My Amalfi Inspired Lake Erie Condo Reveal

I’m back after perhaps my longest blogging hiatus in years. I’ll spare you the details, but I’ve had some not-so-great things happen to me in the past few months. Fortunately things are on the mend emotionally and I’m ready to show you one of the more positive things I’ve been working on. And before your mind gets to wondering, Jim and I are great, my family is fantastic, my pups are alive and well and I’m looking at Lake Erie as I’m typing this… So how bad can things be, really?

In the early fall last year, I shared that I had bought a second home in Port Clinton, OH. My original plan was to only stay at it for a few months a year, but I was able to come up here for longer this year… I had a LOT of things I wanted to do with it and I’ve been happy to be able to get everything I want to get done, done!

I have a bit of a thing for lemons so rather than the stereotypical nautical look that we see so often up here, I decided to do an “Italian nautical” look to switch it up a bit.. I’m thrilled at how it’s coming along.

New Paint

I hired a very sweet and very slow painter to strip the wallpaper and paint the whole place. I went with Sherwin Williams “Greyish” and am thrilled at how it turned out.

Before: grass paper wallpaper that had been PAINTED OVER (don’t ever ever ever ever do this). I wish I had a closer picture of the before because it was BAD.

After: Fresh paint. Excuse the cords…

Patio Furniture

I’m usually not one to overthink things (seriously–I’m usually extremely decisive) but it took me FOREVER to find a patio furniture set I liked. My balcony has a wide beam and I certainly wanted to be able to see the lake while out there, so it needed to be high seating but not *too* high because I don’t find barstools all that comfortable.. Do you see my kerfuffle?

Oh, and my slow painter also left discarded blinds on my balcony. Here’s what it looked like before, complete with all the mayflies. #iykyk

And here’s what it looks like now!!

Faux Backsplash

I saved my favorite for last. You guys. I am OBSESSED. I didn’t want to spend a ton of money on a professionally-tiled backsplash so I got THESE peel and stick tiles and you would NEVER know. They’re beyond easy to install (the whole project took me around 2 hours) and they can be cut with heavy duty scissors.

Here’s what it looked like before. T’was rather drab, if you ask me, and way too lake shabby for my liking.

And loooook at it now!!

Here’s what it looked like when it was in progress. This was one pack’s worth of sticky tiles.

PS- how much do you love my platters? They’re melamine and a find from Home Goods.

That’s all for now! It’s still a work in progress but I’m thrilled with it so far!