A painter uses her cottage to create and display her fine art pieces and shows how to masterfully combine artwork and interiors.

BY AUTUMN KRAUSE PHOTOGRAPHY BY DUSTIN PECK PHOTOGRAPHY STYLING BY LAUREN BOLSHAKOV

BALANCING ACT. Lauren Bolshakov’s living room illustrates her understanding of balance in design. “My general rule is to keep balance,” she says. A Pottery Barn couch faces two carefully placed side chairs from Lulu and Georgia and draws the eye to the crowning art piece atop the fireplace.

SIT AND SIP. Arches ringing the exterior of the home add a distinctive note. “I love this sitting area!” Lauren says. “We’re actually closing it in with beautiful glass windows and adding a bluestone floor to bring the outside in. This is my favorite place to sit and have a cup of coffee.”

|TOP| CHARM ABOUNDS. “Our home is a quintessential cottage,” Lauren says. “We love everything about it! It’s cozy and welcoming and has really good energy.” It was light gray with black shutters when they bought it. Lauren decided to paint the brick white and the shutters and front door a pale blue. She also added window boxes. 

|BOTTOM| EXTERIOR AMBIENCE. The cottage’s exterior is just as inspiring as its interior and feeds Lauren’s creative spirit. A covered porch is a wonderful place to both entertain and relax and take in the greenery surrounding the home.

Artworks are sometimes seen as the finishing touches in a home, but for professional artist Lauren Bolshakov, it’s just the opposite. As she says, “It’s a lot easier to design a room around a painting than to paint a painting around a room.” Her artwork is an inspiring touchpoint for her residence, which is in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is currently renovating her quintessential cottage, but for the first couple of years after purchasing it, she used it as a studio and gallery space to paint, display and photograph her creations. During that time, the rooms were like frames to her beautiful pieces, showcasing each one, while also demonstrating Lauren’s natural knack for interior design. The home areas were staged to photograph her art for her website and Instagram, while other rooms were used as her studio. The cottage lived and breathed Lauren’s art and showed how powerful it is when artwork and interior design are integrated together.