July 2009

7/29/09

Beach Rocks + Pebbles

I love beach rocks and pebbles, even hauled some home for my shelf Floor Lamp, and just recently made this lampshade from a photograph I took. It's easy. You print a photo onto inkjet fabric sheets, then adhere the sheets to a self adhesive lampshade, add ribbon to cover up the seems and decorate as you like.

So my lampshade was the inspiration for the following posters..., and as always please click on images for more information and/or purchase.

Blue hues by Paul Sinclair...

... brown hues by Todd Gipstein...

... then beach rocks with green algae by Mark Chapman...

... a single rock by Norman Gibson...

... and beach rocks artfully stacked, a great panorama shot.

Shared with Do It Yourself Day @ Kimba's A Soft Place to Land. My beach pebble lampshade made it into the top ten on Kimba's DIY Day Recab + Winner.

Also shared with Show + Tell @ My Romantic Home.

And there is more to explore:
Photo Pics: Sailing Yachts -The Beauty of Wind, Sail and Sea
Beautiful Coastal Photography
Beaches that Rock

Bring a Boat to your Backyard

Bring a boat to your backyard..., a dinghy or a dory, and use it as a nursery (and as a Chicken coop!) like this one by Joe Polaischer...

... create a feast of flowers, photographed by Annie @ Fire Fly Hill Designs on her vacation in Ireland...

... or if you're really ambitious, overturn a boat and build a boat shed.

Then..., take your boat right upfront for some unusual curb appeal...

... or set it up as a one of a kind boat bench.

And what about turning a boat into an outdoor tub. Should be doable, right!

Shared with Outdoor Wednesdays @ Susan's A Southern Daydreamer.

The Adirondack Chair -From the Mountains to the Hamptons

The all American Adirondack Chair is the kind of chair that people expect to see on a porch in the Hamptons, says Luxist.

But my ode to the Adirondack chair was actually inspired by this picture..., the Southern Living Texas Idea House.

Created more than a hundred years ago in the Adirondack mountain region of New York the chair has since spread across the nation..., to Cape Cod, Massachusetts...

... down to Louisiana...

... and up to Alaska.

And the men behind the chair? Thomas Lee and Harry Bunnell. Due to a shortage of patio furniture for his 22-member family, Lee started nailing boards together in 1903, then took his prototype to local carpenter Bunnell who saw (the potential) and ran..., securing a patent without Lee's knowledge. And as they say, the rest is history. As to Lee, are we to assume that he got all chairs made for his familiy? You can get the full history scoop here: History Behind Adirondack Chairs.

Get Adirondack Chairs to finish off your house furniture.

Sailing Yachts -The Beauty of Wind, Sail and Sea

An 1880s vintage sailing yacht print that hangs in one of the upstairs rooms at Skylands, Martha Stewart's home on Mount Desert Island in Maine, of which she said, "it's my ideal kind of house - spacious and quiet." And the art couldn't be more perfect for this space and the rugged location.

This poster from art.com (as always please click on images for more information and/or purchase) shows Resolute a very similar ship from the Rosenfeld Collection at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, where you can buy reproduction prints from a vast collection of ships from 1881-1992.

Then two stunning captures by Frederick LeBlanc printed in sepia for an antique feel.

You can check out his blog here, and his website here.

Two racing yachts.

The yacht Columbia by Scottish photographer Bill Philip, which was the defender of the tenth America's Cup race in 1899 against British challenger Shamrock as well as the defender of the eleventh America's Cup race in 1901 against British challenger, Shamrock II.

And the largest of them all, a 36" x 36" stretched canvas.

And there is more to explore:
Browse more Sailing Yachts @ Art.com
Display Ideas for Model Yachts

Before + After: The Remodel of a Beach Cottage on Tybee Island

The result of a successful remodel: The Breeze Inn, a Beach Cottage on Tybee Island, now available as a vacation rental via Mermaid Cottages.

Mary Kay Andrews not only has a fictional story about A Fixer Upper, but a real life version as well, which she documented on her Blog.

After a long search and unsuccessful bids on four other houses she finally closed a deal in June 2008.

Men at work, replacing "those unlovely circa-70s windows" and changing "that radioactive yellow and blue paint combo".

And with Jane Coslick on board as a consultant, design whiz behind many wonderful cottage restorations on Tybee (and many of the Mermaid Cottage rentals), the colors are just delicious.

"At night I dream of color schemes and floor plans".

And she managed to save all the old louvered interior shutters, "saving me the killer cost of window treatments there."

A shot from the other side of the room looking toward the pink entry door.

The kitchen has a fantastic vintage sink...

... that looked like this. "I attacked the kitchen sink with a can of Bar Keeper's Friend and got out most of the rust stains."

Have you ever used a tablecloth as a window treatment? That's what you see in this bathroom, a Florida Souvenir tablecloth. And as wall art Mary Kay framed vintage postcards.

And besides of being an author (of 17 books) and remodeler, she is also a part time antique dealer with an antique booth at Seaside Sisters. How she does it all, I don't know..., but she scouts antique markets, yard sales, estate sales, architectural salvage places and Craigslist for deals and this is one of them, a $10 Baptist yard sale bed that she put in the master bedroom.

Last stop. The screened in porch..., "I've been hoarding rattan for years now, just waiting to put it in my beach house." One find not rattan (look to the left)...

... a vintage slider painted lime green. Neat!

Update: Tour Mary Kay's Beach Cottage on Better Homes and Gardens

Shared with Metamorphosis Monday.

Arranging Pictures -Are you Following the Rules?

This one @ Linda's Lime in a Coconut is a major rule breaker. Large pictures belong in big spaces. This is a squeeze, but I love it in that house "lived in like a comfy faded linen shirt" -in Linda's words.

Put small pictures in corners or narrow spaces. Maybe not narrow enough, but I like my little beach umbrella photograph in that spot.

Even though the standard practice is to hang the pictures at eye level this works beautifully and I'm sure it follows one of the rules.

The awesome dozen! A way of making a statement on a large wall is to mount a dozen or more identically framed pictures in a common theme placing them very close to one another.

Group the pictures into clusters of two or three. Odd numbered groups suggest a focal point while even numbered groups exude a calming and organized effect. Does it feel calming and organized? I'm not sure. I love it because of it's playfulness.

My living room again. Another photograph I took..., leaning, because I didn't find the perfect spot on the wall.

Shared with Hooked on Fridays @ Julia's Hooked on Houses.

Related Post:
Inspired by Art

Show me the Ropes -or should I say Lines

There has always been rope on boats..., referred to as lines by boating experts. It's another way of creating nautical ambiance in your home. For more information and purchase, please click on images.