Lynda Reeves reflects on the joyful journey of reimagining The Lakehouse. 

“It’s the last Sunday morning in October. I’m up before sunrise, sitting in the  kitchen of our almost-finished lakehouse. Tomorrow morning, our photo crew returns for the final day of shooting, just in time for this issue. Soon, I’ll be able to enjoy this beautiful house without all the intense fussing for the cameras. Today, we’re having friends for lunch, and I’m about to make a tarte tatin. Michel is peeling apples and I’m rolling out the puff pastry. Last week, I brought up 40 years’ worth of recipes from our city house to my new country kitchen, where I plan to sort and file, and cook up a storm for years to come. Can I tell you how much I love this house? It’s so grand, and yet casual — warm and inviting, supremely comfortable and totally romantic. Yesterday, I told Michel that I didn’t recall the lake ever being so calm and serene as it is now. He reminded me that we were never up here overnight in October until this year. I couldn’t believe that, so I looked back over the photos and videos from the fall of 2020 and was stunned to see that, a year ago, this house was a construction site with no kitchen or bathrooms or finished rooms! And here we are now, totally settled in, and feeling at home.”

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Our lakehouse has been the subject of a 10-part video series chronicling 18 months of construction and decorating. It airs here on Houseandhome.com, on our YouTube channel, and on IGTV. I wrote about our journey winterizing a one season 100-year-old cottage in a regular column during 2021, and featured the main floor of the finished house in the January 2022 issue.

Here are some extra shots that we couldn’t find room for. That’s the beauty of digital!

Follow me on Instagram @lyndareevesdesign to see my fun candids coming up soon.

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It’s been two years since Lynda invited our crew for a look at the one-season cottage on a frozen November day. Now, it’s finally time for the tour of her warm and toasty house, decorated and ready to host her family for Christmas. Enjoy the tour!

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This is my story of designing our renovation of a century-old lakehouse in Ontario. Each month, I’ll offer a new chapter on the challenges and solutions, and a peek at our progress. You’ll be able to see the actual house come together on new episodes of our video series The Lakehouse.

When we bought our lakehouse and I realized that almost every room would present an envelope of caramel-toned wood walls, I needed to get a formula going in my head. What would the main elements be to furnish and decorate this house? The all-wood interior was new territory for me. One thing was for certain: old kilim and low-pile rugs would be a big part of the scheme. What better backdrop for the subtle beauty of those soulful rugs than the soft, light tones of the old fir floors?

My collection is composed of vintage rugs from Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, Afghanistan and Tunisia, with names like Herki, Khotan and Kars. Most are circa–1920 to 1950. They’re mostly kilims or “flatweaves,” and they’re usually classified as tribal rugs because their makers were members of nomadic tribes migrating through North Africa and the Middle East. I love them for their soulful patterns and soft, subtle coloring that natural dyes and years of gentle wear will produce. If you plan to collect and decorate with vintage rugs, choose by color palette and find patterns that look good laid side by side. Then, move rugs around and around your house until the sight lines reveal a pleasing array, and a great view clicks into place.

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This is my story of designing our renovation of a century-old lakehouse in Ontario. Each month, I’ll offer a new chapter on the challenges and solutions, and a peek at our progress. You’ll be able to see the actual house come together on new episodes of our video series The Lakehouse.

It was always in our plans to rebuild the original screened porch on the back of our lakehouse. I’ve never had a screened porch. I’ve visited friends’ cottages on buggy evenings and sat in theirs, happily unaware of the mosquitoes lurking beyond. Here, at our place, there are these tiniest of bugs called midges that swarm every time we open a door and are so thick you have to avoid swallowing them. I’m told they’ll soon disappear, only to be replaced by blackflies, mosquitoes, deerflies and the occasional bat. I can hardly wait.

It’s late May when I write this and the midges just evaporated! The screens are almost all in, the furniture has arrived, the rest of the bits and pieces are coming someday, and I can hardly wait for it to be done!

For months, I pondered what decorating style of screened porch would best suit our house. I looked at many inspiration shots and was always attracted to dark interiors with traditional off-black painted wicker furniture. But something held me back. I couldn’t imagine that scheme in my head for this house. So I parked that vision and decided just to worry about the envelope of the room.

