There are few more idyllic places than Lake Martin, the vast reservoir that stretches across Tallapoosa, Elmore, and Coosa counties in Alabama. With 750 miles of wooded shoreline, it’s such a desirable spot that it turned the heads of a family who had planned to relocate to Hawaii, instead choosing this destination over the golden sunshine and sands of the Pacific.
‘The family wanted a place where the children could enjoy long summer weekends and fell in love with the relaxed way of life this area offers,’ says Mack Braden, VP at Christopher Architecture & Interiors, who oversaw this house design and fit-out. ‘So we designed it around the concept of family time off – with bunk rooms, rec rooms, and a place to jump off the rooftop straight into the lake.’
But despite the hedonistic approach, the decorative ambiance is very calm, very soft, very neutral, and very restrained. ‘The whole idea was to speak to the vernacular of the lake and the home’s rural setting, and how you’d naturally find rougher materials like stone and hand-hewn wood around here,’ Mack says. ‘So with that philosophy of bringing the outdoors in – and having continuity between the materials and palette – the result is a very unified aesthetic. As you move from space to space, you get an overall sense of it being both refined and rustic – of warmth and comfort.’…