01
Living room
We pulled the seating off the walls and set it at an angle to the windows, so the room reads as one long view instead of a corridor. The herringbone floor came back with two days of sanding and a matte oil.
All projects
Clearwater Bluff · 2025
Lakeside Cottage Refresh
A 1940s cottage that had gone dark and heavy, opened back up to the water.
The family had owned this cottage for eleven years and used four of its rooms. We kept the bones, stripped the varnish off the herringbone floor, and rebuilt the palette around the one thing the house already had: light off the lake from about ten in the morning until dusk.
- Scope
- Full-service design, four rooms
- Timeline
- Nine months, from survey to styling
- Style
- Soft modern, warm woods, lake light
- Trades
- Joiner, painter, upholsterer
Room by room
02
Kitchen and dining
A galley that used to end in a blank wall now ends in a round table for four. Handleless fronts in a warm off-white, a dark stone worktop, and one small window left completely uncovered.
03
Main bedroom
The roof pitch was the problem and then it was the plan. Panelled headboard tiles in sage and tan sit against a charcoal wall, and the bed moved under the dormer so you wake up facing the window.
04
Reading nook
Six feet of dead landing became the most used seat in the house. A high-backed chair in a leaf print, a swing-arm lamp, and a cabinet deep enough to hide everything that would otherwise be on the floor.
The full set
6 photographs · select one to enlarge
Want a walk-through of your own rooms?
An hour on site, no charge, no obligation. You get a plan of attack whether or not you hire us.