Years before we bought our lakehouse, I strong-armed a Realtor into taking me to see another house on our bay that was for sale. At the time, we had no plans to buy a lake house - and had no idea we'd end up on the exact same bay. I was just being nosy. Owning a house on Lake Superior seemed like such a dream and I wanted to peak behind the curtain.
It was such a cute house, with a tiny little open concept kitchen, dining and living space - all facing the lake. The second bedroom and sole bathroom were tucked behind the kitchen, off a tiny hallway, but the master bedroom was behind the living room. It could be closed off from the main living area with huge sliding barn doors that, when left open, provided a beautiful view of the lake from the bed. Dreamy, right? It was a cleverly designed home but it was so small - and I'm convinced that only having one bathroom is a leading cause of divorce (I'm kidding...mostly). Interestingly, the couple who ended up buying that house supposedly did get a divorce and the couple who own it now have actually built a massive addition which, if they're wise, boasts another bathroom...
When we started thinking about our own dream house on the lake, I knew I wanted open concept - especially having experienced firsthand how much more spacious an impossibly tiny lake house could feel with an open floor plan. I wanted to be able to cook in the kitchen and still chat with guests in the dining room. I grew up in a small, post-war home with very distinct spaces and so many doors that they clanged against each other if we didn't all move around the house in a coordinated manner. The townhouse offered a small taste of open concept living because the living and dining room were open to each other and the kitchen had a weird window that let in extra light, making it feel more connected to the rest of the home - despite having four solid walls. Despite its limitations, I was sold on the open concept floor plan because, to me, it made a small house feel more spacious and airy.
One of the reasons we pounced on our house the way we did was that the size and floor plan felt so perfect for us. I loved that the living, dining and kitchen were open to each other and faced the lake, but I appreciated that the bathrooms and laundry room were tucked away in the back of the house. The only alteration I would have made would have been to create a sliding wall between the living room and bedroom so that the bedroom could enjoy a lake view too - just like that little house I toured, all those years ago.
Nearly three years later, do I still love our open concept floor plan? That's a question I'm asked quite often.
Short answer: SO MUCH!
But (there's always a but!) - there are a lot of pros and cons of open concept living to consider. As trendy as an open concept floor plan is, I don't think it's the right choice for everyone. In an article for The Comfortable House, I've done my best to flesh out the pros and cons of open concept living for anyone who is on the fence, or just nosy (like me).
The points I've addressed are largely based on our lives, but it's a really in depth read and I've done my best to explain how our lifestyle, family situation, and preferences impact how we use and enjoy the space. I've also tried to think about how other couples and families might benefit from - and be irritated by - an open living space. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
It was a really fun article to write because I got to reflect on our life here in the lakehouse and try to remember a time when living here seemed like something that would never happen. I can see that little lake house I toured so long ago from my dining room! I drink my tea and look at it, thinking about just how interesting life's journey is sometimes.
The sectional sofa we ordered back in March was delivered and the living room looks completely different now! I rambled on in this post about how we wanted to start capitalizing on our view of Lake Superior. The furniture placement wasn't thought out for the space because we
just moved everything from the townhouse living room and plonked it down.
The sofa faced away from the window and although the setup was nice for
watching movies with the fireplace roaring, it wasn't inviting for just sitting around,
chatting or reading - and you couldn't see the lake very well from the living room. One day we'll renovate the fireplace and put the television above it (maybe hidden behind art?), but for now we disassembled our old Besta unit, bought prettier "greyed walnut" Ikea legs, and shoved it in the corner to make room for the combined 20 feet of lounge space our new, modern leather sectional offers.
Ta Da!
Even though we added way more seating, somehow the room feels airier and more spacious to me because the windows are now largely unobstructed. As well, instead of a hodgepodge of furniture (the velvet chair, the mint chair, three teak tables, mismatched sofa and dark ottoman, wall unit, plant stand), we have a more streamlined furniture arrangement: big cream sofa with matching ottoman, accent chair, pair of end tables with matching lamps, and the TV stand. It's simpler! We had to move the teal velvet chair to my office, but I kept the Mingo chair and positioned it with one of the teak tables beside the television. Once again, I'm blocking windows with furniture, but you can still easily see the lake around the delicate frame of the mint chair and it just feels a little more balanced. With just a naked row of windows, the living room felt lopsided, but my biggest motivator is that I have literally nowhere else to put my favorite chair in this small home. It has to live there - or someone else's living room (cue the sad trombone).
