Waterfront Farmhouse
A self-taught husband-and-wife team slowly renovates a home for their family as they live in it, turning it into a coastal farmhouse cottage.
WRITTEN BY AUTUMN KRAUSE
PORCH SIDE: ORIGINALLY, THE HOME’S PORCHES WERE ALL WHITE. “They were very pretty, but the maintenance was too much for a young family,” Veronique says. After all, there is lots of wear on a house when you live in the woods and on the lake. Painting more than 300 spindles every year wasn’t something the family had time to do, so low-maintenance wood porches were installed. They tie in perfectly with the dock!
PHOTOGRAPHED BY SABRINA GROOMES
LIFE
ON
THE
LAKE. One of Veronique’s biggest muses is the lake. “I always have the lake in mind when I design,” she says. She’s created several outdoor living spaces—from a fire pit area for roasting s’mores to a gazebo with a dining area to an outdoor bar for cocktails on the water. Basking in the sunsets and enjoying crackling fires are daily occurrences for the family during the summer.
WATER
THERAPY. “Living on the water is therapeutic,” Veronique says. “I can’t explain it.” Her favorite part is hearing water lap against the shore at night while the loons sing a “lullaby.” This space is right off the primary bedroom and is a space just for Veronique and Dave to talk, read and have a glass of wine at night.
SNUG
SLEEPING
SPOT. Living on the lake, the family always has a lot of guests in the summer; sometimes, big groups. They needed some extra sleeping spots and decided a mini-guesthouse was just the solution. It’s made from an old shed that Veronique’s parents were getting rid of. “I did a color match with the siding from the house and added some cedar shingles in the front to coordinate with the wood we see on the main house,” Veronique notes. “My sister made the boathouse sign.” Guests love the darling cozy quarters!
“BACK”
DOOR. Technically, this is the family’s back door, but it faces the driveway. “When you live on the lake, the front of the house is lakeside—which complicates things a little bit,” Veronique explains. Despite it being the “back door,” she wants it to feel welcoming. She fell in love with this screen door—from its cottage aesthetic to the way it sounds when it swings open and closed. “A screen door is perfect for a lake house. It says, ‘Come on in and relax’,” she says.