To the beach house!

 

Beach houses, we love them right? 

   I always love that they have sand right out the door and are usually overlooking some beautiful beach where you can hear the waves of the ocean crashing along the shore.  You can go on romantic walks and enjoy the thick salty air blowing against your face while you watch the sunset.

   Some would rather stay indoors and enjoy their beach house in the warm dry environment and watch the waves from the big bay windows. 

   Either way you prefer, these houses are usually decorated in a beach and ocean themed decor.  I love looking at different beach houses to see what kind of creative ways they have decorated.



   If I ever have a beach house, I would do each room in a different style of beach themed decor.  It would go something like the following;

   The living room and kitchen areas would be simple and clean with some artistic looking beach decor such as a neat looking chunk of driftwood, maybe some glass floats, and some beautiful pictures of sunsets, sea creatures, etc.

   The master bedroom would be the tropical paradise.  I would find an old wood boat that would fit a queen bed and rig it so the bed would sit inside the boat.  I would paint the walls in a bright sky blue, and have a tan color at the bottom to emulate sand.  I would hang a beautiful wind chime in the corner, and also add some live tropical looking plants for that tropical look.  Not to mention the poster sized pictures of tropical scenes to hang inside old wood windows, inside the room.  This would give the illusion that you are looking out a window to the beach, or tropical paradise.  Ahhhhh..... So relaxing....

   The second bedroom would be a pirate theme, just because they can be very fun, especially if you have boys.

  I would start by hanging a pirate flag on the outside of the door, so you know you are headed into new territory.  Boy territory, where there is no telling what awaits you once inside. 

   I would paint the inside of the room blue, the same color as it would be if you were sailing the ocean.  I would find another boat, as I did in the master bedroom, that would fit a twin bed, and I would rig it with some masts, a parrot, and a pirate flag, of course.  (I am a DIY girl)  On the wall, you could hang some old pictures of ships and pirates, such as "Black Beard, Captain Hook, Calico Jack", etc.  Don't forget to hang a picture of an old pirate map!  These are pretty cool to look at, and can be obtained online, and blown up to a larger size or purchased in a wall paper for an entire wall.

   On the shelf be sure to have a ship, maybe a letter in an old bottle, some books such as Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson , Pirateology: The Pirate Hunter's Companion (Ologies) by Captain William Lubber and Dugald A. Steer,  How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long.  There are some other great ones as well, and they make some great decorations, and reads for different age groups. 

   On to the main bathroom.  There are so many options here.  Some people go with shells, some go with anything beach, some stick with glass, and others go with creatures.  I would probably go with something somewhat simple and clean looking.  So I would just add accessories, and not change the paint, flooring, etc.  I personally like my bathroom walls the blue/grey color they are, especially with the slate floor.  It looks amazing, and I would just decorate around what I already have. 

   I would start with the small table.  (I am fond of a small table in a bathroom, when there is room.)  I would find a neat small table made from drift wood and I would put an old fishing net over it like a table cloth and then place my rolled guest towels, and amenities on top of it.  Maybe with a glass ball float next to them, if the table is large enough.

   I would be sure to get a thick blue glass hand soap dispenser for next to the sink, along with matching toothbrush holders etc.  Whatever you would use.

   I think a fun sign should hung in the bathroom as well.  Something like, "If you are lucky enough to live at the beach, then you are lucky enough."  It looks best when these are scrawled onto an old chunk of wood.  The more clever, the better!

   I would also incorporate a really neat shell nightlight, such as the ones you can find online at American Aquarium Products.  They also have several shell baskets, wind chimes, star fish, giant shells, and other decorative items.  Be sure to stop in there as your first stop.  I found their prices low, and their shipping lightning fast!

   To top it off, I would add either a big tropical plant, or a small accent plant somewhere.  (I have a thing for live plants...)
 
  I am sure you can think of a bunch of fun ideas to incorporate into your beach home or room. 

What was your favorite idea here?

Ocean Wedding.... Inland!

 

   Planning a wedding is always a stressful thing to do, and you always want everything to be perfect.  Here, I will give you some great, simple ideas for an ocean themed wedding.  Hopefully, if this is a theme you are going for, I can make your planning a bit easier! 

   I think the ocean theme is a great one!  Some simple center pieces for your tables could be sand buckets with sand poured onto the table.  (Half in the bucket and half on the table.)  You can adorn the sand with starfish, shells, sand dollars, and even a sand shovel. 

  You can decorate the walk way with old recycled fish nets with shells, glass floaters, sand and starfish as well.  You can hang beautiful shell wind chimes throughout your venue as well as giving small windchimes away as a favor.  They are beautiful, useful, and inexpensive!  Your attendees will cherish them. 

  Don't stop at the venue!  Do your invitations in ocean theme.  Add a smidge of sand to them with a picture of a beautiful sunset over the ocean to tell them of your special day!  When the day arrives, decorate your directional signs as well!  Lets get these folks excited for your wedding!  You don't even have to write on the signs!  Just have big pictures of sunsets and beautiful beach paradises with arrows to follow.  Trust me, they will follow!



   When your guests arrive, lei them and give them a flower for their hair, or shirt pocket.  They can then mingle with others and talk about how nice it is to be in your tropical paradise!  When they are ready, they can find their spot by the creative name tags you have placed on the tables! 

   Some ideas would be to write everyones name in elmers glue on the name tags, and pour sand on them until it dries.  Then simply shake off the sand, and voila!  Sand name tags! 

   You could print the names with different sea creatures on them.  You could even make a game of this by seeing who can guess what their creature is.  Better make them creative, no jellyfish allowed!

   The ideas really could go on, and on, so I will spare you the babble!

   Do you have any other fun ideas?