SEARCH OUT TEXTILES FOR NEEDED TEXTURE: For visual warmth, Angie incorporated quilts, pillows and rugs in the décor. These add the texture so necessary for evoking a sense of coziness. Note how the fabrics don’t match, as was intended. Their vintage roots create the common denominator for an atmosphere that looks like it was created over many years of family gatherings at the cabin.



A CABIN STATE OF MIND: Designer Angie Warwick is always in a vacation state of mind at the family’s lakeside cabin. Here, she relaxes on the wicker swing, pen and paper at the ready for jotting down inspirations. “Decorat- ing is a joy for me; it’s not work,” she says.



See how designer Angie Warwick created a great getaway on a tight budget.
 By Roberta Messner

Anyone who knows Angie Warwick will tell you the lady loves a challenge. “Challenge,” however, is an understatement when it comes to Angie’s redo of the cabin her family purchased four years ago on Lake Lotawana in Missouri. The 60-year-old structure, part of a Depression-era project developed in the 1930s to provide a weekend retreat for folks in Kansas City, was in sad shape when Angie first saw it. But her designer’s eye envisioned not what the cabin was, but what it could be. And she gave herself the design
challenge of a lifetime: No furnishing could cost more than $100.
“It’s amazing to have a place like this that’s only a half hour away from a busy suburban area,” says Angie, who has found the cabin to be the most relaxing, refreshing place on earth. “I sit in that porch swing, look out on the water and don’t think of much of anything.”
As for fixing up the place, Angie faced her challenge head-on. It gave her the opportunity to engage in what she loves best—finding new uses for old, budget-wise objects, recycling others’ castoffs (even when she doesn’t know the object’s original purpose for certain), and “repurposing” antiques andcollectibles to pull double duty where space is limited. Angie’s approach isan eclectic one. She loves to mix primitive, early-American icons with painted pieces, as well as objects picked up when traveling. When shopping fleamarkets or antiques malls, Angie looks for items that are not getting much attention at the moment, such as the collection of tins and Ransburg pottery gathered in an old glass-front cabinet at the cabin.

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