Weekend inspiration: the lake house

 

 Another weekend, another bachelorette party. This weekend I’m heading home to Pennsylvania as a bridesmaid to celebrate my friend Lauren’s bachelorette party. We’re spending the weekend at our friend’s lake house, which inspired me to look at lake house decor.

My mind instantly went to a photo of Bravo’s Million Dollar Decorator, Jeffrey Alan Marks’, master bedroom. He suspended a vintage Abercrombie & Fitch canoe from the ceiling, and I couldn’t be more in love.

You may recognize the next concept from a previous blog post that I wrote about sliding bar doors. The doors below are the perfect addition to a room in a lake house. Swoon.

 

You can’t do lake house without some Americana inspiration. Check out this distressed American flag wooden piece. I first saw it on the cover of the July 2011 Ethan Allen catalog. Hello, I need you in my life.

 

While I did get a little sticker shock with this piece ($899!) it’s so classic. I love how it looks over this couch.

 

How funky is this oar headboard featured on Bees Knees Bungalow? Perfect for a guest room in a lake house.

 

And finally, you can’t have a lake house without some adirondak chairs on your dock. Now that’s what I call relaxation…

 

Hope that everyone has a wonderful summer weekend! I’ll be spending mine on the dock at Lake Harvey!

Striped Curtains

A few days ago I fell in love with these black and ivory striped curtains. They add a perfect punch to a room. After drooling over these curtains I was pleasantly surprised to see that I share the same taste with Million Dollar Decorator Mary McDonald.

Mary used these same curtains when decorating her client Jill Roberts’ office. I gasped when I saw the curtains, thinking they would surely be the pièce de résistance, but she paired them with a bold chevron painted floor.

 

The two contrasting patterns were a little much for my taste. I would have used a black and white animal print rug either under the chairs or the rug. But I still can’t help but get giddy seeing my favorite curtains featured on television.

What do you think of the striped curtains and the chevron floor? Too much?

Jeffrey Marks retweeted one of your Tweets!

As a current social media professional (that is, until I find out if I was accepted to design school and can quit my job) I preach every day how important social media is to building a brand. So when I created Life Made Pretty I also created a twitter account (check me out at @lifemadepretty).

I knew instantly what I wanted one of my first tweets to be about - a blog post that I read last week by Million Dollar Decorators designer Jeffrey Marks. I was pleasantly surprised to read the blog post because Marks wrote about a topic that has recently been on my mind - going to design school. He wrote:

“I have been approached by a large number of people since the show started that ask me the same question, ‘If I want to become a decorator what should I do?’ My answer is ‘Go to school.’ “

Phew. I was very relieved and excited to read this considering this was a huge decision that I recently made. Not to mention as a social media expert and HUGE fan of Jeffrey Marks and Million Dollar Decorators how excited I was that he read my tweet and retweeted it! Guess I’m on the right track…