2008 July | Real Life Beach Decor, Coastal Living & Nautical Decorating Ideas - A Beach Cottage

Creative Concealment

2:11 am Byabeachcottage

A funny thing happened to me today with the cupboard, which when I normally am unfortunate enough to open or brush past, spills DVD's all over the floor. Today I opened it and waited and nothing fell out! Some little Beach Cottage person has tidied it up. Knock me down with a feather. I opened it to take a picture of the contents to participate in Creative Concealment at The Inspired Room…I had already decided after Courtney's Five Minute Makeover post that this cupboard was gettting some love, what I hadn't reckoned on is that someone would have done the hard part for me. Yippee, so this Five Minute Makeover took me two…oh and my pink arm in the mirror, still in my pj's at 11am, love the school hols lol!

Here's the inside

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Beach Cottage Entertaining

6:46 pm Byabeachcottage

I set the table in the morning between soccer mum duties and the house was fairly clean and fairly tidy, but after an afternoon of sport, I arrived home tired, my left hand strapped up and in desperate need of a shower, not particularly attractive for the hostess look. At this stage less than a couple of hours before the guests' arrival there was no food in the house, let alone in the oven. Mr BeachCottage arrived home with the groceries from my list, I prepped and he put away and good teamwork was happening all over the cottage.

I rummaged around in my linens with the intention of going for some colour, in particular, pink, but as I rifled through I came across the gorgeous aqua green centrepiece and had to use it, then I spied the blue beachy stripe which is actually a duvet cover which I bought about 3 years ago in a thrift store only because I loved that it was beautifully soft cotton and faded, I didn't think it would never make it to the bed as it's not white, but I knew I'd use it somewhere…next I came across the creamy napkins with adorable lace edging, then chose bluey aqua greeny china from my vintage stock, grabbed some bits from the garden, shoved them in an old glass jug and stuck the old white cake stand with candles in the middle…

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It’s Lilac & it got past the white police

7:06 pm Byabeachcottage

Miss BeachCottage and I took a long walk by the ocean yesterday and then swung by the library, we were short on time but I managed to pick up a great new beachy, cottagey book featuring 15 or so beach homes, one of which was, yep, ya guessed it Ms Ashwell’s. Far from the pink frillyness that shabby chic has become known as, these new to me pictures (I haven’t seen them before and I’ve got all her books but you gals in the States might well have seen them already) are very much today’s modern country/beach. Simple white furniture with some quirky white leather bits (yeah man she is mad enough to have white leather too – made me feel much less of a lunatic!), a few of her signature pieces like flowery china in the bathroom and stacks of vintage pastel linen piled on crackly old shelves…which inspired me to root around in my hoard of vintage linen and pull out these stripey pillow cases. I love them, I’d forgotten just how thick the cotton was and just how wonderful it feels on the cheek and just how delightful a whoosh of pastel is with the white…love the colour, love the ruffle, love the contrast…

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that would be an imperfect deck & sofa makeover

9:25 pm Byabeachcottage

There was this sofa sitting in the garage praying for some love & there was the right hand corner of the deck without a seat. So after deliberating for all of, oh 2 years, I decided to shelve the ideas of re-upholstering the seat cushions and instead took the easy option of using a throw to cover their hideous not-quite-sea blue. Then I added the white cushions that I already had and the new beachy striped ones. All that was left was to re-cover the awful 90's blue and burgundy chenille back cushions and nope this was not my best sewing job, it is, if you are looking for a good word to describe the job…imperfect. My sewing is often slapdash – I cut these out roughly by eye, did not pin or tack or anything as serious as that, I just hit the sewing machine and minutes later those 90's babies were linen…don't look too close cos they're not perfect!

Take a look here for more imperfect syles!

The deck is 90% there, I still have much more foofying up to do, more beachyness to add, pots to plant up and I'm on the lookout for a cupboard/buffet to hide bits and bobs in…on the whole though, even though it might not be perfect it is oh so much better than it was a few months ago…and on a budget!

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I snooze

7:29 pm Byabeachcottage

It’s the school holidays and I am making the MOST of a lie-in. I have never, ever been a morning person, I can’t, to be honest, see me being one, however if I do get up early I love the stillness and quiet of that time of day. My very favourite thing in the hols is after MrBeachCottage’s alarm goes off, turning over and snoozing another hour or so. The beach cottage bed is a cheap as chips repro bought in super-quick time otherwise we would have slept on the floor, turns out it has been one very good decision, so comfy and such a retreat. I like the bed to be simple, I can’t be doing with too much fussing and over-styling, it has to be cotton, the highest thread count I can find on sale and of course, it has to be white. After spending way too much time in linen stores lately to buy the beach cottage kidlets new bedding, I’ve decided that some cushions would be a welcome addition to foof it up a bit…off to hunt…

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