Wake up your walls with new wall treatments
An interior designer transforms a lake cottage from a soulless basic build into a stunning retreat that’s full of heart.
Expert interior designers can inhabit their clients’ vision,
even if it isn’t their usual style. That was the case for Emily Griffin, founder of Emily Griffin Design. Her go-to look for cottages tells the story of her childhood. She grew up in old, rustic cottages with worn Turkish rugs, cedar walls and tons of antique pine pieces. But when a blended family of five hired her to update their Marmora Lake cottage (which they use as a weekend residence), the homeowners had a different aesthetic in mind. “For this project, the clients wanted a fresh, Hamptons vibe that was all season,” Emily says. “It’s not my usual cottage style, but I loved the direction they wanted me to take their home.”Together with partner and senior designer Stephanie Houghton, she created a livable, warm and fresh look for the homeowners.
GOING BEYOND THE BUILDER
When Emily and Stephanie first arrived at the cottage, they weren’t sure what to expect. Emily opened the front door and felt like she’d walked into a city home. “It had the vibe of a new build plunked down in the middle of this beautiful landscape,” she says. “There was drywall everywhere, the bathrooms had shiny tiles and plastic shower inserts and the kitchen felt especially dated and out of place.” It was builder basic, without the soul of a true cottage, so the designers knew it needed a full transformation. They reported back to the clients with a proposal detailing four key recommendations. “We suggested cladding all the walls in beadboard, replacing the broadloom carpets, painting the place a warm white and finally, but most importantly, ripping out the kitchen and converting the cooking and dining rooms into one spacious area,” she says. “Everyone agreed on those four things, and we started working on all the rooms from scratch.”
EXPANDED DINING
One of the biggest jobs was the kitchen, mainly because they were working with a kitchen company up north that moved at a different speed than the focused designers. “I think it took about eight months from initial design to installation,” Emily says. It was well worth the wait, though, because the end results are a traditional kitchen and dining area with country touches and ample space for entertaining. “Cottages are where you tend to entertain multigenerationally, so having a large cooking and gathering space felt necessary,” Emily says. In order to achieve this, they combined the existing kitchen and dining rooms into one large eating and gathering space with a big Restoration Hardware table in the middle and several Crate & Barrel chairs. They then added styling touches that combine Hamptons elegance and cottage charm. “Shelves were made from old cabin wood on the property,” Emily says. “We put antique tins on the shelves and colorful plateware in a gorgeous armoire.”With their vision, the kitchen and dining area is full of heart and soul—and filled with the faces of friends and family as they gather in the newly expanded room.
THE RIGHT BACKDROP
Outside, the cottage has one of nature’s gems as its backdrop: Marmora Lake. But inside, the home was covered in drywall, making it lifeless and drab. The designers brought in an arsenal of treatments, from beadboard to knotty pine to wallpaper to enliven the walls. “These elements created a backdrop that gave the cottage the character it needed,” Emily says. For two of the bedrooms (the kids’ room and the master bedroom), they dealt with the drywall in different ways and at different price points. In the kids’ room, they applied knotty pine from a local hardware store to the walls. “It gave it that warm country feeling,” Emily says. Then, in the master bedroom, they riffed off the colonial-style bed and put up some classic Farrow and Ball wallpaper.
“Two totally different looks but equally charming,” Emily says. “And no drywall in sight!”The rooms each have a distinct aesthetic and further the casual cottage appeal in their own ways, showing that major facelifts can be achieved with diverse budgets. With the walls updated, the designers were able to style the home with a variety of country fixings, from an abundance of sisal and wood to lake-inspired fabrics and even flowers handpicked from the property.
With Emily’s adaptable expertise, the home was taken from builder basic to a country cottage full of heart. It’s now a restful place for the family to enjoy weekend life on the lake.