Two of our three teak side tables stayed, as did my beloved blue Lotte lamps (I bought a pair of Canadian-made linen pillow covers that are an exact match!). I'm not convinced that I like the scale of the teak table with the Mingo,
so we might be swapping it out, but I don't want to build/buy anything until this layout has gelled a
little. Besides, I'm too busy loading up the sofa with an abundance of
throw pillows, wheeeeeeeeee.
Look at how insanely long this sofa is...
Living Room Before and Afters:
Here's a reminder of the living roomwhen we bought the lakehouse:
Here's a comparison of our old arrangement with how the room looks now:
Before
Now
Before
Now
Before
Now
Choosing the colour for our sofa was tricky. I considered many different leather samples, including a beautiful caramel (not pictured), a metallic silver (so expensive), a really worn, bitter chocolate (too rustic), a forest green (what was I thinking?), and a blindingly bright white (not pictured).
In the end, I really waffled between a couple of grey leather swatches (one matched the fireplace perfectly, the other was a medium grey) and a creamy white. I kept thinking grey would be practical, but everyone I polled voted white. My friend Ashley said it best: "in a lakehouse, with no kids, go with the white - it's perfect".
I'm so thrilled with the light leather. It's what we'd grown
accustomed to with our old sofa (although this sofa is a much lighter/brighter shade) and I think that with a sofa this ginormous, a grey or caramel leather
would have looked too heavy.
From the sample though, I couldn't tell how creamy the leather would be and I was shocked when it arrived - certain we'd been sold the wrong colour. It felt too yellow when it was unwrapped on the deck, with the sun beating down on it. But once we hung the artwork and added the throw pillows, I immediately appreciated its softness. A white leather as bright as our walls might have looked too stark and cold, especially with my cool color palette. The creamy white has a natural feel and plays well with Hubby's Grandpa's paintings (I moved the creamy diptych from my office, although it used to hang in the townhouse living room).
This sofa is manufactured in Canada, which makes me happy. I love the chunky arms (there was an option for narrower arms, but I think these look more modern). I sit on the edge when I'm on the phone; it's a peaceful place to perch and take in the view. The sofa is too comfy for things like that, because I tend to fall asleep, curled up in the corner ("my" spot), within minutes.
We had the choice of "walnut," "espresso," or "chrome" legs and we chose the walnut:
As an added bonus, we finally replaced our disintegrating ottoman! We bought the matching storage ottoman, and it's every bit as awesome as I hoped. I've wanted a new ottoman forever and I'm so happy we kept putting it off.
Unfortunately, we think the sofa was dropped during shipping because the arm
by the fireplace is really pushed out and wonky. We're still waiting to
hear back on a replacement/repair, but hopefully that doesn't create a
headache.
I lowered the exposure a lot so you could see the view outside the living room window. Having the sofa against the window was a real shame, because this is the view we were obscuring:
I've been watching the sunset from the sofa every night and it's a beautiful way to end the day.
Once I've done a little more tinkering with the room, I'll share a tour of the whole living/dining/kitchen space. You can see I'm still working, because in some photos the McCoy planter on the hearth is empty, but in others it has my new eucalyptus planted. I'm sure I'll be fussing with things all week.
In between naps.
I've been asked by many readers to create a page where I list everything in the lakehouse - a "shop the look" kind of idea, but that's so tricky because a lot of what I buy is vintage, on clearance, or custom-made. I am slowly putting together a list, going room by room, searching for alternatives that closely resemble my best finds. In the meantime, here are some links for the living room, with similar items if I couldn't track down links for the exact pieces.
I have news that I couldn't wait to share with you, but first - a warning: I'm about to make the lakehouse living room a little less attractive, in the name of actually living in it more enjoyably.
Hubby and I have always tried to find that perfect balance (for us) between form and function when it comes to decorating our home. We've picked a cushy sofa over a better looking, firmer model (is it just me, or do some of the best looking sofas look hard as rocks?). We've found ourselves eschewing the modern dining chairs I love, in favor of something incredibly derriere-friendly. Even our most polarizing choice - open shelving in the kitchen - was made in pursuit of eking out more storage. Of course, "function" is highly subjective and what feels practical for one family might be an absolute nightmare for another (I always wonder about the inconvenient television placement in design magazines: the homes where no chair in any room actually faces the TV)!
