Decorating Your Vacation Home

A vacation or second home is an exciting new chance to start over again. All the things you wished you had done the first time around call you…your head is filled with ideas…usually too many! Don’t forget, you’ve been waiting years for this day, all the while accumulating decorating visions and plans.

Your second home is lived in differently than your primary home. It’s usually casual, more spontaneous to accommodate visits by all the new friends you didn’t know you had. Perhaps it’s strictly seasonal…or you may rent it out over the course of a year. The locale may have a great deal of influence on how you treat the spaces; seashore, mountains or city get-away

Because I live and work in Massachusetts, most of my clients have homes on Cape Cod or in New Hampshire. Decorating for both of these locations is very different. Apart from the needs of how you may use the house, the issue of the quality of the light in each of these places couldn’t be more different.

The reflected light from the sea asks for purer,
more saturated colors

Sunlight reflected from water becomes intensified and therefore the colors you use need to be “pumped up” a bit from what you may be used to.

In the mountains, the connection with nature is the primary consideration. A great ploy for a mountain retreat is to complete the connection with nature, carrying colors and themes to the interior.

How you will use the house will determine how you decorate. Some folks rent their vacation homes out for several months during the year. If this is the case, the furnishings and finishes chosen should be those which are durable and easily maintained. Slipcovered furniture can be dry cleaned, painted finishes are a better choice than wall coverings, poly-cotton blend fabrics stand up to abrasion and soil…and of course, Scotchgard is your new BFF. Even if you don’t rent, who wants to be a slave to cleaning and care? As I mentioned before, you may find you suddenly have many new friends, all of whom are willing to visit you in season. So it may feel like you are running a small and private hotel.

Do I sound too practical and not enough like a decorator? Well, yes…real design for real people is what I provide. I can decorate your vacation home to the nines but in the end you wouldn’t be happy if the furnishings weren’t comfortable or wound up looking shabby after a short time. Hopefully here, I have provided a framework for your decorating ideas, helping you to focus on the most appropriate choices for your retreat.