Welcome.  If you’re new to this blog, I’m Kristine Robinson, an interior designer and design educator in the Northeastern US.  Today I want to share a personal project I’ve been working on.  We call it The Shack.

Our little money pit, which we are affectionately calling ‘The Shack’, sits nestled in the woods.
It is definitely a true fixer upper, but we’re enjoying the process and I’m eager to share it with you!

You might be wondering why I chose to share the above photo in black & white.  It’s because the exterior color is quite shocking.  If you’ve ever read any posts about what NOT to do when selling a house, one of the top recommendations is to avoid using a bold or unusual exterior paint color.  Well, this home’s former owner probably would have done much better, had they taken that advice.

Here is the same photo in full living color! Our little mountain house is painted, what I like to call, Swimming Pool Green.
Truly, when we were shopping for a mountain house online, I skipped past this one, solely because of the exterior paint color. It was my dear husband who said, “This one has everything we want, let’s go take a look.”  I’m happy we did, because eventually it became our own little Poconos getaway.

We were looking for several specific things in a vacation home:  A screened porch or preferably a sunroom (my husband enjoys smoking fine cigars), 3 bedrooms, more than 1 Bathroom, and a fully wooded lot with NO grass to mow.  In spite of being an oddly vibrant color, this house met all those needs, and was within our budget.  Plus, it was in need of updating–a perfect match for us to add our own finishing touches.

The back side of The Shack, shows the large back deck, the rudimentary fire pit (which I hope to enhance this fall), and the lovely slice of Pennsylvania forest (predominantly White Oaks) upon which the house is located.

While admittedly horrified by the color at first, I’ve learned to be patient. In the summertime, all the wonderful green helps to camouflage the vivid hue, plus the home sits well back from the street, so it’s not quite as obtrusive from the road.
Unfortunately, the home was freshly painted just prior to our purchase, so the need to paint is purely aesthetic. And since there is so very much to do inside the little house (I’ll share much more about that soon), we’ve opted to wait a while before changing the unusual exterior color palette.  For now, it makes the home easy for our guests to find–we just tell them “ours is the neon swimming-pool green house”, and they have no trouble finding us at all.

Friends and family frequently ask what color we’d eventually like to paint the future exterior of The Shack.  I’m thinking a greige or warm-grey color, even a more olive-toned green would be great.  Some of our friends & family have actually said they like the current color, and find it fun and different.  It certainly does make a statement!  What color do you think would look good on the outside of our little vacation home?

Ever since we finalized the purchase of the house, we’ve been working really hard on it, and are very proud of our DIY activities.  My husband is wonderful at woodworking and painting (and just about everything he does).  So the combination of my design ideas, and his pragmatic skill has begun to make some amazing transformations to the inside of our happy retreat.   Next time I’ll try to share some more about the inside of The Shack.

Until then, feel free to share my posts and images with your friends on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and other social media. I absolutely adore making new friends!

Click on this image to be taken directly to my website for more information on Robinson Interiors.