Favorite Lake House Must-Haves For Summer

Summer Home Ideas

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Guest post by my Mom!

We are lucky enough to have a family getaway home on a lake, and I love how it’s such a great place to kick back and just have fun! Here are my top ten things - some big, some small - that I enjoy at our lake house!

1) New Fire Pit

DIY Outdoor Fire Pit made from stone. How to make your own lake house fire pit for your backyard. How to build your own fire pit. How to build a fire pit for your yard. Fire pit ideas. Lake house fire pit. #DIY #firepit

Our old fire pits consisted of garage-sale metal ones, which we would use for a year or two until they rusted out. I always wanted a nice brick fire pit, and last weekend we made it happen! This is 48” in diameter and by lugging our own bricks from the local home improvement store, it was only about $80 in materials. It’s the envy of the beach!

Click for this Gorgeous Copper Colored Fire Pit

I’m noticing a lot of cute lanterns out there that have LED “candles” that even flicker like a real one. These are truly a great option if you have curious little kids around, like we do. Super safe and really darling, like this pineapple number.

LED Solar Pathway Lights on a dock. Dock lights for a lake house. Lake house dock lights. Lit dock at night. Outdoor light ideas for a dock. #Dock #light #ideas

These aren’t just for pathways anymore! The great thing about this type of light is you can literally stick them anywhere! We placed some at the end of our dock and in some large flower planters. These lights are rated in terms of lumens. The higher the number, the brighter the light. These here are 8 and 10 lumens which is pretty bright. Anything below a 3 is probably going to be a little dim, which may be what you are looking for if you are using multiples. The super-cheap lights (less than about $3) are not going to be very bright. Look for the lumen rating if you can find it!

LED Solar Pathway Lights on a dock. Seawall lights. Flower pot LED lights. Dock lights for a lake house. Lake house dock lights. Lit dock at night. Outdoor light ideas for a dock. #Dock #light #ideas
Barn wood family dining table. Reclaimed wood table for lake house. Lake house dining room table. #reclaimed #barnwood #table

The living area of the home had room for a large table, and we wanted it to make a statement. Stephanie and I agreed that a reclaimed barnwood table would be perfect. To get what we wanted size-wise, we had to find someone to custom make it for us. Enter Peter, who took our vision and made it a reality. This table is 8 feet long and the bench is also 8 feet in length. Peter was not just creative, he was also a mechanical engineer so he know how to put it all together so it would be sturdy but still relatively lightweight. This table is pretty much always the first thing people notice when they come to our home. Peter eventually ran out of barnwood, but this type of item has become much more readily available if you are looking for a similar look.

Barn wood family dining table. Reclaimed wood table for lake house. Lake house dining room table. #reclaimed #barnwood #table

5) Our Semi-Private Loft

How to make a lofted bedroom space. Lofted bedroom ideas. Lake house loft. #lake #house #loft #ideas

A little while ago, Stephanie wrote a blog post about our newly-converted open loft space. We had taken a large wide-open third floor area and divided it up into cozy individual sleeping nooks using shutters and curtains. This improvement offered our guests some privacy which wasn’t there before. I’m happy to report that the loft conversion has been a HUGE HIT with our guests. It’s the best of both worlds – openness plus privacy when you want it. You can read all about this conversion HERE.

Room darkening drapes for lake house. Must have lake house necessities. #blackout #curtains

Speaking of sleeping, I finally purchased some room-darkening drapes for our own bedroom. Can you ever have too many windows in a room? The answer is YES and our bedroom has six large windows. The blinds that I had previously purchased didn’t do much to keep the light out, so I finally installed some drapery rods and room-darkening curtains. One of the challenges is that our room has a 6’ x 8’ bump-out area in front that had three huge windows on its own. So rather than buy three rods and drape sets just for this area, I simply put ONE rod and a single set of drapes across the opening of the area. Overall, I was able to achieve cave-like darkness using just three sets of rods. You might think it was a shame to have to cover up the window behind the headboard. This window was actually one of the smaller ones and it was not even centered in the wall. So the drape behind the headboard is MUCH wider than it needed to be, but it provides a nice background contrast on the white beadboard wall.

If you ever shopped for room-darkening drapes, you may have noticed that they don’t come in a huge variety of attractive designs. You’ll see a lot of solid colors and not much more. I decided to add a little nautical flair to my plain grey drapes by using these too-cute knotted tie-backs. They even came in a four-pack which was just what I needed!

Click Here to get a 4 pack on Amazon

Outdoor game ideas for a party or a picnic. Backyard golf games. Games to play at a lake. #outdoor #golf #game

For a bit of outdoor fun, cornhole beanbag toss is somewhat of a go-to around here. But since many of us are now golfers, here is a fun alternative. The GoSports Battle Chip chipping game is a blast and you would not believe how competitive it gets around here! You’ll need to provide your own 9 iron or chipping wedge here! Comes with a carrying case (I didn’t picture it) so you can easily disassemble it for portability.

Home vacuum tumble marinade machine. Home vacuum marinade equipment.

Often, we are so busy having fun outside that nobody thinks about dinner until 8 pm. Enter the Marinade Express! This is a vacuum marinade kitchen device that helps you prepare delicious grill meats in just minutes.

10) Shade, please!

Lake house umbrella ideas. How to cover a lake house deck with shade. How to get shade to a full sun deck. How to get lake house deck shade. Best umbrellas for lake house deck.

Finally, even though we are usually seeking Fun in the Sun, the sun gets to be a bit much at times and we seek Fun in the Shade instead. Unfortunately, we lost our one tree to Emerald Ash Borer disease several years ago and it’s tough to replace a 50 year old tree overnight. The next best thing for us is a collection of umbrellas of which we currently have five. We started with one, and as we craved shade, we just kept adding them. Can you ever have too many umbrellas? The answer is NO! It seemed a little silly at first but I think they look really cute, adding a very festive touch to the functionality. And of course, these come in a huge variety of designs and colors.

Favorite Lake House Must-Haves for Summer. How to plan a lake house weekend. Things you need for your lake house this summer. Best lake house decor ideas. Lake house bar ides. #lake #house #decor #ideas
Favorite Lake House Must-Haves for Summer. How to plan a lake house weekend. Things you need for your lake house this summer. Best lake house decor ideas. Lake house kitchen ideas. #lake #house #decor #ideas
Lake house porch swing. Favorite Lake House Must-Haves for Summer. How to plan a lake house weekend. Things you need for your lake house this summer. Best lake house decor ideas.  #lake #house #decor #ideas
Favorite Lake House Must-Haves for Summer. How to plan a lake house weekend. Things you need for your lake house this summer. Best lake house decor ideas. Lake house living room ideas. #lake #house #decor #ideas

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Stephanie Rae

Working mom, mother of two, on a quest to live life to the fullest. Focused on decluttering and clean eating. Follow along on my journey while creating one of your own!

http://www.firstthymemom.com
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