Mark Gesture asked:


When you walk into your vacation home do you feel like its home or more like a hotel? Owning a vacation home can be a lot of work and cost some serious money. You should therefore want to spend most of your time there. Make your vacation house a second home by decorating in the taste and style that reflects your lifestyle. If your vacation home lies near the beach and you enjoy spending most of your time in the sand, colors and wall paintings should reflect the beaches’ color palettes.

I am a big believer in bringing activities you enjoy on vacation into your vacation home. The best way to decorate any home is to add your personal touch. In your vacation home make sure your personal touch includes the vacation activities you love. If you own a vacation home dedicated to enjoying the quite of the woods near a pristine lake, you may want to bring paintings inside of what you like about the lake.

Interesting enough, I don’t believe you can overdo this technique when decorating your vacation home. Make sure you make your vacation house or cabin as comfortable as your main home.

If you rent out your vacation home for part of the year, the people renting it out will definitely appreciate the personal touch because it makes it feel like a home and not a hotel. People can easily stay for a week at a hotel room or suite for their vacation. They chose to rent out a vacation house or cabin because they want to feel completely relaxed like they are at “home”.

You can also take this design tip home. Keep your mind on vacation while you’re sitting at home by bringing your vacation activities home with you. Your spouse will appreciate the beach painting, or moose head on the wall in your home. Personal touches in your house or vacation home make sure he/she will remember every minute of a stress free vacation when coming home from a hard days work.

Discover your unique style while on vacation by finding a piece of art that only you and your family would enjoy. Unique pieces of drift wood, or sand dollars can add that personal touch that is so difficult to find. Make sure you clean any product of nature that you do bring inside your vacation home. You never know what bugs, or creatures still live inside.

A special creative hobby that you enjoy to do on your free time can also serve as inspiration for your vacation home’s décor. If you enjoy arts and crafts, place your latest work of art on the coffee table or wall. If you enjoy placing ships into a bottle this can be a great addition to side table. Enjoy spending some time either creating or finding that additional item that will truly make your vacation home unique. Take your time with this process, make it a family event, or a romantic activity for the two of you.