Before & After: A Milwaukee Rental Featuring Progressively Bolder Paint Colors in Every Room

ByKelly Dawson,Photography byLake Effect Club

PublishedFeb 3, 2026 3:55 AM EST

Domino Reno: Before + Afters, DIYs, and Advice From the Pros

Domino Reno: Before + Afters, DIYs, and Advice From the Pros

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Lizz Wasserman invites you to discover Milwaukee. As a creative executive who grew up in the Wisconsin hub, she embraces her role as its unofficial ambassador. “Milwaukee is wonderfully weird in a way that big cities just aren’t,” she says.

Wasserman met Adam Loeb, in-house director for the New York Times T Brand, when they were college students in Madison. She jokes that her husband, Isaac Resnikoff, who runs the L.A. architectural firm Project Room, “married in” to the city’s love of festivals, community, and an affordable bar scene. “The three of us have been close for a long time, and during the pandemic, we fantasized about travel,” she recalls. They lamented that short-term rentals failed to capture the spirit of their beloved Milwaukee, so they set about creating one that did. Enter: The Lake Effect Club.

Over the course of ten months, the trio transformed a dilapidated 150-year-old property on Brady Street into a destination featuring three distinct apartments: The Hoan, The Nohl, and The Sidney. The Lake Effect Club opened last fall as a tribute to Milwaukee—a way for Wasserman to showcase the bold design perspective a place can have when it is off the beaten path. Here is an inside look behind the scenes of the renovation.

Apply Bold Paint for Instant Character

As with many longstanding Midwestern buildings, this one featured wood paneling in the largest unit (the Sidney). Wasserman recognized that the easiest and most conventional solution would be to return the walls to a blank canvas, but she declined that approach. Instead, she enveloped every room from floor to ceiling in a bold paint color.

“It kills me when I see a charming wood detail that’s painted white,” she says. “It seems like a fix, but it doesn’t feel special.” Additionally, they acquired their paints on sale, thanks to a tip from the neighborhood Sherwin-Williams down the street.

Each suite and its respective enclaves creates a kaleidoscope of personality, from the Hoan’s yellow living room with a green sofa (“a slight nod to the Green Bay Packers,” Wasserman notes), to the Nohl’s vibrantly blue bathroom. The colors are daring yet playful, enveloping yet approachable—and entirely in tune with Milwaukee’s cool Midwestern light.

“We thought that the best way to have an impact would be to make the rooms tell a story,” Wasserman says. “Color-drenching does that without breaking the bank.”

Source Furnishings from Past and Present

Short-term rentals often carry a reputation for being devoid of character. Wasserman sought to avoid this through deliberate furniture selections. While they did source items from big-box retailers—including a sofa from Anthropologie and new mattresses from Wayfair—Resnikoff incorporated vintage pieces meticulously sourced around Milwaukee, Chicago, and sites such as Craigslist.

“Isaac has an incredible eye and understanding of important designer vintage pieces,” Wasserman says. “We did this all on nights, weekends, vacations, and school breaks.”

When it came time to add finishing touches to the walls, they kept their search local as well. “We have a lot of beautiful vintage posters and prints from around Milwaukee, like ’70s Summerfest posters and a cover of the Bugle American, an alternative newspaper,” Wasserman says. She also incorporated personal artwork, including a painting she completed of a beloved building that no longer stands.

Prioritize Quality Details and Finishes

As part of their goal to elevate the guest experience, they focused on quality details. All countertops were fabricated from custom-cut granite salvaged from remnants, and the curtains—which are matched to the wall paint—were hung from the ceiling to provide height and drama. “Doing that always seemed more romantic to me,” Wasserman notes.

While they had planned to keep the existing checkerboard floor in the Sidney’s kitchen, spilled paint disrupted that plan. “The original black-and-white floor was a big reason why we fell in love with the building,” Wasserman says. “But the new terracotta color coordinates so well.”

They invested in induction cooktops in two of the units to replace the dated alternatives, and selected colorful refrigerators because “it was a fun thing to do,” she says. “We wanted to bring some of the eclectic joy we see in the city into the spaces.” Milwaukee has just earned a place on everyone’s 2026 travel bucket list.

The Lake Effect Club’s Paint Palette by Sherwin-Williams

Eight dynamic Sherwin-Williams paint colors define the three rental units, including two hues not pictured above: Mauve Finery and a dreamy blue called Cosmos.

Ravishing Coral

Comical Coral

Studio Blue Green

Salon Rose

Mauve Finery

Brittlebrush

Cosmos

Sage

Kelly Dawson

Lake Effect Club

Photographer

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