeover? I created a FREE Room Design & Shopping List for all 5 Room Makeovers! They are hanging out in my FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY. Inside you will find dozens of FREE Room Designs, Guides, Shopping Lists and more…for just about every room of your house. You will get a link and password so you can access everything 24.7!
Grab all of the Free Room Designs right here:
Want to Find Out More about Postbox Designs?
If you’re new over here I’m so happy you found me! I’m Kristin, Mama to 3 and a busy multi-tasker…probably just like you! After 10 years working as a traditional Interior Designer, I thought I could make working with a designer a lot easier and more practical. I started Postbox Designs, Interior E-Design four years ago, so we can work together on YOUR schedule and budget. I custom design your room, then send your Room-Inside-a-Box directly to you.
You can order your entire room in an hour…in your PJs over a cup of coffee.
You can find out more about me (and my love of Rice Krispie treats and hatred of wearing shorts) and drop me a note right HERE . You can also found out more about How Online Interior Design Works and check out my Room Packages and Prices!
A Big O’ Thank-You
First of all, a huge thank-you to Linda, who is the brain child of One Room Challenge! This bi-annual 6 Week Challenge allows designers all over the country a perfect excuse to makeover their room in just six short weeks. Be sure to check out the hundreds of amazing Room Makeovers and get so many ideas for your own home!
Second, a big thank-you to Aly at Aly May Photography for driving out to our Lakehouse and taking all of the beautiful photos you see! I could never have captured all of that work with my little old Iphone. Thank-you!
Third-a big thank-you to YOU for stopping by and taking a look into our Lakehouse Makeover!
Now I’m going to grab a book and enjoy my new space…
Kristin
Rhonda Stenersen says
OK…book it! This is so awesome! Bright & cheery! You have the talent for sure and loved watching the transformation!
PostboxDesigns says
Thanks so much for the kind words! Bright and cheery was just what I was going for-so thank you! 🙂
Fiona Hert says
Kristen,
We’ve been following along and your magic touch continues with the Lake House. Congratulations.
PostboxDesigns says
Fiona, Oh how fun, thanks for following along! It has been fun to have a little place of our own, outside this quiet little street of ours of course! 🙂
Tammy Lindley Lutz says
Love the makeover, when will the rental be available for future reference, is there a link?
PostboxDesigns says
HI Tammy, thanks so much! Here is the Airbnb link!: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/20174598?guests=1&adults=1&sl_alternate_dates_exclusion=true&source_impression_id=p3_1557764469_YJbXIp7jCh32rlo5&check_in=&check_out=&children=0&infants=0
Jan McNaught says
Wow wow wow ! YOU ARE SO TALENTED. Such a clean and updated and warm and family friendly place! It is absolutely stunning! I WANT A LAKEHOUSE!!!!! Can’t believe you accomplished all this in 6 short weeks!!! Love everything! I think my favorite space is the TV room but favorite pieces of furniture….. definitely big buffalo print comfy chairs!!
PostboxDesigns says
Jan, You are too kind! Thanks so much for your sweet words… Anytime you and your friends want to come up and stay for a girls weekend, you’re welcome! 🙂
Suzan B Braun says
Having been there a little over a year ago before all of this ongoing magic was finished— I must say— the completed project is astonishingly wonderful– what you have done with the paint, furnishings, walls, accessories, art, pillows and other accents makes this place a top choice for any family wanting a fun getaway on a gorgeous lake.
Everything is bright and fresh, comfortable, calling guests to relax, unwind, get comfortable and RELAX and rest! You are a gifted designer with a heart for families desiring to live real life well– WOW– congratulations on a superb makeover. Can’t wait to see what you do next!
PostboxDesigns says
Awww, thanks so much!!!! We love all of the updates and it finally feels like “home”. 🙂 And we definitely need you and your beautiful family out there again…there is more fishing to be done!!! Love you!
Corinna - TheBohoAbode says
WOW! What an upgraded home! I love what you did in each of the rooms!
PostboxDesigns says
Corinna-Thanks so much! We bought it three years ago knowing it had “potential”…famous last words right? 😉 But we’ve been thrilled with all of the updates we made, and it feels like “home” to us!