Lakeside Living

When Chicago interior designer Amy Storm started working on a new-construction waterfront house in Pine Lake, Wisconsin, she and her team looked to the past to plan its flow and design. What went out was the old house, literally demolished, and the interior design direction created by the previous owners. What stayed in included hallmark details reintegrated into the new home, such as symbolic star-patterned exterior railings inspired by the property’s boat house.

This charming lakeside structure, on view to everyone who passes by in a boat, serves as a space for overflow guests. Also created was a reworked second floor to accommodate additional visitors and plenty of indoor-outdoor spaces for gathering in groups. 

The property, completed in May 2023, is only an hour and a half from the bustling Chicago suburbs, where her clients also reside. For the lake house, used year-round, an open and practical but serene design was a must for the owners, who have four children and two dogs. The design also had to accommodate the family’s love of hosting and welcoming other families and guests to join them regularly for fun at the lake. 

An existing foundation provided a starting point for the new home and summoned some clever thinking for the home’s next iteration. “When we first received the plans, we were charged with creating a new layout on the second floor,” says Storm. “We were asked to create suites that could hold a family or several friends. Each bedroom has multiple beds, and there are two bunk rooms. Somehow, we managed to squeeze in 19 beds!” The home’s decorative railing design is also featured on many of the bunk bed railings and the railings edging the outdoor porches and balconies. 

The 8,500-square-foot home is long and spacious, notes Storm, with three floors, including a mostly unfinished lower level. To fill the vast interior areas, Storm and her team focused on outfitting the rooms with furniture that invites relaxation—some tailored for large groups, others for smaller gatherings and more intimate conversations.

One of Storm’s favorite spaces on the main level is the lounge, which, she says, “feels like an addition to the house.” It features a 22-foot-tall vaulted ceiling with warm wood beams, an oversized, cushy sectional the color of dark denim, a felted pool table in the same shade of blue, and a large inset wet bar complete with an undermount sink, a Sub-Zero Ice Maker, and Undercounter Refrigerators. An exotic quartzite-topped island with four leather stools awaits anyone who is thirsty or waiting to chalk a pool cue. Although a pair of oversized woven pendants are suspended over the space, Storm loves how the natural light pours into the room, offering a portal to the natural world outside. “Having no window treatments in here was intentional to capture views of the lake,” she observes.

Tying the different levels and spaces together required strategic attention to floor plans, furniture layout, and color palettes that resonated with the clients. Storm’s solution utilized tried-and-true colorways that felt classic while being chic and traditional and skewing neutral, executed through the thoughtful application of fabrics, textures, and forms. 

“From a color standpoint, it’s consistent from room to room. We used a lot of neutrals spanning black, navy, blue, tan, and white, but these colors play out in their own schemes through different fabrics and patterns.” Storm says it was important the overall design felt versatile enough so that casual furniture pieces, like chairs, could be moved as necessary throughout the house and fit in style-wise wherever they were planted.

A popular hang-out spot is the long screened-in back porch facing the lake. This area spans the length of the home and can be accessed from the living room and kitchen. “This space holds two large dining tables and multiple flexible seating areas that include two twin-bed swings for optimal napping,” says Storm. A back porch holds a 42-inch Wolf Gas Grill for plein air cooking. Indoors, the fully-outfitted kitchen with two islands—one for storage, the other for casual meals—features a 60-inch Wolf Dual Fuel Range with six burners and an infrared dual griddle, and an individual 30-inch Designer Series Column Sub-Zero Refrigerator and Sub-Zero Freezer, which flank the range and cooking wall. Storm camouflaged these heavy appliances behind tall antique mirrors, which reflect the light from the lake and front of the house into the room.

Looking back, Storm says she and her team had to begin from the ground up. “When we started the project, the foundation had been poured; then it was time to imagine the best domicile for the lakeside setting.” Fundamentally, she says this meant designing for the comfort of many at once while pulling visual and aesthetic cues from the water and surrounding nature. “The house is long, giving almost all the rooms equal opportunity to admire the views of the lake,” adds Storm. “And it’s positioned on a five-acre lot, so even for the spaces that are not lake facing, the view is of forest, plants, and green for miles.”