This past month we've featured roundups of our dream kitchens and bathrooms, and in the same spirit of big dreams and endless possibilities, I'd like to share my dream vacation home to kick off the season of road trips and beach bonfires, berry picking and porch swinging. Welcome to my ideal summer home.
Interior (clockwise from top):
1.This is what grocery shopping looks like at my dream vacation home. A single linen shopping tote filled with baby wipes and cat food? Nope. A sensible array of vegetables and lean proteins for well-balanced meals? Nope. It's filled with a baguette, flowers, and whatever deliciousness is in that bottle.
2. One of the things I crave most in my often hectic day-to-day life is time to read. My dream vacation home would include a study or library, because in this scenario I would have time to stretch out and read, and read, and read.
3. Of course my ideal summer home would have a killer playroom for my two kids. It would be their own special place, because dream vacation homes are equal opportunity dreamy in my book.
4. I don't need cutting edge showers or spa-like amenities, just let me sink into a clawfoot bathtub near a sunny window and I'm a happy girl.
5. My vacation home bedroom would be bright, breezy, and tranquil. That is all.
6. In my daily life, a sleek, modern, efficient kitchen has always been my ideal, but when day dreaming of my vacation home, my thoughts instantly went to a vintage, farmhouse style kitchen, complete with a big sturdy table to relax and talk over mason jars filled with sweet tea. It then struck me that my inspiration was my grandmother's country-style kitchen from her home in Texas; the home we visited every summer when I was a child.
Exterior:
My dream vacation home has a wrap around porch. I will refrain from sharing my bad poetry with all of you, but I could probably write an ode to wrap around porches, I love them that much.
Along with my endlessly wrapping porch, my dream scenario features the following. 
7. Living in the city, I am lucky to have a back deck with a sweet little container garden. It's great, but not the garden of my dreams. My dream vacation home features a large organic vegetable garden where I can spend my mornings tending to an array of baby lettuces while sipping hot mugs of french press coffee. Ok, and I'll be wearing a sun hat. And maybe gingham gardening gloves. I'll stop there.
8. There will be world enough and time to simply sit and swing on a porch swing, feeling the sun on my face and listening to the quiet rhythm of nature.
9. Meals will be eaten alfresco, under the warm glow of hanging lanterns and fireflies. Apparently the meals will consist only of a baguette, but that will be just fine, because there will be no mosquitoes at my dream vacation home...
Aaaand, we're back. Well, that was my dream vacation home. I'd love to hear about yours!
(Images: Home Exterior, Whitten Architects via Houzz; 1. Dreamy Whites, 2. Vitsoe, 3. Puertabella, 4. Design Your Interiors, 5. Apartment Therapy, 6. Homedit, 7. Martha Stewart, 8. Accent on Design, 9. Ghar Expert)
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"No mosquitoes" was my first thought when you said dream vacation and wrap around porch.
Water. Lake, river, ocean, creek, whatever.
Shut the doors! You're letting the bugs in! Oh...oh yes, it's very pretty. Sorry, priorities!
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous photo. You can just imagine relaxing on that porch with a drink in between walks down to the lake ... Ahhhhh .....
Dream vacation home? Hows about dream home, period.
A big vacation home needs staff, otherwise it's not a vacation!
Sand in between my toes, reading a good book, a cool drink, a BBQ at night, fireflies buzzing around (no other bugs!) - I don't need a fancy house for a dream vacation.
Your house would improve my experience though!
I have one criticism - the playroom is nice but assuming that a dream house comes with perfect weather, your kids should be outside not inside. Not sure how old they are but they definitely need a water feature or a swimming platform in the lake. A tree house would be nice too - with a slide and swing.
My dream home comes with a a management company or groundskeeper to clean it, do landscape or garden cleanup, put on fresh sheets and hang fluffy towels, stock the kitchen, and turn on the heat/AC/fans/open the windows before I arrive.
Plug in and play, that's my idea of vacation property.
On an ocean with a semi-private beach, no mosquitos, yard with a hammock, driving distance to mountains for skiing/snowboarding, walking distance to a great library. So, a cross between where my parents have lived in Santa Barbara and Miami Beach. Plus a hammock.
This is my dream everyday home.
beautiful house!
no bugs and a fenced in area for the dog to run and play and A whole Foods store nearby.
We have 2 antique bathtubs sunken into our deck. Does that count as being near the water? :)
Must be on the water. With that, the house itself does not matter.
My vacation home would be small indoors and large outdoors, with no neighbors to mind that if kids leave all their toys out. I want something that can be picked up in 10 minutes so I can spend the rest of the time enjoying it.