OK, I have a lot of emails asking me what I would do with a room and how I decorate on a budget (and I love those emails and try to get back to everyone, keep em coming) but I only wish there were a little more time in the day to answer them a bit more comprehensively
…so at last I've got together some information to do a little series on what I've learnt with this old beach cottage, a bit ratty round the ears but looking oh-so-much better now. And if you subscribed for the tips (and thanks, a lot of you did), this is it and there'll be more next week which will be a bit more floors and wall focused…
So, lets get beachy. I am no expert, but I think that's a good thing, and no not-in-the-real-world tips noting how easy it is to attain a certain look if we go spend $5000 on a sofa at a boutique…if only it were that easy..my sitting room is all very much on a budget with mostly thrifted finds and antiques (and I don't mean the exclusive ones!) – go see Rhoda for more inspiring thrifty finds.
Here are a few quick ideas on what I've done and how to get that coastal chic feel to your living room – regardless of your current decor you can get the beach cottage look with a few quick sweep changes and you SO don't need bundles of cash or have to live near the coast to get the seaside feel.
Here are a list of simple, easy, no-brainer things you can do in a short amount of time that won't cost lots of money and won't date too much…
1. Add some weathered texture to bring to mind that feel of a coastal dwelling Pull in some old vintage chairs from garage sales and thrift stores – look out for seating in rattan and wicker and benches & stools with peeling paint in faded pale colours and dress with a simple cushion. Find old unloved directors chair, recover them in linen or canvas and whitewash or distress them. Look out for worn old side tables and interesting thrifted objects for that distinctive battered-by-the-elements coastal feel.
2. Rug it Up – add some coir matting, easily found on a budget and instantly drops that seaside feel. Try jute, seagrass or sisal too for texture, depth and value.
3. Consider the sofa – try it in a different place and pull it off the wall. Dress it up for a relaxed, coastal feel, cover it in a throw in a light natural colour and then pile it with some cushions perhaps with a nautical stripe – you don't have to spend a heap of money, look out for cushions and throws at garage sales, thrift stores and discount shops, stick to the same neutral palette and perhaps a sea-blue accent to keep it all pulled together.
4. Lose the clutter – make this place the room where you want to sit, spend some time making it inviting and uncluttered. Ditch the piles of magazines, scoop up the kids' toys and put the junk away.
5. Baskets,suitcases & trunks. Look out for rattan, cane and anything woven, the bigger the better to emulate those old fisherman's baskets – a great way to add easy storage on a budget. Scour secondhand shops for unusual shapes and keep an eye out for the chunky ones then whitewash with a simple mix of paint and water and use to keep everything at hand but out of sight. Add vintage trunks and paint old suitcases white or pale watery colours to evoke seafaring days – they can double as coffee tables and great place to store blankets & toys.
6. Create a Display. With your cleared off surfaces start a natural collection for that whole been-to-the-beach/nature table feel – beach homes will often display the findings of their avid beachcomber owners, so emulate this with your own. Bring the outdoors in, balancing textures and colours and tie it all together with a heap of shells and coral. Add cones, gnarled old sticks and pebbles with the odd starfish as a focal point, to give some natural life to the room. Stack shells and pebbles in glass vases and set them on the side. Look out for coastal related items, but pick just one or two, nothing worse than a themed room – try model boats, flags, seafaring prints (find pics on the web, edit them to b/w, print off and frame), knotted rope balls, or huge decorative seashells.
7. Make the most of the light. Pull back your drapes, open up your blinds and let the light flood in. Consider switching your curtains for a lighter touch – muslin, linen and voiles allow the light to filter softly. Add a twist of rope or tie with a seashell for a nautical touch. Look out for faded old fabrics for that air of sun-bleached style.
8. Soften up your room. Decorate with throws and blankets, an instant way to add warmth and comfort even if it isn't cold. Pile up thrifted blankets in soft muted seaside colours and fold them over the end of the sofa for softness and texture. Look out for inexpensive fabric in whites, neutrals and watery aquas. Hunt out old patchwork quilts for that relaxed look to create a lived in feel. Add lots of texture with hessian and burlap, turn into cushion covers and get rustic!
9. Candles, lamps and hurricanes. Look out for plain lamp bases in classic styles and add lampshades in cool colours. Buy chunky candles in different heights and team with weathered old hurricane lamps. Turn off that overhead, switch on your lamps and light heaps of candles as the days fades for a soft warm ambiance.
10. Layering up frames and mirrors. Collect old frames and give them a quick wash with a pale neutral colour then layer them up. Chalkboards and piles of shells are a great combination – look for cheap frames at thrift stores, paint the insert with chalk board paint & stack up shells and driftwood beside them. Find old vintage mirrors and those with chunky wooden frames and group them together to use the light.
