Boats docked in a small lakeside harbor.

What a constrast! Last, we visited Laguna Beach for a bit of California laid-back coastal decor. Now, we’ve jetted north to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula poised between two of the five Great Lakes. While Laguna gets strong sun and ocean breezes, the UP has crisp nights, tall pines, sheltered inlets, canoes, sailboats and fish. There is a lot of product out there today featuring sailboats and fish, actually, which make them easy areas to utilize in developing a quick look at lakehouse style.

In gathering products for the fabric and paint chip board, we found many patterns with sailboats, rigging, knots, oars, canoes, and the like. Plus, there are fish patterns that are whimsical, jaunty, cartoony, realistic. We opted for realism in our view of lakehouse chic. Plaids are the natural accompaniment to our lakeside patterns. Blues and tans are the cornerstones of the color direction here, reflecting lake, sky, and the wooden sailboats and canoes.

Sailboats and fish–lakehouse elements.

Let’s have some fun with our fish next. It is amazing how many products are out there today with fish motifs. It was so easy to quickly create a lakehouse breakfast table, complete with fish wherever you look, starting with our tablecloth! Fish shaped plates in lake blue hold muffins and bagels. Coffee mugs sport fish scales! And what better centerpiece than a towering fishy friend! Salt glaze pottery in blue blends perfectly with our fish-blue color story, here holding breakfast fruits.

Fish swimming around the breakfast table.

There are so many accessory pieces that suggest lakeside living that we opted to develop a contemporary take on a knick-knack collection showcasing UP lakehouse style. Here, though, we expanded our color palette a bit with some reds, shown in the stars, lantern lamp and woven basket. While we’ve largely been looking at fish so far, the Great Lakes are also home to large scale bird life as well. While these guys might not fit into our birdhouse, perhaps somewhat thinner relatives might make it into a home.

Lakehouse accessories evoke UP style.

While we’ve focused on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for our lakehouse story, these motifs would be perfectly at home in so many other regions–Rocky Mountain lakes, Southeast river towns, Northwest ocean ports.

We’ve saved New England for last. Next, Bar Harbor, Maine. Ready for lobster?