A year of doing nothing but lake house kitchens has taught me plenty about what works — and just as much about what doesn't. I've seen the mistakes, made a few of my own early on, and learned which ones to never repeat. So here, honestly, are the things I'll never do in a lake house kitchen, so you can skip the lessons I had to learn the hard way.
Ignore the View
The cardinal sin of lake kitchens is turning away from the view. I've walked into so many where the sink and prep face a wall while the lake sits unwatched out the window. The view is the single most valuable thing a lake house has, and a kitchen that ignores it has wasted its greatest asset. I will always orient the working zones — especially the sink — toward the water. Honouring the view is the first rule, and I'll never break it.
Use Delicate Materials
A lake house kitchen takes a beating — wet swimsuits, sandy feet, a houseful of guests, and a damp winter alone — so delicate, high-maintenance, or moisture-sensitive materials are a mistake I won't make. I've seen precious surfaces warp and stain in a single season. Everything in a lake kitchen has to be durable, moisture-tolerant, and easy to clean. A material that looks marginally better but can't take lake life is a material I'll be replacing, so I never specify it.
Light It Cool
Cool, clinical lighting is a mistake I see constantly and will never make. A lake kitchen lit with cool bulbs feels flat and sterile, and it throws away the magic of a lake dusk. I use warm 2700K pendants and sconces always, because the warm evening glow when the lake turns pink is part of the whole point of a lake house. Warm light is the difference between a kitchen that's merely functional and one that's genuinely magical at dusk.
Design for Two When It Hosts Twenty
The mistake of designing a lake kitchen for a quiet couple when the house actually hosts a crowd is one I'll never make. A lake house fills up — that's the whole point — and a kitchen that works for two but jams up with a houseful has failed. I design every lake kitchen for the busy summer afternoon: generous island, prep and gathering space, clear flow, drinks and snack stations. Plan for the crowd, and the quiet times look after themselves.
Chase Trends
Heavily trend-driven choices are a mistake in a lake house, where the look should feel timeless and enduring. I've watched trendy kitchens date fast while classic lake kitchens still look right decades on. So I build on a light, breezy, timeless foundation — simple cabinets, good layouts, durable materials — and add personality through easily-changed details, not through whatever's currently filling design feeds. A lake house wants to feel like it always has and always will, not like this year's catalogue.
Forget the Seasons
Many lake houses sit empty and unheated through a damp winter, and forgetting that is a mistake I won't make. I choose materials and finishes that survive months of cold and humidity with nobody there, and I think about how the kitchen closes up and opens back up each year. A kitchen designed only for the perfect summer day, with no thought for the off-season, will suffer for it. Designing for the whole year, not just July, is essential at the lake.
Over-Personalize for the Owner Alone
While a lake kitchen should suit its owners, I'm careful not to over-personalize in ways that hurt it as the gathering hub a lake house is, or its eventual resale. Lake houses are shared, handed down, and sold, so I keep the foundation broadly appealing and timeless and let personality come through in changeable touches. An overly idiosyncratic lake kitchen can date and limit the house; a warm, classic, well-built one serves everyone who'll ever gather in it.
The Common Thread
Every one of these mistakes comes from the same root: treating a lake house kitchen like an everyday town kitchen instead of the hardworking, view-blessed, crowd-feeding, seasonal space it actually is. Honour the view, choose durable materials, light it warm, design for the crowd, keep it timeless, mind the seasons — do those and a lake kitchen sings. Forget them and you've built a generic kitchen that happens to be near water. I know which one I'd rather make.
Lighting in this kitchen: warm pendant lighting and warm wall sconces
