Why not let a little loose when designing your vacation home? By playing with bold design choices, you can make a lasting impression on the memories of your family and friends, incorporate some local flair, and do something outside of your comfort zone that makes you smile. When we work with our clients on their vacation homes, the team at Laurel Design Collective always weaves bolder elements into the design, because if not here, then where?
Daring Design Moves
I’ll be the first to tell you I love bold design! When I founded Laurel Design Collective, I was so excited to work with my clients to create dynamic spaces that leave a lasting impression.
Short Stays and Bold Design Doesn’t Overwhelm You
You’re only here for a short period of time, this isn’t where you spend the majority of your days. Why not do things just a bit outside of your comfort zone? So many people will take a trip and stay in a fun hotel or rental and tell us how amazing the wallpaper in the dining room was, but they couldn’t do that in their own home, because they would get tired of it. Well, your vacation home is the place to just DO THAT WALLPAPER! Visiting throughout the year, you’ll get to enjoy that bold choice without ever feeling overwhelmed by it. At Laurel Design Collective, we like to add design elements that reference the local area like a dynamic ocean mural in the dining room at a beach house or a chair upholstered in a bold leaf pattern in the living room of a mountain house.
Making a Lasting Impression with Design Choices
Your vacation home isn’t your main home, it’s your escape. This is the place you go away to celebrate, relax, and have fun! Because of that, you’re not always at your vacation home alone, you naturally want to surround yourselves with friends and family.
We never quite outgrow that high school mentality of wanting others to think we’re cool, right? Your vacation home is a great place to let your cool-vibes flow without holding back. You can make bold design choices that make your friends and family say, “Wow!” This place will leave a lasting impression on their memory, in part because of the environment you’ve created around them. Our Colorful Eclectic Craftsman Home is a great example of bold choices that leave an impression, our client tells us everyone walks in and tells her the house looks like her personality embodied in building form.
Bold Design with Location in Mind
Where your home is located is always going to affect the design decisions. A beach house needs to stand up to gritty sand and a ski cabin needs a place to store winter gear to dry. But location-driven design isn’t just about basic functional needs, it’s about incorporating the local flair and flavor that made you buy a home in this place.
How the Environment Drives Local Design
Beach house, lake house, mountain house, desert oasis, every vacation home — every home for that matter — is affected by the environment it is in. That’s why you see stucco flat roofed buildings all over California and A-frame cabins in the mountains, and Colonial brick homes on the East Coast. The history and surroundings play into the design elements of a space. Sometimes this is functional — extra insulation in those cold environments — and sometimes it’s more aesthetic.
When we design vacation homes we stick to our tagline: where function meets beauty. On a recent beach house the client desperately wanted wood floors. The small house was all one story and nearly every room had a door leading to the (very sandy) garden. They planned to come and go from the beach everyday while staying there. With no mud room or centralized entrance, we encouraged them to think about tile instead. Tile would better withstand gritty sand and wet shoes and clothes without warping or scratching. By adding radiant floor heating throughout the home, we ensured that tile would feel delightfully cozy even in the winter months.
Standing Out While Blending In
Especially if you are building your vacation home, it is essential to think about the local architecture and design styles and not just build what is familiar to you. That doesn’t mean you have to have a cookie-cutter style house or even blend in, it just means considering the homes around yours. It might mean creating a modern Mexican retreat in Cabo that utilizes contemporary design with traditional materials.
Our vacation homes aren’t always isolated spaces or even spaces only inhabited by visitors. You want a good relationship with your neighbors at your vacation home (who else is going to call you if a pipe bursts and starts flooding the street while you’re not there?), taking in consideration the local environment and neighborhood is a respectful choice.
Specific Places and Activities Require Specific Design Needs
Like we mentioned before, we are all about function and beauty. So we work closely with our clients to make design choices that are not only gorgeous and bold, but also practical for every day life. We love a big mud room in vacation homes, wrapped in bold wallpaper and filled with tons of storage, because while you’re vacationing, you’re going to want to take those day trips and come back with a whole pile of clothes and items that need a place to land.
If we’re working on a home that our clients will use with their extended families or friends, we like to create suites of rooms that connect to each other, but can also feel private. Then we’ll give each one it’s own dose of personality!
Don’t Be Boring, Do Something New
Why recreate a space you already have? Why design something that’s been done before? Our clients are never boring people, so why would we give them boring design?
Your Main Home is Done, Do You Really Want a Carbon Copy of It?
So many people get stuck with the idea of a specific design style and while there are certainly style elements that reflect one’s personality, we like to think of homes like the clothes in your closet. You’re not going to wear that fancy party dress to hang out on your couch watching TV with your cat. But the cozy sweatpants you’ve had from college are no less an element of your style than that dress. They each have their own place in your life. So while you might prefer a minimalist, monochromatic home for your day to day life, maybe it’s time to experiment with some color and fun art for your beach house.
Having Fun with Design
Ultimately, design should be fun. It should excite and invigorate the user. We work closely with our clients to develop a strong concept of their likes and dislikes and how we can apply that to the designs of their home. We throw in fun elements they might not have had the *ahem* balls for at their main house, but are ready to play with in their vacation home, like incorporating elements that make them smile, or laugh, or reminisce.
Bold Design Choices are What Make a Vacation Home Special
When you have the opportunity to design your vacation home, you have the chance to experiment with dynamic design elements you can enjoy during your visits. These design choices help build memories and leave lasting impressions. They add practicality and functionality to a space that is going to be used for big vacations, exciting adventures, and family fun. Going bold and incorporating the local flair reminds you why you chose this place for your home away from home.
Header Image Credit: Laurel Oberst for Studio Garrison
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