MUTT-HOUSE????

It's not often that I come across a house that is a mutt, but I got one this week.

This house is a lakehouse, and this is the back-side, that leads to a pier and dock.

The owner wanted a fun color scheme all, around as it is a vacation home, and really wanted to keep her red front door. The front of the house is Acadian-Style, which is a HUGE thing here in Louisiana. I don't know if it is elsewhere in North America.

The front was in pretty good shape, but the back was a doozy. While the front was classic Acadian-inspired architecture (steep, high roof, long rectangle of porch with rustic columns, New Orleans-type shutters), the back of the house was completely different due to several add-ons, It looked like a split-level ranch-house married a Victorian Cottage.

So. The shutters are interestingly placed. The spindles on the mini-deck look like interior stairway spindles, and the back door is turn-of-the-century design. And the owner wants fresh and fun.

We did this:

The theory behind this color scheme is LOW MAINTENANCE, because it is a vacation home. Mossy Green tones for the body hide the green stuff that plagues houses down here on the bayou. Dark trim needs freshening less often, and hides a multitude of wood-working crimes. The red-carpet effect of the stairway adds a whimsical punch of red, repeated on the front door (not shown) and in the floral colors in the window planters. The planters will need maintenance, but waist high and with only two, it should be a relaxing & pleasurable experience for even a novice gardener. It has it's own style now, and not a MUTT anymore!

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