As most decorators will tell you, interior design is one part creativity, two parts diplomacy. Keeping clients happy while gently guiding them toward one’s creative vision takes a deft hand. That was pushed to the extreme in the case of this lake house in Minnesota, renovated over the course of seven years by New York–based designer Ryan Lawson. 

The client was the 68-year-old mother of his partner, Sean Robins. The family had lived in the house for 30 years. While many would shy away from such an emotionally charged renovation, Lawson embraced it, working closely with his de facto mother-in-law to create a home filled with meaning, richness, and charm.

It all started when Sean Robins invited Ryan Lawson to see the house he grew up in. Sean Robins is thinking about rearranging her bedroom furniture. They need to know that bathrooms and Windows need to be taken out and kitchens need to be emptied. With that comes the sheer volume of the project. A new house is basically built within the shell of an early 20th century farmhouse: new walls, ceilings, Windows and fixtures. "It's gone in a certain direction," says Ryan Lawson. "It's full of lace and French sconces." He wanted to transform it into a better version and make it a lakeside villa.

The lake house was first built in the early to mid-1900s and given a major rebuild in the 1970s. It had been extended at various points during its lifetime, and Lawson wanted to strip everything back inside, “to return it to a better version of what it should have been.”

Lawson’s interest in earthy color palettes and natural materials was a neat fit. Lime paint imported from Belgium, solid white oak kitchen cabinets, and creamy recycled glass tiles in the master bathroom combine to give the house a sense of tactile depth. Contemporary photography, accessories, and lighting jolt everything alive to give it a fresh character. The furnishings were all earthy and natural, so Lawson wanted the artwork to be a foil to them.