Hubby and I spend a lot of time thinking about how we live in our spaces and what we want from our home. This slows down our decorating process a lot but we really want to maximize every space. This small house stumps us sometimes because every room needs to work double or triple duty.
But we have finally committed to some big changes in the living room and they're directed by our new life by the lake.
When we bought the lakehouse, I immediately envisioned the fireplace painted charcoal grey (check!) with the television mounted above it and a mid-century modern sectional facing the new TV/fireplace and the lake. I wanted to be able to see the fireplace during our TV binge watching sessions (read: winter hibernation), but also be able to sit, chill and just look at the lake. I pictured us reading and sipping tea, watching the otters skitter across the ice in the winter and using the binoculars to people bird watch in the summer. I'm making us sound like the laziest people on the planet, but I'm not shamed of loving downtime. There's something about living lakeside that makes people really chill...
Despite this vision for our new lake life, after the house became ours we moved in all of our old furniture from the townhouse - our secondhand sofa, our splitting at the seams tufted ottoman, our beloved Ikea Besta wall unit, plus my pretties: the minty chair and velvet chair I had recovered - and faced all of the furniture away from the lake, toward the television. With these pieces, we also moved a mid-century modern sectional I bought (fourth photo down in this post) on impulse the day before we moved. Although I love it and it fit the plan, we hesitated getting it recovered and so it's been languishing in the garage. Although Hubby initially like it, he longed for something a little more cushy.
I know there are a million online floor plan generators out there, but I like my old-fashioned way: my Mom draws a scaled version on graph paper, then I measure my furniture and create scaled cut-outs which I colour with pencil crayon. When else will I get a chance to bust out my pencil crayons?
I've been working on more detailed plans for the lakehouse, especially layouts. I want to figure out what furniture will transition and what won't work, so I can sell things before the move. Also, we're moving to a much smaller city, so now's my chance to source things I might not find there. I'm getting organized!
The living room layout gave me a bit of difficulty because intuition
says the sofa should point toward our fancy-pants lake view, but I want it
pointing toward the television so I can watch Rookie Blue. There's no room above the fireplace for the television because that's where the fireplace vents that circulate the heat are located. There's no room on either side, either, unless I want a smaller tube TV shoved into the corner (hear that? That's Hubby sobbing at the thought). And then there's a wall of windows . . .
Eventually I came
up with this layout (and it took a surprisingly long time!):
The sofa will be against the windows but pulled out a foot or so. Our Ikea wall unit will make the trek with us and live opposite the sofa. We're ditching the teak side tables in lieu of handmade ones that will tuck in closer and higher (bottom left). We're moving the mint chair, mint table and one of my favorite paintings of Hubby's grandpa's into the living room to create a little lake-facing-nook beside the wall unit. We thought about a sectional, but with a sofa and accent chairs, we can move the chairs to face the window when we want to relax with a book and stare dreamily at the waves.
The soon-to-be-made-over velvet chair will take centre stage. Eventually I hope to get a grey leather sofa that is lower, with more mid-century lines, to replace our cream one. In the meantime, we're planning to make or buy a new ottoman in a more modern shape and fabric.
This goes without saying: I'm painting out the wood flanking the
fireplace. I'd like to paint the stone and the whole wall a deep
charcoal grey, but Hubby is opposed to painting the stone because it
matches the exterior of our house. For now, the gold will get de-goldified, the ceiling fan and dining room light are first to hit the chopping block, and we'll say good-bye to all of the skinny oak trim! Any volunteers to paint out the trim on those top windows?
Right now we're still in limbo, unsure when we'll actually start
working on the lakehouse because we have not sold the townhouse yet, but I don't mind: it's giving me a chance to get prepared. I need to keep repeating that so I don't start feeling antsy about the uncertainty. I hate uncertainty, but sometimes good things come from it.
For a little distraction, look how adorable the original townhouse plans look! I saved these from 2009. The ottoman is the only piece of living room furniture that is the same. But the dining room table and chairs are identical (just oriented differently).
