Love the idea of a seaside cottage, beach house, ocean front home - the relaxed lifestyle, people from the city dropping down for the weekend... well you can create that same feeling, through design, miles away from the sea.

Colour - how simple - sunshine, beach, clouds, water - they are your clues for paint and fabric colours. Try not to do the old standby Red, White and Blue - it's too restricting when you want to bring other items into the room just because you like them. And it's an old fashioned way to convey the Seaside.  Todays take on those colours is turquoise, tan, white, pale yellow, and bleached coral. You can add bits of Navy Blue for accent, or a hit of red if you must - Red works best if it is a vintage piece, slightly faded.

Wood - floors, bead board, paneling, wainscot, antique furniture, bookcases, kitchen cabinetry - all adds a coastal feeling and a more relaxed feel - try to avoid items which must have coasters - takes away from the relaxed feeling you're trying to create.

Coastal Icon Collections:

• Seashells - in a bowl
  
• Beach Glass - in a jar on the windowsill, machine tumbled or ocean tumbled if you're a purist
  
• Glass Floats - lined up on the mantle piece, or mixed in with the seashells
  
• Wooden Buoys - keeping the door open, or hung on a hook by the back door - for colour
  
• Model Sailboats - on a wall shelf, or pond yachts in their stands on the top of the bookcase
  
• Striped fabrics - cushions, valences, napkins
  
• Rope Knots - as curtain tiebacks, door stops
  
• Candles in Hurricane Glass - nestled in a base of sand and seashells or beach glass
• Nautical tableware and linens - on a tray on the ottoman, or tucked in with the books
  

   
for more Ocean Interiors Design items click here

      
for more Nautical Style items click here

    
For more Sea Glass Style click here

Keep it relaxed, add some items for fun and laughter, add your seashell collections, or bowls of beach rocks, old glass bottles in that wonderful green or aquamarine colour, use a wooden fishing buoy as a door stop... it really doesn't take much to create the feeling - remember no theme parks :)

Have fun, the mermaid142