This Friday (July 28) marks the final deadline to enter the Princess Margaret Cottage Lottery, and Angela Jones of Lakeshore Designs in Selwyn doesn’t want you to miss out.
For more than 25 years, the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation in Toronto has been organizing the world’s largest 50/50 draws, giving away millions of dollars in cash and dream homes to lucky winners, with all proceeds going to cancer research. This summer, the grand prizes include three dream cottages — two in the Kawarthas and one in Muskoka — each decorated by Lakeshore Designs.
Since 2004, the Kawarthas-based company has been designing and decorating homes, businesses, and cottages in the Kawarthas, Muskoka, and Prince Edward County. For the past 12 years, the company has been the official decorator for the cottage prizes in the spring and fall home lottery and the summer cottage lottery, with owner and principal designer Angela Jones’ eye for luxury at the helm of the creativity.
Linwood Custom Homes, led by vice president Craig McFarlene, manages the building of the vacation homes. In the early years of the lottery, the cottages were left unfurnished, until Lakeshore Designs was added to the team to do the decorating.
“We started adding our Lakeshore flair to it,” Jones says. “Then it just became a great team between Linwood, the lottery, and our company.”
The Princess Margaret is one of the top five cancer research centres in the world, and purchasing a ticket in the lottery supports world-leading research that changes the lives of cancer patients and family members across Canada through the hospital’s mission to ‘Conquer Cancer in Our Lifetime’.
VIDEO: Buckhorn Lake cottage grand prize featuring Angela Jones
“It’s for a great cause,” explains Jones. “Everything that we do when we’re working together, it’s to change lives — whether it’s the fundraising that they’re doing for the lottery and what that could do at the research centre, and also for the winners who are winning a prize that’s going to change their lives.”
In the past 12 years Lakeshore Designs has been participating in the Princess Margaret lotteries, Jones has noticed an increase in the “level of décor and level of style that people are expecting” through the cottage and home prizes.
“Each time we do them better and better,” she says. “It’s not just a little cottage anymore. It’s becoming full lake houses and luxury cottages. Now it’s to the nines. It’s really done up and I find that it’s evolved over the years, and it becomes more and more full, more lush, (with) more luxury, and it is definitely a dream cottage to win.”
But, rest assured, no matter how luxurious and modern these new vacation homes look, they’re still grounded in that cozy, welcoming atmosphere you want from a cottage.
“I specialize in feng shui as well,” notes Jones, referring to the ancient Chinese tradition that has been adopted for interior design. “When I set up a home, I think ‘How is the energy in the home?’.
“You want it to give the feeling that you could just picture yourself right in there. So the more you make it look comfortable and welcoming, the more it obviously portrays to everybody, and they could just put themselves in that home or cottage. We think about how we would live in it.”
Appealing to everybody, Jones explains, is especially necessary when furnishing the dream homes. Normally in her business, she consults with a home’s owners to create a space that matches their specific needs.
“When you’re decorating for a family, we go in and do a consultation with them because we really pull from what their needs are,” she explains. “We try to do it very functional, but then we also talk to the client. What is it that they want to achieve out of the space? Then we work around that to add the design factor and add the functionality to it.”
But, when it comes to the Princess Margaret cottages, she doesn’t know who will be owning the home or how they will want to use the space.
“We put a little bit of our touch into it to make it very general for the public,” Jones explains. “We don’t want to be too trendy and we don’t want to be not-so-trendy, because you want it to appeal to the whole market so people can actually visualize themselves being there.”
Jones adds that much of her decorating depends on where the cottage is located. Fortunately, two of the three grand prize cottages this summer are based in the Kawarthas, a region she knows all too well since she lives here herself.
One of the grand prizes, valued at $2.8 million, is an open concept, modern lakefront cottage on Buckhorn Lake.
VIDEO: White Lake cottage grand prize featuring Angela Jones
“We did a fresh look with whites and blacks and then just made it very comfortable with a big harvest table,” Jones says. “It has a big veranda overlooking Buckhorn Lake, and so there we just thought, ‘OK, how is this lifestyle going to be?'”
With such nice waterfront views, she imagined afternoons spent curled up with a book in the library or evenings spent barbecuing with guests on the deck, or gathered around the spacious games room.
The other cottage in the Kawarthas, priced at $2.4 million, is located on White Lake south of Stoney Lake and has a screened-in porch offering views of the lake, with soft, warm tones throughout the luxury building.
“It’s cozy and it’s got a nice feel to it,” Jones says. “We do it with a view of the lake so that when you wake up, you can see the lake. And then we (decorate) it based on how you would entertain there.”
Though Jones also does interior design for cottages in Prince Edward County and Muskoka, she recognizes that there’s something unique to the Kawarthas region.
“I find the Kawarthas just takes on a whole other level of calmness, beauty, and space,” she explains, adding that she often sees clients surprised by how much the region offers. “There are a lot of hidden gems in the Kawarthas. People just have to take that time to find (them).”
As the deadline for the Princess Margaret lottery approaches, Jones says she feels fortunate she and her team get to use their skills for such an important cause.
“We do it all together. It’s what we love to do and, at the end of the day, it’s going for a great cause. It’s a huge team that pulls the whole project off together and it’s something that we all take pride in.”
Lakeshore Designs is located at 2968 Lakefield Road in Selwyn, with a décor store at 1929 Lakehurst Road in Buckhorn. For more information, visit www.lakeshorehd.ca.
For more information about the Princess Margaret Cottage Lottery and this summer’s grand prizes, and to buy tickets before the deadline, visit princessmargaretlotto.com.
