An Alabama Home Where Rustic Meets Refined

Georgia Carlee and her husband, David, hadn’t planned on uprooting their family of three to move to the shore of Lake Martin in Alexander City, AL. For 15 years the Carlees had been perfectly content with their life in Santa Rosa Beach, FL. But after their daughter, Caroline, was born, they began hunting for a weekend/vacation house in the Lake Martin area, a four-hour drive from their Florida home. That’s when Georgia became enamored of the family-oriented community. It wasn’t that the 2,200-square-foot condominium was in turnkey condition. In fact, the space hadn’t been updated since it was built in 1982. “Other buyers didn’t know what to do with it,” says Georgia, a designer who owns her own firm.

Although the unit had 27-foot ceilings (amazing, right?!), its two bedrooms and two bathrooms felt scanty considering the square footage. “I’m guessing people thought it was too small, but I knew we could get another floor in there,” she says. They also added shiplap to the walls and ceiling — plus plenty of modern touches that make it feel like a stylish year-round home rather than a rustic weekend retreat. “I purposely did not decorate it like a typical lake house,” says Georgia. “There are no ‘What happens at the lake stays at the lake’ signs here!”

Because the condo’s living spaces are one open expanse, Georgia kept the color scheme minimal: White Dove by Benjamin Moore on the walls, some of which she whitewashed, and Heritage Red by Benjamin Moore on the interior doors. A leather Lee Industries sofa and a rattan Palecek chair with houndstooth cushions sit on a cowhide rug layered over an old multicolor striped rug. The room also holds a prized antique find: a 14-foot-tall bamboo ladder, which for the first time ever Georgia can display vertically. The white column lamps are from Pizitz Home & Cottage in Seaside, FL.

Square-back chairs upholstered in linen and leather and a leather bench surround a dinged-up farm table. The room is used for special-occasion dinners as well as crafts parties for kids. 

The old kitchen was small and dark, so the Carlees gutted the space, knocking down a wall and adding windows with front-and-center views of the lake. The island and the perimeter cabinets are topped with brownish gray quartzite, and the island’s base is painted the same shade (Heritage Red by Benjamin Moore) as the home’s interior doors. To counter the oil-rubbed-bronze knobs and pulls from Restoration Hardware, Georgia chose white opalescent tiles for the backsplash. The white faux-leather barstools are from LexMod. An antique “Rollercoaster” sign “describes our life in a word,” Georgia says.