Spruce up your summer vacation spot with easy design tips and still find time to relax.

• Simplicity
• Low Maintenance
• Walls
• Furniture
• Window Coverings
• Accessories

We're busier than ever, and yearning for lazy days at the beach. We long to go fishing, participate in water sports, barbecue, hiking, and enjoying quiet times with family and friends. Our summer dreams have taken us to simpler times, we've left the city in pursuit of the cottage. Somehow we must bring balance to our crazy life. It's imperative that we find the time in our busy schedules to relax and refresh ourselves.

The Simplicity of Cottage Life

In order to survive and thrive, we need time to get back to the simple things. What could be simpler than spending the summer at the cottage?

• The ease of dinners cooked around the campfire.
• Relaxing with a good book while lounging in a hammock.
• Sipping a glass of lemonade on the dock with our toes dangling in the lake.
• The breeze, the view, the water, and the scents of summer can do more to renew the soul than any other form of retreat.

Whether you call it the cabin by the lake, your seaside retreat, or the lake house, one of the challenges to cottage decorating is combining style and creativity into a home that is designed for easy living and is only occupied for a few short months of the year.

Low Maintenance Design

No one wants to be inside cleaning when everyone else is outside enjoying the sun. When designing a summer home think 'au natural', long wear, and low maintenance. Water, sand, and mud are constantly running through the house on the bottom of summer fun-loving feet.

Choose products and finishes that have been designed for easy care and minimal maintenance - surfaces and finishes that won't have you yelling at the kids every time they drip on a floor or bring half the beach into the house on a sandy towel.

Natural, or natural-looking flooring finishes in the cottage are preferable because they are designed to celebrate the outdoors. The following flooring options are great for the cottage:

• Laminate hardwood flooring is water-resistant, hard wearing, and easily cleaned with a broom and damp mop.
• Alternatively, slate, porcelain, and roughly textured ceramic tiles are excellent hardwearing, low maintenance, stylish flooring options.
• Inexpensive area carpets made from sisal or sea grass will add a tropical feel and texture to the floor.

Cottage Walls

Cottage walls provide the perfect opportunity to add pizazz and personality to your summer home. Walls are canvasses begging to be covered with texture and colour that has been inspired by Mother Nature herself.

Great summer colours are:

• Moss green
• Earthy brown
• Spicy terracotta
• Watery blue
• Creamy white
• Brick red
• Pineapple yellow

Choose colours that radiate natural warmth and personality.

Textured natural stone, wood planks, wallpaper, or faux finished walls are the most durable and the best low maintenance options for vertical surfaces. The textured surface will hide fingerprints and any flaws in the drywall much better than flat paint.

Remember that your ceiling is the fifth wall in your room - it also deserves colour and creativity. Add an exposed timber beam or paint the ceiling a sky blue.

Cottage Furniture

• Furniture must be comfortable and easy to live with. Think chic and shabby - oversized and over stuffed.
• The slipcover is an excellent design tool for the cottage because it gives a collection of mismatched upholstered furniture and hand-me-down pieces a uniform look in addition to being easy to care for. Choose machine washable fabrics made from natural fibers. Printed fabrics will hide dirt and stains better than solids.
• Choose distressed wood; wide weave rattans or painted finishes for tabletops and cabinetry. This way, when a tabletop gets scratched or dented, it will blend right in with the existing finish. Wood cabinetry also hides fingerprints better than melamine and laminate options.

Cottage Window Coverings

• Window coverings should be designed to celebrate the view.
• Keep it simple. Curtain rods can be as simple as a bamboo branch or a twisted piece of wrought iron.
• Ready-made fabric panels can then be casually looped over the rod or tied across the top with tabs.
• If you prefer blinds, two-inch Venetian blinds are less obstructive to a view of the lake than one-inch Venetian blinds. Two-inch Venetian blinds are available in a variety of PVC (plastic) and natural textures such as wood.
• Alternatively, wooden shutters or grass cloth roman shades give you a Mediterranean or beach front feel.

Cottage Accessories

Accessorize the cottage to further enhance the look and feel of summer. Hot, hot, hot for home decor this year is the island look:

• A silk palm tree in a corner of the bedroom.
• A pair of iron palm-inspired candlesticks.
• A pair of throw cushions embroidered with a palm tree motif.
• A framed print of a tropical beach.

Need a local, pre-screened expert to help you decorate your cottage? Find them on casaGURU.