THE HOUSE DOCTOR NO. 9 GOING BEACHY AFTER INDEPENDENCE DAY

As I've stated many times before, my house is a lot like me; always changing and flowing with the seasons.  

When my husband and I began our life-long hobby of constantly remodeling an ever-changing home that has raised four children, celebrated God’s Holy Days with our immediate family members, hosted events for our little church, fostered an office for my husband’s business, provided me a place to fulfill my writing ambitions, given us space for our hobbies both inside and out, provided shelter for sleep over grown children and grand children and entertained friends and family over the years,  I had no idea how much “seasonal” decor I had accumulated over time.  Much of it retains sentimental value and brings back memories of certain phases of our lives together as a family. 

 I really realized this a few years ago when I started cleaning out our storage building that was filled with things I had long forgotten.  I was making the transition inside our house from the red, white and blue of the beginning of summer when we celebrated Memorial Day, Pentecost and Independence Day.  I thought perhaps it was time for our home to go “beachy.” 

I deliberately chose neutral colored furniture and white walls when we began to redecorate so that I could make any color changes and decor changes I wanted with each season. Black or beige would have worked as well, I just liked white for us.  This makes our seasonal transitions easier by lending a neutral backdrop.   It is like getting a new house each time the seasons change.  You never get tired of using what you have this way! 

As I cleaned out our bulging storage building and prepared for a huge yard sale (I had not cleaned this building out since 1998,) I collected anything that I already had in storage that reminded me of the beach.  Soon I had an assortment of items on hand. 

There was an old wooden clipper ship.

There were some assorted sized light blue and white candles (slightly used, but still good).  I found a large old wooden bowl made out of beautifully colored and aged wood. 

 I found several “beachy” looking photo frames that had never been used.  I filled them with pics of the family at the beach and scattered them all over the house.

I found an old ash tray with a light house painted on it.  I found some lanterns with blue glass.  I had an old inexpensive set of dishes I had bought for one of the kids birthday gatherings years ago that had light houses and ocean scenes painted on them. Ten place settings!  They seemed to go just perfect.  So far I had not bought one item for my beachy look!

Looking at all these items, I decided the color scheme had to be light blue, beige and white.  I decided to use some vivid teal blue, brown and red as accent colors.  With that color scheme in mind, I picked up some of the teal colored pillows I had in another room of the house and placed them on the sofa.  I also had a lovely modern painting hanging in our den downstairs.  It was one that my daughter, Erin had painted years ago.  It was the focal piece I wished to use. 

The painting totally captured the blend I wanted of “beachy-modern-traditional.”  I placed the painting over the opening of the fireplace, since there was not a need for a fireplace in the summer heat.  The painting quickly became a focal point in this summery atmosphere I was trying to create throughout the house. 

I very much desired for the entrance to say “welcome to summer; come in and relax.”  I wanted to start the beachy feeling as soon as you entered the front door of our home. 

We have two lovely watercolor paintings over an old chest in our foyer.  The two painting's colors were perfect for achieving the blue and white beachy colors that I wanted.  They were different shades of blue and black on a white back ground, but I needed something to make them appear more beachy – and I found an old blue wooden anchor out in the storage building from a box full of junk.  I was delighted!  I hung it over the two paintings we picked up one year while on vacation in the Smokey Mountains.   This gave the foyer that perky summer look I was after.

I looked over the photo frames that I had found that looked either summery or beachy.  I printed some color photos of my different years of family vacations at the beach.  I loved them all, and thought how much the kids would enjoy seeing them again when they came to visit. 

I put two photos in the kitchen, three others of my niece and nephews and my Dad in a curio in the living room.  I put one of my favorites of Tom’s Dad on the end table, and some photos of a trip we made with my parents to  Gulf Shores years ago with our twin daughters.

One photo has the twins locked up in stocks at a Put-Put Golf Course that we had a blast going to.  We all felt like pirates that day.  How cool, I now had several memories sitting inside my pleasant new surroundings, and so far, I had not spent one penny! 

I set the starfish shaped bowl on our large black coffee table, and put the other beige and blue rug under the two modern side chairs.  I loved the affect of the beachy colors. 

I grabbed a small white wicker table from another room and used it for another side table.  I had a pretty pottery bowl that Tom gave me for my birthday one year with aqua blue swirly colors and brown accents.  It looked perfect on the white wicker table.  I put the wooden clipper boat in the middle of my dining room table.  I liked the look, but it seemed lonely, and I pondered what to do about that for awhile while I moved into the kitchen. 

I cleaned my patriotic dishes out of the cabinets and boxed them up until next year, and moved the lighthouse dishes into their place.  I found some silver coasters stashed in my pantry, and I liked them to use under the plates.  I pulled out a large square black plastic tray that I salvaged long ago when I bought some catered food.   I put the wooden bowl in the center and arranged the light blue and white candles in assorted sizes in the bowl and around the bowl on the tray.  I put this down as a center piece on our kitchen table. 

The more I looked at this, the more I thought the bowl needed to be filled with seashells.  I finally had to make a purchase, and my budget was extremely limited this month.  I decided to browse around The Christmas Tree store anyway.  It was my lucky day, I found large bags of sea shells for $1.00 each.  I bought three. 

Also in the same section I found bags of white starfish.  I purchased one bag for $4.99.  When I was checking out I saw some lovely shopping bags.   One bag had a lighthouse painted on it in beautiful colors.  Perfect colors for my room scheme.  It cost me one dollar.  I was so excited to leave that store having only spent $9.00, and having everything I needed to finish my look. 

When I arrived home I dumped the sea shells into the bowl holding the candles.  I loved it! 

 I moved an old blue  flower arrangement onto my glass sideboard in the kitchen.  It had blue and purple flowers.  It needed to look more “summery” so I found several long stemmed blue, green and white daises from another arrangement and added them. 

They looked great – just the effect I had hoped for.  I used some white wooden frames I had out for July 4^th , and placed two of the lighthouse dishes cups inside them. 

I put two photos of my son and daughter at the beach in beachy photo frames on that sideboard too.  It all blended very well.  I caught myself wanting to cook some shrimp and flounder in that kitchen! 

When I got everything arranged on the sideboard I placed two of the starfish I had purchased in the front of the arrangement.  Perfect!

I put the other starfish in my dining room on each side of the clipper ship.  They were the finishing touch that I needed.  The ship no longer looked lonely.  I would pull out some wicker/grass place mats when we ate in the dining room. 

I was so happy with how all of this turned out and excited that it hardly cost me a cent!  I might not have made it to the beach this summer, but I brought the beach to my home instead.  It certainly helped to perk up my attitude, and I could sit in the air conditioned beach while the thermostat climbed up to 102 several times that week.  

I will enjoy this beachy look all through the end of July and August.  Then when September comes around it will all began changing to fall.  

Of course this will all serve to help us to get into the right frame of mind for the first annual family beach trip we have planned for late September/early October.  By then, we will be completely ready to become professional beach bums!