Home Tour: Lakeside Tent Camp

When you’re roughing it in the outdoors there’s no reason you have to compromise on style, as you can see in this wonderful summer dwelling on the banks of Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille.



Inspired by equal parts childhood fantasy—“I always wanted to be an Indian princess,” owner Lynn Newhart confesses—and high-end hotel, this tent encampment is a magical gathering place for friends and family. “Building a hard-cover structure right on the lake is not allowed, so I got the idea to create a tent encampment so we could be closer to the water,” Newhart explains. Since she’s also an interior designer, she treated the two tents much as she would the rooms in a home. A spacious 26-by-28-foot shelter contains the living, dining and kitchen areas, while a separate, smaller structure offers a secluded sleeping space. 



Newhart layered Native American and Moroccan carpets atop the cedar plank floors for softness and color, then added comfortable furnishings that feel refined but not too fancy: armchairs reminiscent of Adirondack camp chairs, antique oak dressers and an iron bed dressed with suede and shearling. The result is rustic yet sophisticated, in a summery sort of way.



To see more of this dreamy lakeshore tent encampment, click here. And you can explore even more homes on the water in the May/June issue of Mountain Living.

Photo by Marie-Dominique Verdier