Find Your Happy Place with These 4 Vacation Home Design Tips / March 22, 2022 by Margaret Chambers

Seen here is a charming vignette from a Hill Country style second home we designed in Prosper, Texas.

If you’re like many Dallas urbanites, you’ve always dreamed of having another place to escape to, such as a mountain cabin, lake house, or beach house. However, designing one home is already a big project. It’s no wonder that many people would feel weary just thinking about styling and furnishing a second home.

There are certain things that I think people should keep in mind before they design their first vacation house. Regardless of whether or not you already own a vacation property, or are making plans to buy one, these designer tips should help you get started.

1. Choose the Appropriate Design Style for Your Location

This guest bedroom and bathroom in a Dallas home have a nautical theme to give guests that "getaway" experience.

Now is the time to create a look that’s entirely different from your city home. To start with, I think a second home should reflect the area it is in. Farmhouses and mountain homes tend to be rustic, while coastal homes are usually more casual. For example, a mountain home could have photographs of local scenery or wildlife on the walls. If your second home is by the shore, you’ll definitely want nautical accessories, like seashells or nautical paintings. A lake home should almost always be decorated in light and cool colors, such as blues, whites, and aquas.

2. Make Sure to Create an Oasis

Your vacation home should be a place that you want to escape to. No matter the budget, there needs to be at least some touches of luxury in the home to give you that “resort” feel. It’s up to you where you want to splurge—in unique accessories, luxurious fabrics or in natural materials, to give some examples. One way to make your bed feel more inviting is to choose an extra tall or extra wide headboard. Your bathroom should also be bright and well-lit to create a spa-like atmosphere.

While some accessories are necessary to give the home personality and charm, remember that clutter also creates more stress (and all of those pieces will need to be dusted, too). I wouldn’t include anything that is too delicate or precious in a vacation home. This is especially true if small children or pets will be spending time at the house, in which case you should choose a durable flooring, like polyurethane-coated hardwood or tile, instead of carpeting.

Instead of delegating worn out bedding sets to your second home, make quality bedding one of your budget priorities.

3. Keep Things Interesting with Texture

Vacation homes are usually in a beautiful natural setting, so you’ll want to ‘bring the outdoors in’ by using natural materials. If you look at professionally designed vacation homes, you’ll see a lot of wood furnishings. Some other natural materials you can think about including are slate floor tiles and natural fiber rugs. Don’t forget to combine your rough textures with soft fabrics, like those made of sheepskin, wool, or linen. Since you won’t be using your vacation home year-round, you probably don’t want to buy live plants. Instead, add some greenery with realistic-looking faux plants.

Since this vacation home is a farmhouse, we made sure to include lots of natural materials, especially wood.

4. Plan Ahead for Your Guests

Most people who own a second home intend to let their friends or relatives use it too. If you do plan on entertaining, make sure that your living and dining areas will have enough seating space. A round table makes it easier to squeeze in additional chairs if needed. A vacation home table should also have plenty of space to play games or work on puzzles. Consider adding bar seating to your kitchen island so that guests can visit and chat with you while you cook. If you’re loaning out the home to people you don’t know very well, have an area where you lock up and store your own personal belongings.

As you can imagine, there are certain design styles that are better suited than others for vacation homes. Depending on where your second home is located, the list of fitting styles gets even narrower. Knowing more about these styles will make it much easier for you to envision and design your dream home.

The striped green curtains in this girl's room bring the colors of the outdoors in.

If you don’t have the time or energy to do it yourself, that’s where an interior designer such as myself could come in. My firm has a lot of experience with vacation homes, and I personally enjoy finding ways to bring local color and regional accessories into them. You can reach out to us by sending an email to info@chambersinteriors.com or calling us at 214-651-7665.

Four Pointers for Teenage Bedroom Design / December 1, 2021 by Margaret Chambers

Wall art is an important asset for giving a teenage bedroom its individuality.

Designing a teenage bedroom can be an interesting challenge. At this point, the nursery décor your teen grew up with has got to go. On the other hand, you can’t simply decorate the room the same way you would with an adult bedroom. Striking the right balance between casual and formal is key here. Your teen will also want to be included in the design process, so it’s important to keep their interests in mind.

Every teen bedroom should be a unique expression of that teen’s personality. However, there are also some general guidelines that can be applied to any teenage bedroom. Before you begin with your interior design project, keep these pointers in mind.

1. Create Separate Zones for Resting, Studying, and Socializing

Colors like pastel green and purple are excellent alternatives to pink for a teenage girl bedroom’s color scheme.

Chances are, this is the room your teen will spend the most time in. Any teen bedroom needs to be a refuge, a home study, and also a hangout space for them and their friends. Make sure there’s a designated zone for each of these. One thing to remember is that your teen might want to take their furniture with them when they move out, so don’t break the budget on furnishings.

A comfortable work desk will help your teen stay focused and on-task. If the room is too small for a separate seating area, you could also create a lounging space on the floor with pillows and a rug, or add ottomans to the foot of the bed. For a teenage girl’s bedroom, you’ll probably want to include luxurious fabrics, like velvet pillows, soft blankets and bedding, gauzy curtains, or thick-pile rugs.

Navy blue and brick red are both great colors for a boy’s room, like this one we designed for a Preston Hollow home.

2. Use Your Teen’s Favorite Colors in a Sophisticated Way

One of the easiest ways to differentiate between a child and a teenage bedroom is through color choices. While nurseries usually have pastel colors, and most adult bedrooms are in neutrals, teens tend to gravitate to bold color combinations. Even if the majority of the furniture in the room is neutral, there should ideally be a burst of your teen’s favorite color somewhere.

For teen boy bedrooms, navy blue or warm neutrals (such as warm gray) are popular wall colors. Today’s teenage girls usually prefer green, purple, grey, or blue over pink as the dominant color in their rooms. Purple is a versatile color in that some shades can be whimsical (like lavender) while others are romantic (like deep purple). While touring homes, I’ve noticed that teenage girls’ rooms often have a lot of white furniture.

3. Plan for Plenty of Storage Space

If you have a teen who keeps their room tidy, you have a rare teen indeed. That said, including enough storage space and shelving in the bedroom can go a long way towards helping your teen keep clutter out of sight. The room’s overall design should also be clean and minimal, but not too fussy. Remember that your teen will almost certainly want a room with a more casual and approachable vibe.

A bedside table with pullout drawers is a good choice for adding storage to a small teen bedroom.

4. Design Around Accents and Art that Express Your Teen’s Individuality

Before you begin decorating in earnest, ask your teen if they have art pieces or prints in mind that express their personality. You can potentially use art pieces as a focal point or as a source of stylistic inspiration for the rest of the room. Some other ways to set your teen’s room apart from those of their friends include: incorporating an unusual piece of furniture that makes a conversation piece, adding wallpaper to the ceiling, or wallpapering an accent wall.

Your teen will appreciate having something fun and unique in the room, such as these framed insects on the wall.

Sometimes even when you follow recommended design guidelines, it can still be difficult to bring everything together. In cases like these, your next step should be to consult a professional designer. When I work with clients with teens, I ask my clients to provide examples of rooms that inspire them. An experienced designer such as myself will know how to accommodate both the parents and the teenager’s requests and deliver a result that will wow them and visitors alike. To schedule a free consultation with us, send an email to info@chambersinteriors.com or call our Dallas office at 214-232-9501.