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.

How to Capture the Hill Country Home Look / September 14, 2021 by Margaret Chambers

Exposed wood beams and farm animal art and accessories lend a rustic Hill Country style to this living room.

If you live in a Dallas high-rise but would love to have a second home in the country, you would almost certainly appreciate the rustic beauty of Hill Country style. In interior design, this style is associated with natural materials, simplicity, and old-world charm. Today, it's also popular to blend the more traditional elements in Hill Country with contemporary architecture. Whatever your preference, you'll find this guide to Hill Country basics to be a good starting point.

Seen here is a farmhouse located in Prosper, Texas that we designed for our clients.

Hill Country design can trace its roots to four different types of architecture. The homes of early German settlers, Spanish colonial missions, O'Neil Ford's simple architectural style, and modernism all have an influence on this style today. The low-pitched roofs, strong horizontal lines, and large overhangs in Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture are also sometimes seen in these homes. Some homeowners prefer the traditional German farmhouse or ranch look for the exterior of their home. A few other architectural elements associated with Hill Country style include breezeways, large outdoor areas, and separate guest quarters.

You can save money—and be environmentally sustainable—by using reclaimed wood from homes and barns in the area. Antique lumber can make great flooring, cabinetry, barn tables, and fireplace mantles. If you're currently in the process of building your second home, you can look for local craftsmen and furniture companies that will reuse these materials for you. By incorporating antique wood into your home, you’ll easily capture the rustic charm that is synonymous with this style.

This project uses a lot of reclaimed wood: the walls of this room came from a corral, and the floors are old pine.

Choosing the right fixtures will also go a long way to recreating this nostalgic look. Soapstone sinks, antler chandeliers, wall sconces, and bronze faucets are all associated with Texas Hill Country. Texture is also key: see if you can incorporate cowhide, deer hide, and leather into your furnishings. If a cowhide rug would be too much, consider using a cowhide pillow or throw blanket as an accent. Many Hill Country homes feature exposed wood beams made of cedar or fir, stone floors and chimneys, and iron detailing. For a more modern look, you can choose stained concrete over wood for your flooring.

Country homes should have durable, casual materials so that you can have children or friends over without any worries.

Kitchens in Hill Country homes often follow the Arts and Crafts style, which emphasizes functionality and clean lines. When you walk into an Arts and Crafts kitchen, you'll immediately notice the prominence of wood, with different finishes for contrast. Recessed panel doors, mullioned glass doors, and stained glass in windows and lighting fixtures are also common features.

Regardless of where you live, you'll want to bring lots of natural light into the home. Most people looking to live in the Texas Hill Country want to see as much of their view as possible, as if the room was an extension of the outdoors. If you do add window treatments, choose simple and unfussy drapes that won't distract from the rest of your design. Curtains should be light and hang just above the floor. Although you probably picture warm neutral colors for Hill Country, another common accent color is soft blue, which mirrors the open Texas sky. Don't be afraid to add other colors too if you need to break up all the brown wood in the room.

Keep things interesting in your country home by adding pops of color, like the green and white curtains seen here.

Just how contemporary, or how traditional, you want your Hill Country home to be is up to you. When in doubt, an interior design firm like ours can also help you find the best use for any traditional and reclaimed materials you incorporate into the home. To schedule a free consultation with us, send an email to info@chambersinteriors.com or call our Dallas office at 214-651-7665. We would love to help you design the Hill Country home of your dreams!