Case Study · Lake Lanier, GA · In progress

A lake house with good bones and eleven kinds of trim.

The exterior is finished. The inside exists as a plan, a set of renders and a written specification — which is the part the owners are building from this year.

Scope: Whole home · exterior · kitchen and living plan
Role: Design lead · floor plan · finish specification
Status: Exterior complete · interior specified

Lake Lanier house — finished exterior, gambrel roof, deep porch, planted beds and a gravel path

After

The outside came first, on purpose.

Roofline, porch and paint set the vocabulary every interior decision then had to answer to.

The gambrel roof and the porch were the two things worth keeping, so the exterior work protected them: board-and-batten repaired rather than replaced, a warm off-white body, a green door, and a stained cedar stair to the grade.

Interior photography does not exist yet. What follows is the plan and the renders the owners are working from, shown at full size.

Concept

One room downstairs, and a sage kitchen in the corner of it.

The plan takes out the wall between the kitchen and the living room, puts the range on the window wall, and keeps a peninsula short enough to walk around with a cooler.

Lake Lanier — floor plan study with room dimensions, kitchen zone and circulation — The plan, drawn at the same scale the renders were modelled from.

Lake Lanier — render of the sage kitchen with concrete counters, farmhouse sink and round dining table — Sage cabinetry to the ceiling on the tall wall, concrete-look counters, one glass-front run.

Lake Lanier — render of the open plan looking from the living area toward the kitchen — From the living end: one room, one floor material, no thresholds.

Lake Lanier — close render of the kitchen run showing counter, backsplash and hardware — Detail view — the level of resolution the cabinet shop quotes from.

Before

Bought full, sold as-is.

Lake Lanier — the original kitchen before work

Lake Lanier — the living room before work, filled with the previous owner's belongings

The house came with everything still in it, a brass ceiling fan in every room, and carpet over the original floors. Measuring took two visits because half the rooms could not be walked.

What was specified

The list the owners are ordering from.

Exterior — board-and-batten repaired, warm off-white body, green door
Cabinetry — flat-panel sage, ceiling height on the tall wall
Counters — concrete-look quartz, square edge, tile to the window
Floors — engineered white oak, one material through the main level
Trim — one profile, replacing the eleven that were there
Lighting — opal globe pendants, no recessed cans in the living end

Work With Me

Starting a remodel? Let's talk early.

The best decisions happen before the first hammer swings — before tile is ordered, before walls are framed, before a single trade is on site.

Book an Initial Consultation

$150

Credited in full toward whatever you book next

30-minute video call
Honest read on scope and budget range

Next project

Lisa & Alex's bath

All four projects