Almost at the Ocean

Stacy Macy has been visiting the Lake for as far back as she can remember — her parents and grandparents had homes near the water long before the Lake of the Ozarks became known as the “Midwest Coast.” Once it was her turn to buy property, she longed for a home with the relaxed look of the Hamptons. In her search, the closest she came was to kitschy seaside decor.

When she and her husband, Bert, first looked at this particular house, Stacy hardly walked past the front entry. “No way,” she thought as the overdone nautical theme overwhelmed the house. But Bert went wandering outside to the lake’s point and told her she needed to give it a chance. She conceded that the outdoors was indeed the characteristic that sold her on the property but that they would need to refresh the interior. “It was decorated like the Good Ship Lollipop, and I wanted to make it more elegant,” she says.

The house was only five years old and didn’t need any structural changes. They made a minor alteration by adding a hallway wall to privatize the powder bath in the living room, but Stacy mainly focused her attention on the elements that would give her the softer East Coast look she was after: crown molding, bead board wainscoting, and walls the color of the sea and sky. “When I look outside, I see greens and blues, so that’s what I used in here,” she explains. “I think the same color painted on the walls (in this case, Summer Shower by Benjamin Moore) can unify a house, such that any ‘color,’ if painted everywhere, becomes a neutral. The unifying color throughout the house also allowed me to add lots of different bursts of color in pillows, duvets, rugs and slipcovers.”

Since the walls were dressier, Stacy felt she could get away with more casual furnishings. Everything is wash-  and-wear, from the outdoor rugs in the living room and    bedroom to the slip-covered furniture. She also chose Brazilian cherry floors, which don't easily scratch. “I don't want people to be afraid to use this house,” she says. “And the last thing I want to do is spend my time cleaning. I want to be outside.”

Since the couple dines out most of the time, they decided against remodeling the kitchen but added lighting and changed the knobs on the cabinets. “It's perfectly functional. It's not about being fancy but livable and inviting for you and guests,” she comments.

The home's 4,500-square-foot floor plan has the master suite on the first level and four beach-themed bedrooms upstairs, as well as an open loft area with rattan seating, pool table and bar so guests can have their own personal space. The Macys' bedroom is slightly different than the rest of the house in green, orange and yellow, with a vintage Palm Beach feel. The room has a see-through fireplace to the living room, so for privacy, Stacy had some plantation shutters custom-made to keep with the theme.

On the other side, the living room's focal point is the water. That's the purpose of a lake home, after all, and every outdoor space is made to enjoy it. Just outside the sliding glass doors is a deck with an awning for shade and speakers for music. A flagstone path leads to a hammock among the trees and then to an octagonal deck at  the point, the place that prompted the Macys to buy the property. “We think we have absolutely the best point on the lake because we're just off the main channel with a full 180-degree view, we have 400 feet of natural shoreline, which is huge and a rare thing, relatively flat land and only a few steps to the patio from the house.”

They also have their choice of water options, from the hot tub to the swimming beach, plus a small waterfall among the garden beds that provides the soothing sound of trickling water near the house.

The Macys' lake home is quite the  opposite of their full-time residence in Lawson, Mo. — a ranch on 1,400 acres. Here, surrounded by water on all sides, Stacy says sometimes she swears she's at the ocean, just the way she wanted it to be.