My Beach House

I am a creature of habit, I always take down the Spring decorations and replace it with the Summer, and again in the fall and then again, in the winter....

I am as giddy as child in a candy store when Summer arrives!!!!!
It is my favorite decorating time of year.

Living in Kansas is tough...While it is beautiful and full of color, it isn't.........vibrant....
It is mellow and iced tea flavored....
Rolling wheat and sunflower fields sway in the breeze. Amish buggy's roll alongside cars on the highway....
And I am.....a Henry Matisse Painting with a splash of Salvador Dali, for good measure!
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Pretty soon I will start unpacking my most treasured pieces collected over the years and my home will echo the beach.....

This is very close to my staircase...actually it is exactly my staircase (borrowed picture from A Country Farmhouse) This year I want to paint the stairs black, with a sand or taupe colored paint for the walls, something soothing and resplendent all year round!

This is a dining set from Ashley Furniture that I am coveting at the moment. My dining room is huge and I need some heavy furniture to stand up to the opposing 15 ft ceiling... The want the 8 chair set!!

The matching Ashley furniture buffet, that would hold my sea shells and my mothers Fiesta ware!

I love this sign!!! I think it speaks of my life....

Here is an idea I found while cruising the web! I have never been to the ocean, but I have a beautiful collection of sea shells.....

See the bowl on the floor? I went to a garage sale years and years ago and found a bowl very similar to this bread bowl. It is hand carved and was made in the late 1700's. The owners of the house found it buried in the back yard and threw it in the garage sale for $2.00, My bowl is worth between $80-$120.00!!!!! YIPEEEE! I wonder how much they paid for their bowl?

I love the idea of sand and star fish, but I am sure my cats would be laying in it....

I adore this......Being a vegan I make sure that all of my shells and star fish were deceased on their own before purchasing, so it would take me forever to recreate this look....sigh...

Beach stones used as votive holders...I will be recreating this look. Chris and I went to Lake Michigan two years ago and collected rocks (illegally...oops! We didn't know until we got back to my dad's house) to put into glass vases.....

An R. Kenton Nelson print I would love, but cannot find anywhere.....

I have a tall vase exactly like this one but mine has a huge piece of white coral from Mexico in it, that I bought at a garage sale along with a piece of reef stone for $10.00 with sand!!

I love this so much!

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Soon, every room in my house will have shells in it.

Soon, I will wake up in the morning and open the windows wide, turn up my morning music to start my day and wander my house....

There is no other place in the world I would rather be than home on an early summer morning. It soothes me to think about it, the smells of fresh cut grass and lilacs floating through the windows, the cool wooden floors beneath my feet, and Michael Buble' singing quietly just for me!

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But....if ever I were to go visit the ocean....I would never want to leave.

I would spend my days combing for sea shells, walking barefoot in the surf, reading a book under a huge umbrella and watching the days begin and end on my beach.

I cannot think of a more perfect place.

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Except, perhaps my own beach house in Nickerson,Kansas

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Special thanks:

Completely Coastal for the wonderful pictures and idea's

http://www.completely-coastal.com/

A Country Farmhouse for her beautiful pictures and wonderful inspiration! http://acountryfarmhouse.blogspot.com/

R. Kenton Nelson, for your amazing natural talent http://eaesthete.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/bathing_kenton-nelson.jpg