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This is my story of designing our renovation of a century-old lakehouse in Ontario. Each month, I’ll offer a new chapter on the challenges and solutions, and a peek at our progress. You’ll be able to see the actual house come together on new episodes of our video series The Lakehouse.

You’d think that after decades of designing rooms, I would know better. Not so. With this lakehouse reno, I did exactly what I’ve always preached not to do. I jumped on a trend too fast, and now I think I may be “oversconced!”

Decorative lighting has become a huge area with too much choice and not enough information to help ward off mistakes. In my case, having rarely had wall sconces in my homes and after using them in moderation for clients, I was enamoured and certain that I wanted them in every room of our lakehouse.

Of course, I still needed pot lights in must-have areas, as well as ceiling pendants, flush-mounts, and table and floor lamps. Here are my best tips for choosing and mixing your light fixtures. The key, as in most things, is balance.

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The kitchen is finished and it’s beautiful! Old-world charm mixes with state-of-the-art appliances, custom millwork, stone counters and fine details that will inspire you. Hear about the joy of a screened porch and the saga of the missing sconces!

Presented by Phantom Screens.

Sources: Kitchen appliances: Maroline, Wolf/Sub-Zero, Kitchen cabinetry: Bloomsbury Kitchens, Kitchen counter tops: Greensville Soapstone Company, Outdoor furniture: Fresh Home & Garden, Benjamin Moore, Kohler, California Closets, Phantom Screens.

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This is my story of designing our renovation of a century-old lakehouse in Ontario. Each month, I’ll offer a new chapter on the challenges and solutions, and a peek at our progress. You’ll be able to see the actual house come together on new episodes of our video series The Lakehouse.

It’s mid-March as I write this. A year ago almost to the day, we started the renovation of our lakehouse. We had luck on our side. Our building permit arrived within days of the cut off for residential construction, we found a great contractor willing to take on our project, and the journey began.

Just today, I said goodbye to our construction crew, watched as the tile installers packed up, counted the number of missing light fixtures that are on “permanent back order,” and stared at the long list of screwups, mostly mine!

For example, I ordered all of our closet rods and brackets myself. Fortunately, I was on-site as the first one was being installed. “Are they all this flimsy and silly-looking?” I asked our carpenter. “Not if you order closet rods. These are shower curtain rods.”

We’ve given up trying to get one basket-style drain that fits the sink in our bar area. The smallest one available is too big for the sink it’s designed to work with. After four tries, we gave up and just ground out the sink hole. Hopefully it won’t leak….

For the powder room, I ordered a beautiful solid marble console-style sink, plus the faucet shown with it. When it arrived, our contractor held the faucet spout in place. It looked bizarre. The spout is so short, there would be no room to actually put your hands under the running water. And since the faucet didn’t clear the sink edge, the water would splash everywhere.

I guess it wasn’t meant to be used. Beware of Photoshop! It’s just fake news for designers! And then there’s the saga of the lightbulbs and dimmers — everywhere. If you’re renovating, then you already know that some fixtures are dimmable and some are not, and that some bulbs are dimmable and some are not. And some dimmers won’t work with every fixture. It’s an endless game of trial and error. These are small things, though. The actual house is magnificent.

Finally, we’re at the magical stage when the shell is finished. The wood walls and floors are glowing, and it’s time for the decorating to begin!

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This is my story of designing our renovation of a century-old lakehouse in Ontario. Each month, I’ll offer a new chapter on the challenges and solutions, and a peek at our progress. You’ll be able to see the actual house come together on new episodes of our video series The Lakehouse.

If you’re been following this series in print and seen our videos, then you know that our lakehouse looks like a huge space. In fact, the pictures and videos are deceptive. It’s true that the house is very wide and the great room, with its soaring cathedral ceiling, makes it feel especially spacious. On the other hand, there is no basement. I don’t know about you, but the basement of my city house is where it all happens. It’s where we work out, do projects, store everything and — most importantly — do laundry.

Laundry is a thing with me, so finding a way to create a functional, beautiful laundry room in a small space was my challenge. I started with the list of must-haves: washer, dryer, big laundry sink, extra-wide ironing board and tank iron, drying racks for hand laundry, storage and the all-important mangle. I could actually fit all of that into my new mudroom, but then I wouldn’t have a mudroom. You see, I had already planned to have coat storage, a tall integrated freezer and a wine fridge in my mudroom, along with a bench and dog shower.

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