2009 July | Real Life Beach Decor, Coastal Living & Nautical Decorating Ideas - A Beach Cottage

Concrete Area Before/After and a Shabby Old Boat

12:58 pm Byabeachcottage

G'day to you all, well you'll be pleased to know I made it out of bed this morning before 9am, not much before though. It is another beautiful day here in Australia, and the kids went for a surf this morning and then I have been pottering in the garden…I love doing that…

So, as you know, we came home with a boat strapped to the roof, as you do…I loved it, all shabby and weathered, heaps of peeling paint and chippy bits – for now I've put it with the bench (any ideas as to what else I can do with it, other of course than renovate it and go for a row at the lake around the corner in it), a perfect partnership to conceal a nasty bit of concrete to the back and left of the deck that was looking particularly ugly and is way down the end of the list for renovating. Here's how it looked before and no I don't go round dropping oranges on the floor, those are from the orange tree…

Before

After

here's what we've got to work with inside the boat…this may take a while

…now a nice place to sit with a magazine this spot gets the full-on Winter sunshine…although it needs a couple of pillows, it is a tad hard on the old behind (and yes I did give that lavender some water after this pic!)

Concealing is getting to be a new talent of mine since I came to this tatty old beach cottage (works for me!), quite amazing what one can do with an old boat, a couple of pillows and a forgotten bench

Sarah

and if you like the pillows I have a couple available – you can click here

{ Beach House Pillow }

blogged for Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer – surf around all the outdoor spots!

and my Works for Me tip!

Filed Underbeach cottage makeovers, in the cottage garden 56 Comments

Beach Cottage on a Treasure Tour & The Summer Tablecloth

11:29 am Byabeachcottage

G'day boys and girls, how you going? Enjoy the weekend?

Well I had a fabulous weekend, my very own mini Beach Cottage Treasure Hunting Tour.

Remember I've been talking about how I have become somewhat obsessed about going on a proper junkin' tour with a ute?

Well I decided that I would spend a day doing it in my own back yard a little pre-tour practice and prompted by a Jumble Sale held on the beaches a few suburbs away from me and only a few times a year. My route started with that, moved onto a garage sale, the farmers market, the secondhand market held once a month at a local school and then to a couple of my favourite shops for vintage loot.

travelling with a basket to fill with goodies…

Arrived at the sale just after it opened and had to park a mile away it was so popular

Filled a bag with vintage things and my basket with lovely old linens.

Next stop this garage sale where I toyed with the dresser and the table and chairs but decided I really needed neither

but I came away with the mirror and wished like crazy I'd bought the wood for an idea I'm planning for the sitting room…

Strolling through the Farmer's Market and tasting the best happy Saturday apple…

Wandering along between the trendies at the secondhand market

Snapping the goings on down the beach as we sat and ate hot sausage rolls leaning up against the breaker

It was a great day for me and while it made me think how lucky I am to do this in a pretty fantastic back yard, which included lunch on the beach with the family to recuperate, it has also got me to start plotting a real tour – before it was more a fleeting pass across my brain, now it is becoming more a reality as I think just where I'll go.

Here's what I came home with

old wooden rolling pin

selection of Tupperware including jelly mould

a boat

a bench

shabby old mirror

vintage hand whisk

old Salter kitchen scales

tablecloth and napkins

throw

vintage food covers & matching napkins

couple of old Pyrex dishes

rattan napkin rings

old wooden fishing box

old wooden fishing rod (cos I fish a whole lot *wink)

I'll show you the boat and such later this week hopefully, but for now I'll show you my favourite find…the Beach Cottage Summer Tablecloth, woot woot! I don't know about you but every year I scour round to try and find a new favourite vintage tablecloth to sit happily in the huge old picnic basket – last year it was a fifties style white linen one with red roses faded shabbily over years of use.

And this year it's this one, I was seriously trying not to do the thrifters dance when I found it, it was just what I was looking for, I had visions in the back of my head of something white and blue, a bit, you know, country…it was the first thing I spotted on my Tour, at the Jumble Sale, I clung onto it for dear life being a little too close for comfort to grown women fighting over kids' toys (I have to tell you people this was not treasure hunting for the light-hearted, there were some serial thrifters in there after serious toys). I asked a lovely old lady, who was 90 if a day, whose name I learned was Dot (love that), she said a couple of dollars. Done. Done. Done.

Then I found the matching napkins and then one of those old gauze food throw overs and she proceeded to tell me how in her day every girl had these to take out to their picnics. I'm sad I didn't get a picture of Dot. Though she assured me she'll be there again, in control of the linen table, in October.

So Sunday, after the kids went for a surf and I went for a long walk, I spent some time with my tablecloth, read the papers and Country Living, mused my day of treasure hunting and basked in the winter sun.

Not bad entertainment for under 40 bucks.

Agree?

blogged for Yardsale Superstar Rhodas thrifting event

plus participating in Metamorphosis Monday

oh and if you didn't come by the Beach Cottage over the weekend make sure you check out Gail McCormack for fantabulous beachy art!

Filed Underin the cottage garden, junking for the cottage, just a beach cottage life, thrifted finds for the cottage 49 Comments

A Beautiful Life – Gail McCormack & A Beach Cottage

11:09 am Byabeachcottage

When I first started on this Beach Cottage journey I have to admit I was rather disillusioned with things, the realities of renovating the cottage from grot to glam hit home and I was the Whining Queen of Sydney.

Now though, appreciating the little things every day that before I may have passed over as unimportant helps make me see the bigger picture. You know? Insignificant little things like the fabulous Camelia tree in the Beach Cottage garden or the fragrance from the laundry drying in the coastal breeze or how finding a piece of junk and painting it makes me happy.