That's it, ten easy ways that I've used to attain that beach house ambiance without spending much money and without going for that oh-so-nautical, finger-down-the-throat theme feel.
And the best thing of all if your decor is getting a bit tired but you just can't be bothered to do anything more than collapse at the thought of it all – get yourself off to your nearest flower market or better still out in the garden and buy the most flowers you can afford and get arranging…nothing better to lift your room at the end of the day…
oh and don't forget to slap on the sunless tan and lay around drinking frozen margaritas.
see you down the beach….Sarah
Great hints for a beach themed room. All attainable for ‘real people’.
Thanks Sarah
Alison
Thanks for all the tips; I live 3 blocks from the Chesapeake Bay on the east coast of Virginia; just moved here a year ago, it’s my dream come true. I’ve been decorating from thrift stores for the past 8 years but I like the idea of using white to make it feel more beachy. Thanks again!
When I look at your rooms, my eyes go right to the flowers. They’re always there, always perfect….
Thanks Sarah! I have been reading your blog for a while now, and I am always inspired. I have already started using these tips, just from careful study of your pictures. It’s great to have all this info in one place.
Love all of your beachy ideas! For some reason I’ve been seeing all things in miniature lately!
LOVE this post and all your ideas rock. I was at a flea market yesterday and I’m hitting another one today and all the while I think of how they could look if I painted them. I’m trying to look at things through the eyes of Sara. : )
Happy Day to you.
Thanks for all the tips. Can’t wait ’til we move and I can get started…
Last sentence is most important…indeed!
Great post!
I dunno…maybe quilts don’t fit into the whole beachy theme??? Who in the world would want a $5000 couch? You’d be afraid to sit on it. Should be in a museum cordoned off where people just look at it and wonder how it feels to sit on it. And never know…
Brenda
Thank you for these fantastic tips! My creative side is whirring away now. We just moved down by the beach and I’d love to redecorate in a light, breezy beach feel. Without, like you say, getting too themed and gaudy.
GREAT tips!! I think you could use most if not all of your captions: Lose the clutter, Rug it up, Create a display, etc. for just about any decor (whether it be shabby, primitive, beachy, french, etc) by following your tips. Have a great day.
Toni
I’m so glad I found your site through The Inspired Room! I have a 100-year-old cottage about a block and a half from the beach. Right now, it’s decorated in more of a farmhouse style, but I’m looking for more of a ‘beachy’ feel – but still sophisticated. I love your style and look forward to poking around for ideas!
Great stuff! (especially the “finger down the throat theme”;)
m ^..^
love that yummy crackly cupboard thingy next to the chair. Have you shown it before? Would love a video stroll through the beach cottage sometime…
Love your work
Re expensive couches & deliberate nauticality,- i do drool over the video at Ralph Lauren Home website-Collections Archive-Hither Hills Studio… The stripe on that couch, the faded colors of the throw cushions, the guy’s shirt! Now there is a beach shack with a hundred thousand dollars worth of furnishings. Gorgeous, and not superior to yours.
I’m loving the commitment to beauty on a budget. Love the development of the eye, the awareness of negative space in a room, space & volume, the value of editing,- these we learn by trying…
We are so lucky to have freedom & time to express ourselves creatively. I’m thinking of the millions of mud huts in poor villages that get beautifully decorated with vegetable dye or dung, Or folks who work together to beautify inner city neighborhoods. And then there are millions living in poverty so extreme…
Not beachy thoughts, but definitely an aspect of a conversation about our human creativity, our impulse to make life beautiful, for ourselves and others. Making the best of what we have.
Making do, gloriously.
love your descriptions.. love your beachy ideas. can’t believe how similar our interests are. i have stacks of hessian coffee bags i’ve been going to make cushions and a notice board with.
my kids think i’m mad when i scour the roadside for throw outs in the upmarket eastern suburbs, but it is there that i’ve found my most treasured pieces of old furniture and beach house stuff. always painting things white and adding to my coastal collection..oh and i agree with sush about the ralph lauren home video!
Thank you Sara for being so generous in sharing your ideas with all of us. You are so inspiring and I’m translating your tips to my home which is far away from the beach! I like your easy/beachy/casual/natural and pretty look and I’m going for it but with less beach accessories and more pinecones!
Great ideas.
I am definitely in agreement with the “without spending much money and without going for that oh-so-nautical, finger-down-the-throat theme feel”.
Can’t wait to get back to our cottage and add some more of these ideas. When we bought it a few years ago, we just needed to get it furnished … now I have the time, energy and enthusiasm to add some more personal touches, and this is just the sort of shabby beach touch I am looking for.
