Lake Martin Family Treasure Refresh by Lauren Conner

Four generations. One Lake Martin cottage. Thirty-eight years of the same family coming home to the water.

By
Lacey Howard
-
Screened porch dining table set with dried floral arrangements, candlesticks, and a vintage quilt tablecloth, overlooking Lake Martin through the trees.
The view that started it all — the screened porch table looks straight out over Lake Martin, the reason the Baugh family never left. // Photos by Jean Allsopp, Styling by Christina Brockman
38 years of family fun.

Four Generations at Lake Martin

“The lake house is our home base,” former Mountain Brook Elementary sixth-grade science teacher Pam Baugh says of her family’s beloved vacation home on Lake Martin. “My parents bought the house in 1988 when my daughter, Kat, was two years old. It was intended to be a gathering place, and it has fulfilled its mission!” Pam and her brothers brought their families to the lake for weekends and summers together jumping off the dock and exploring. “Cousins grew up together,” she says.

Today, those cousins are all adults, and Pam and her husband, Robert, own the home. They are excited to welcome the next generation—the fourth who will don life jackets and run barefoot down to the water, their little feet slapping on the dock’s wood boards. But after more than 35 years of family fun, the cottage needed some TLC beyond regular maintenance. “We didn’t want to mess with a good thing,” Pam says, “but we did need to redecorate.” She invited her friend and neighbor, interior designer Lauren Conner, to help with making updates. “Pam is colorful in personality and in design, so I wanted to embrace that,” Lauren says. “I wanted to use what they already had and make the cottage reflect Pam’s fun personality.”

With an eye for art, Pam filled the lakehouse with her own collections, pieces inherited from her parents, and some of her own work. The painting over the screened porch sofa was bought by her parents from a farmer on a road trip through Switzerland.
An antique baker’s table is a piece Pam and her mom upcycled years ago. The encaustic on the easel is one of Pam’s own creations.
“My mother taught me how to refinish furniture,” Pam remembers.

“Our house is not fancy by today’s standards, but we are not fancy people.”

-homeowner Pam Baugh

Lauren went to work, starting with modernizing and refreshing: hardwoods to replace carpet in bedrooms, new appliances, fresh paint inside and out, updated lighting and fixtures. Then, she turned to reusing pieces, adding new furniture where necessary, and accessorizing with Pam’s colorful cache of interesting objects and art. “She has many beautiful, handmade things, and collections of folk art, quilts, and natural objects such as turtle shells, bird nests, fossils.” The result is a cottage that feels bright, happy, and colorful—just like Pam herself.

An island brings additional work space to the kitchen while a large freestanding cupboard offers storage. On top is a collection of berry baskets, many handmade by Pam.

The house, Lauren adds, “is quirky and interesting. The scale is humble but it’s a place designed for the simple pleasures of lake life,” Lauren says. “And it lives larger than you might think. It is comfortable for lots of people.”

- Sponsors -
Green cabinetry beneath a window with printed café curtains, open wicker storage baskets, and a countertop. Styled with garden vegetables and a floral pitcher on display at a Lake Martin home.
Two rows of baskets provide undercounter storage near the home’s washer and dryer.

Just like her parents, Pam intends to fill the home with friends and family for weekends and summers growing up and growing old together. “Our son, Richard, who wasn’t born yet when we started going to the lake house, and his wife Mariana have two little girls who soon will be jumping off the dock together,” Pam says. “The world has come full circle and it feels just right for us. I’m so glad we made the decision to keep the lake house.”

The primary bedroom’s neutral palette is punctuated with red and green. “We started with the fern fabric because Pam’s such a biologist,” Lauren says. The photo over the bed is Pam’s own of flowers she grew. “She also has a whole closet of vintage quilts,” Lauren says.
A carved Spanish bench occupies a nook in the primary bedroom. A photo of zinnias by Pam hangs above it and a batik pillow cover Pam purchased in Botswana adds a handmade touch.
Bed with a vibrant Suzani textile hanging above the headboard, styled with graphic black-and-white bird-print pillow shams at Lake Martin home.
“Lauren found the fabulous Suzani over the bed,” Pam says of one of the main-level bedrooms. To the left, a Woody Long painting of ballet dancers hangs above a cowboy and bride kissing by Annie “Frantic” Morley. “I have several Longs and several Frantics,” she says. “I’ve been collecting my whole life.” Lamps are made from old French shutters.
iving room with cream sofa, two olive-green swivel chairs, colorful quilted throw pillows, a stone fireplace, and a vase of fresh dahlias on a glass coffee table at a Lake Martin lake house.
In the living room, Pam and Lauren decided to clean and keep a rug that had been in the house for years. New olive-green swivel chairs from Odette in Pepper Place and pillows made from a French fabric Pam purchased long ago echo the rug’s palette. Over the fireplace, a photograph of Cahaba River Lilies by Pam holds court.

Resources

Interior design: Lauren Conner, laurenconnerinteriors.com, IG @laurenLaureninteriors

Get the best of Birmingham delivered to your inbox

Stunning local homes, inspiring before & after projects, Southern recipes, entertaining ideas and more!

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR