A Lakeshore Home In Canton Brings Beach Life Indoors

You don’t expect to find a slice of Nantucket in Canton. But a coastal ambience from nautical hues is exactly what the clients wanted when they enlisted Laura Sirpilla Bosworth and Karen Fehlman of Laura of Pembroke to design the interior of their lakeside home in 2016. Drawing on Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and the Hamptons for inspiration, the designers worked with the couple to create a modern lake house aesthetic and spin a yarn of waterside life. 

A sentimental painting recalling the couple’s first date that hangs above the fireplace in the great room sparked the color scheme. “It has special meaning to the clients,” says Fehlman. “So we used that as our jumping off point.” 

As longtime shoppers at the Canton home furnishings boutique founded by Bosworth, the couple used its design services when the time came to build a home for them and their three young children. All lighting, home furnishings, accents and artwork for the home were sourced from Laura of Pembroke, and Bosworth and Fehlman worked hand-in-hand with the couple and the builders, Memmer Homes, to spearhead everything from the lighting and paint colors to which dishes and accent chairs were chosen.

Like a cresting wave, the eclectic palette they selected builds on bright white and tranquil gray as its neutral base, then surprises with pops of deep-ocean blue and coastal-breaker teal. 

“The husband and wife in this project were very astute on good design,” says Bosworth. “So while they liked a stark white, they were not afraid to go outside-the-box.” 

The orange and blue tones in the painting were perfect, since the homeowners wanted to bring lake life vibes indoors by using similar hues anyway. 

“They didn’t want to take away from the blue water, the blue sky, the sunshine,” says Bosworth. “So the yellows and blues and the natural elements and the green of the grass, they are all colors that are in the house. We complimented nature.”

Those tones make subtle appearances as the color story unwinds throughout the home: a sandy-hued painting in the entryway, a pair of blue velvet club chairs in the great room, and beach glass-green vases on the kitchen counter. Subtle nautical touches like anchor paintings in a downstairs bathroom and mirrors hung by rope are sprinkled throughout to further enhance the beachy mood. 

They even appear in the children’s rooms, where the bold uses of color are more tasteful than toddler. A navy baby boy’s room is paired with a bathroom with a navy vanity and striking geometric wallpaper. A little girl’s room features a teal-cushioned window seat accessorized with hot pink pillows. Black and white stripes and herringbone chairs are juxtaposed with gold accents and sky-blue walls in the children’s playroom. 

Like a good beach read, the carefully selected colors give a whiff of seaside air that tells a story about the lively personalities of the homeowners, says Fehlman. “It makes it so fun and youthful,” she says. 

All the Feels

Certain colors evoke certain emotions. Here’s a quick primer. 

Blue: Use this color in the bathroom and bedroom since it’s very calming. “It makes you think of wisdom,” says Colleen Primm, certified color strategist and owner of Colleen Primm Design. But think twice about using shades of blue in your kitchen because it suppresses your appetite.

Red: A high energy hue, red works best in a living room or dining room. “It stimulates talking and conversations and it increases the heart rate,” says Primm, “which is why you would not want it in the bedroom.”

Purple: If you want to feel like royalty, turn to purple, known for power and luxury. “It is very good in bedrooms,” she says. “You can also feel very creative with purple, making it good for a work environment or a home office.”

Orange: To create excitement, orange is your go-to shade. “It’s actually a hot color, meaning that when your eye looks at it you can get a feeling of heat,” says Primm. “So that’s really good if you have a home exercise area.”

Yellow: The key to happiness? Yellow. Primm suggests putting the sunny color in your laundry room to make doing the chore more fun. But don’t put the bright hue everywhere, she warns. “You don’t want to put it into a nursery because yellow actually causes anxiety,” she says. “So small children in yellow rooms will actually cry more.”