Short Term Vacation Rental: The Dogwood House
Yearbooks from the Owner’s Personal Collection - The John Brown University Campus is only a short walk away!
how do you make something both your own & open your home to guests?
The answer for this project was to approach it with the thought of hospitality and creating an extension of the open home that exemplifies this family. This vacation rental was a fun project taken on in the Fall of last year…the goal was to create an approachable short-term rental property that would also feel like home to the owners when using the property for personal stays and family visits.
The challenge (along with budget and timeline) was to create an environment that felt like home for the owners when they were visiting and feel welcoming to open as a short-term rental.
Our approach was to create a palette that was comfortable and approachable - a little mid-century nod to the house style and personal touches that make a house feel like a home.
We chose comfortable furniture with appropriate scale - and went for durable pieces where possible, like the leather sofa in the living room and leather club chairs in the hearth room.
Before
The budget was snug and the timeline was important to get the property listed as soon as we could. The house had been “flipped” so the remodel was good-looking and we didn’t have to do much in terms of projects. The overall paint color for the house was a very cool gray, so we worked hard to bring in warmer tones. The deep teal of the living room was painted the neutral gray, and after seeing the bright blue bunk room in person, we all voted to paint it the soft green color - Sherwin Williams’ Evergreen Fog. While there are projects that might be done when in use for a permanent residence, we made decisions based on the short-term rental status of the property for the time being.
Design
This one was a little different for design — we agreed upon budget and design concepts (color palette, general style direction) but then we set out shopping, so while it didn’t turn out exactly like the boards - the flexibility gave us the ability to fit things in the budget and complete the project on time.
Our family stayed one weekend and then the owners spent a week at the property before opening it up for rental guests. It was a fun way to be our own guests and make sure everything was just right!
Finished!
We began design in October, ordering and shopping began the first week in November and wrapped up the first week in January. It was a super quick turnaround and took lots of elbow grease to get it done!
From bed linens, to wallpaper, to styling shelves, we worked through each detail with the homeowner and the rental agency to make sure it was ready for guests. We have a checklist we keep from previous similar projects and used that as a springing point for the to do list for this project. We stocked kitchenware, board + card games. and the bookshelves are complete with classic books and John Brown yearbooks (the house is only a couple of blocks from campus!)
We love pulling together all of the details! If you are interested in our services for short-term rental or vacation properties, give us a shout, we would love to hear what you are up to!