Melissa at The Inspired Room continually inspires me in this journey, to stop and smell the roses, her Beautiful Life series keeping me focused on doing little things to make it all nice….I was so honoured to be asked to Guest Post over there and today you can find me blogging over there too.

And talking of nice things, do you like my new original Gail McCormack starfish painting? I love it and enjoyed foofing around with this little vignette. To me, vignetting is one of the things in life that make this tiny mind happy – a half hour here and there to pretty things up makes, for me, a beautiful life. And it doesn't take much – here a couple of vintage thrifted mirrors picked up for pennies and old jam jar, flowers from the garden and few shells…

I recently found Gail (you can find her beach inspired work here) and contacted her to ask for a very special Beach Cottage piece – I had been endlessly hunting for a picture for the cottage that was beachy but not in that yucky beach-theme way that seems to be just about everywhere I look.

In Gail's wonderful talent I saw just what I was after, a shabby laid-back interpretation of the beachy white lifestyle we have here at the cottage.

And boy did she ever deliver! You can't beat wonderful talent coupled with attention to detail and friendly service! She is a lovely and included with my package other goodies, thank you Gail (and I'll show you another one of her pieces I fell in love with soon), oh and she blogs too, check it out…

Enjoy the weekend girls, I am on a mini Beach Cottage treasure hunting tour – I'm getting up early (yep really!), I've plotted a route – starting with a local Jumble Sale that only happens a few times a year and is chock full of treasure, then moving on to garage sales, a sit on the beach and a visit to the farmers market. Sooo looking forward to it…what are you doing this weekend, remember to do something beautiful…it's the little things, right?

participating in the hooked-on event at Hooked on Houses

and a Beautiful Life at the Inspired Room

Filed Underjust a beach cottage life 41 Comments

Tealights, Jars and Vintage Plates Tablescape

10:57 pm Byabeachcottage

G'day all you lovely bloggers out there. Before we move on to tables, I have to mention my interview over at Decor Medley this week – there are some top bloggers over there who have been interviewed so I was honoured to be included, thank you to Giorgina

Giorgina prompted some interesting perusing from me on the Beach Cottage and the journey we've been on to get here, here's an excerpt…

Admit it: part of you has always wanted to get up, leave your house and family behind, and set up a new life on the beach in some foreign country.

Our guest today, Sarah, had the courage to do just that. Not only that, but she has never looked back. And she writes all about her adventures inA Beach Cottage, a neat little blog that makes us all wish we could do what she did, but are too afraid to do.

We admire Sarah for changing her life and chasing her dream, and for those who have ever considered doing the same, please read this special interview from someone who has been there and done that. Let's begin the questions!

~~~

I know that I don't need to tell you that I love the sport of tablescaping, though I don't know what I love more, tablescaping or finding thrifted things to go on it. I guess both facilitate each other do they not?

And forgive me if I am somewhat passe but a dressed table on a Saturday night, is,for me, what at the moment, my social life is all about.

I think we all have our fallbacks, mine it seems with dressing tables is candles. This one is a case in point. I was running late and although the food was under control, the cottage, beach or not, was a complete tip and the table wasn't set. Far from it.

However, chief among the virtues of copious amounts of candles is the speed and ease which they can be piled on and the stress-reducing glow they instantly add.

I had it in my mind to use heaps of old jars and the vintage glasses I picked up the other day at Vinnies after Sue Farrant left me a comment pointing to an exceedingly inspirational picture of glass jars and tealights.

So with time not on my side and truly still in my undies I threw this on the table, layering on the glasses and jars, filling them with tealights and combining vintage plates with plain white modern ones.

I hate to blow my trumpet (and although there's a video here today, I don't think you'll ever see me cavorting about on it – just so not up myself enough) I do believe this to be nearing a perfect 10 in the novice tablescaping stakes….if of course you consider it enough of a sport to mark it out of ten.

here it is just before the doorbell rung…

and if you have nothing better to do than watch an amateur video from an English gal in Australia, play this (for some reason YouTube stops it after 29secs it is longer but hey ho you get the picture)…just because I couldn't not show you the twinkling…

tablecloth, table, chairs & cutlery IKEA

napkins & glasses Vinnies

vintage plates, thrifted

menu

slow-roasted loin of pork with crackling

roast potatoes & cauliflower

baked spiced plums with cream

see you all later, love from the Beach Cottage

Sarah

Filed UnderUncategorized 50 Comments

Unmade Beds, School Hols & Things You Didn’t Know

5:03 pm Byabeachcottage

G'day all you lovelies. It's the holidays here and I am enjoying lazing around in bed, staying in my pj's and reading, lots. This morning the kids went for a surf and I sat tucked up on the beach with a magazine and a coffee and though it's winter out of the wind the sun was just warm enough…mmm, mmm.

I won't be posting projects while the kids are at home so I thought I would join in with one of those 'thing-you-didn't-know/real-life' blog parties…so here's mine…(it was meant to be three things but I could only come up with one)

I am most horrid in the morning and I have to force myself out of bed most days.

I am pathetic without copious amounts of tea and my long suffering family know not to say too much before mid-morning. I am lazy and ugly and grumpy and stay under the covers as long as humanely possible.

I only wish I was a morning person and I really have tried to rectify the situation. I mean really tried. Can you hear Mr BC guffawing?

So here's my real-life, un-made bed (c'mon do you make your bed every day?)… just before I could bring myself to make it (and nope I don't always do that I leave it until a little magic fairy named Mr BC waves his magic wand).

So I'm over and out here from Australia, I'm off to the mall to buy an ipod touch…swing by the Beach Cottage tomorrow won't ya?