Being faced with an entire, empty house is pretty overwhelming, as everyone who has ever moved knows. But when it’s a second home, and you aren’t actually moving, we’ve learned it’s ten times harder… you aren’t starting with all the things that you already own. You’re literally starting from scratch with every. single. thing. Throw into the mix that the new house is a 100% total design departure from anything you’ve ever done before AND that you want this place to look good enough to rent to strangers (oh, and it’s six hours away!), and it’s a big, overwhelming, crazy job. But one we are oh, so very excited to take on.

It’s no secret our cabin is quirky. It’s a little weird. It’s got a lot going on.

It’s part rustic log cabin…
It’s part midcentury a-frame…
It’s part 17th century ship…
It’s a beach house on the lake…

How do you decorate a house that is so many things all at once? How do you also make it feel like us, when it is so different from our bright, light, modern style? I mean, we don’t really do rustic!

The best answer we can come up with is you choose your battles. You can’t make it all things at once, because that would be insane and it would never work. You keep it simple. You keep it cohesive. And you stick to a plan.

I’ve looked at A LOT of pictures and done A LOT of thinking and talking and changing my mind and re-thinking and re-talking and re-changing my mind before finally coming up with (what we think will be) an overall decor strategy (subject to change!). We’ll be sharing our design plans for each individual room, but I wanted to start by showing you our main inspiration and what we’re leaning towards as a general vibe.

Clockwise from top:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

What do you notice? A lot of white. Some blue. A lot of textures and layers and pillows. Some stripes. Linen, cotton, wood (there’s so much wood). A casual, comfortable, lived-in feeling that lends itself to lazy days by the lake. Nothing that screams NAUTICAL or BEACH or CABIN but yet just has that feeling. Nothing too rustic but also nothing too modern. It’s all about balance. This is our take on modern-rustic cabin vibes.

I think it’s going to be really fun.

What do you think?!

Be sure to follow my “cabin” board on Pinterest for a ton more inspiration and lots of sneak peeks at all the decisions we’re making!