Wonderful ideas, Sarah! You have done wonders with that beach cottage. I really think a magazine needs to come photograph all your vintage and thrifty finds in your rooms. It’s great!
Great tips and if those tips will help create a room like you do…fabulous! Have a wonderful week! The sitting room is great!
Thanks for the great ideas, Sarah. It really is such a fresh inviting look, and I love the burlap pillow. Linda
Very interesting post. Keep ‘em coming. I am having a major blogmance with your blog.
Thanks for the great hints and gorgeous images, Sarah!!
Yes, yes, yes! Your posts are 1000 X’s fab and this one’s another charmer! So Sarah, I know you’re brushing up on the culinary skills, but if you ever get an itch for street food you’ll have to sprint out for a PIE FLOATER! I ran across it in Wikipedia/Street Food/Australia and I’m still laughing! Please tell me you’ve never had the privilege!
Love these tips. Especially the clutter rule. I struggle with that one having a 3 year old but I try and keep on top of it.
Great tips Sarah.
You certainly know how to pull it all together for a beautiful beachy look.
Hugs ~ Kerryanne
Lovely
Cheri
http://www.itssoverycheri.blogspor.com
I always adore your beautiful use of white and soft lighting. gorgeous!
Your blog is a wonderful inspiration. I love your airy but so cosy home.
Thank you for sharing your tips with us.
Nadine
Those are wonderful tips!!
Where have you been in my life? I adore your blog! Now if I can just find 4 hours to read all your past posts.
Mind if I add your name to my blog roll?
As always, your photos make me take long, deep breaths. Always lovely.
Oh, I love you every time I come to visit. I just wish I could visit in real life!
Thanks for these tips!!! Your home is faboulous and you’re the right person for giving suggestions!
Have a nice day!
Vale
What a gorgeous blog – I just want to run away to it and hide! Beautiful pics and so inspiring – even if I do live literally hours from the coast.
Thanks Sarah
Always a good time when we get to visit your beach blog full of ideas on affordable beach chic.
Am off for a good taste of beach times this weekend, sun and fun at Bryon and can’t wait!
Gorgeous theme and love the way you’ve carried it through everywhere!
I wish I was neat enough for it but I do so love this look.
Oooooooh! It’s all so nice and clean!
Just imagine what 4 grandchildren would do to it and a messy husband.
Love your artistic ideas though. One day…….. *sigh*
Sarah, Your blog is such a delight to visit each day! Wonderful tips and I’ll see you at the beach!
hugs,
LuLu
I LOVE all the tips to make a fabulous beach home. I would LOVE to live in a cottagey, beachy style home and have the look you have….it is beautiful! I’m stuck with my ugly Spanish style (but perfect location for us) home and do the best I can with it! Oh, and I’m swooning over all the little pails on the ladder to the right in your sidebar!!!!!
Great Tips Sarah…your blog is always a delight to look at, I love your photography and that you actually shop on a budget, and make it all look so beautiful. See you at the beach! Tara
WooHoo, Sarah..you are becoming a decorating diva…your tips are perfect for beachy rooms. I wish I lived within 1000 miles of a beach…to pick up shells and stars and sea glass. Oh, well…I just bought some sea colored glass pebbles so I could add a touch of SARAH to my bath.
Thanks so much for all the great ideas…
xo bj
Morning!! Great tips indeed, love the photos, all the best,Chrissy
Bonjour,merci for your visit in my blog.Your post is fabulous.I love your state .My house is near the sea in france.Sorry for my english (is not good). Kiss de France Isabelle
I just love all the pics you show very inspiring!! I will be back for more
Love Malin
I love your ideas and your photos are so inspiring!
Oh, it’s always so much fun to read your blog and see your beautiful pictures. I must tell you how much I enjoyed this post! I don’t have a beachy thing in my house but I do love looking at your pretty photos and I do love my own pretty space. I used to buy magazines to see photos like yours and now I can see them every day. I have always loved white and some rustic things. They just add a nice comfortable feeling to any room.
I just found your blog through the Washington Post blog watch – what a beautiful blog you have! I am visiting my sister in DC right now, and she just sold her beach house and moved many of the beachy decor items to her urban house. It actually looks so beautiful with all of the coral and seaglass mixed into her decor!
I look forward to reading more of your blog.
What a beautiful blog you have!
Katherine
I am absolutly crazy about your website, I just came upon it by accident, I love the Idea’s, I am moving into my new home a week from monday and I love shabby chic, cottage, and french country, so many great Ideas, I will follow you forever on twitter, I also want to buy some slip covers, but I do not know where to get a good pair, I do not want a sloppy look or ones that fall apart, thanks so much, I look forward to chatting with you.
Kindly, Janice Power
SO CUTE!
…wow!…I am dizzy form reading about all your work!…thanks for the inspiration!