Beach House Style Inspiration: a house log

We are nothing if not house optimists, so even as our our beach house comes apart (literally, we have mold and termite damage and bad wiring and no HVAC and a failing foundation and fairly much all of the other not-ideal things that necessitate carefully rebuilding a lot of it) we have learned that sometimes you simply gotta focus on the lively exciting home-reno aspects to make it through the highly unglamorous and grimace-inducing ones. We will update you on our rebuilding progress soon (it is fairly slow-going), but today we are swinging open our brains and sharing the much-more-lively-to-think-about beach house style ideas that are bouncing around in there. Because even if there seem to be a million steps between now and the whole decorating thing, it is totally keeping our house-reno mojo up right now. So without further ado, welcome to my brain.

Before we dive into the pics, you may want to refresh yourself on our floorplan and preliminary renovation plans in this post. There is a full house tour video there too, and we have included the floor plan below for swift reference. Note: Our only significant change since originally creating it is that we plan to move the downstairs bathroom door into the mudroom, rather than having access from the dining area.

Our general inspiration for the inside can be summarized as: relaxed, uncomplicated, comfortable, and old-meets-new. We want to resist the urge to overfill or overdecorate the house, since it is meant to feel straightforward and light (not meticulously organized or over-styled). Plus, it is an old home, which is one of our go-to things about it – so we are embracing that full-on (keeping all the old doors and knobs and refinishing the old heart pine floors, and keeping our beloved curved wall and the original back staircase – we even uncovered an old brick chimney that we are going to chip out and expose).

Of course we will be adding some updated touches factoring in guest comfort, mostly in the form of new things like fresh mattresses and bedding and curtains (as opposed to filling it with antiques until it feels like a set from a period film). And I realized after uploading all of these pics that they are feeling quite white. Which, do not get me wrong, we are certainly going for light and airy – but my guess is that we will end up making the space feel a bit more colorful than some of these inspiration images might suggest.

Let us start with the bedrooms, since they fairly much epitomize our goal of relaxed and uncomplicated…

Bedroom Inspiration:

A bedroom – especially one meant for guests or renters – does not need much in it, which is good because the bedrooms in this house are not large. So our main goal is to create a bed that looks crazy comfortable and not too fussy. Perhaps a plain nightstand, some lively artwork above it, and a cool light or two (perhaps our $90 sconces in one of the rooms?). I enjoy that these images all demonstrate that you can still make a plain, uncomplicated bedroom look welcoming and calming, as opposed to stark and bare.

Bunk Room Inspiration:

In addition to the three main bedrooms, we are carving out a bonus sleeping zone for kids. It is going to be tight (fairly much wall to wall with a ladder or something in front) and we will likely go white with the beds to keep the small space feeling bigger (that wood one is an Ikea hack!) but we are aiming for something a little less formal and tailored than that bottom right pic (how cool is that rope ladder though?!). Dibs on the top bunk!

Bathroom Inspiration:

We have a tub in our bathroom simply like the one above – Simply LIKE IT! Same claw feet and everything! Well, except ours is scratched and rusted and it is not painted that cool color on the outside. YET! But I smell potential. Cannot wait too get it reglazed. And back into the bathroom, since it is right now in a bedroom because the bathroom was literally falling off the house (did I mention we have ALL the not-ideal things going on?). Swift, let us look at more fairly things! We’d enjoy to inject some natural tones and/or colorful accents via the vanities or floor tiles, and John especially loves the classic hex pattern in that bottom right pic, simply perhaps a medium gray instead of black so it is not as dark.

Mudroom Inspiration:

The mudroom space will essentially be for corralling sandy beach stuff, while also giving access to the full bathroom downstairs (so people can shower straight from the beach) and toss sandy towels right into the washer and dryer, which will be housed within the mudroom. We will likely incorporate some closed storage for beach toys and towels, but otherwise some plain (and affordable!) shelves and hooks are likely more than sufficient, since this is not your everyday coat & backpack-filled mudroom.

Kitchen Inspiration:

Since the beach house will simply need to have a few cooking and serving staples, we are not going to fill it to the brim with gadgets and gizmos aplenty (shout out to Ariel). So we like the idea of some unfussy base cabinets, perhaps some open shelves, and perhaps a little color on the lowers. We want to do it relatively affordably and we do not mind if it feels a bit old or rustic (versus feeling top of the line or especially sleek). We are thinking butcher block counters – perhaps on the island – plus a few other hits of wood, like stools. And a freestanding piece like the cabinet in the top left picture would be all that and a bag of chips. Can we bring that phrase back? Please?

Dining Inspiration:

“Dining room” is likely too formal of a term for what will likely end up as a casual eating area, so we enjoy the vibe of these pictures above. I am especially loving the black round pedestal table + bench seating + coppery chairs + peach pillows equation (seriously, it is giving me all the warm fuzzies). We are digging the coziness of the bottom picture too, with that natural table and the woven light above it. Although sheepskin covered chairs in a rental house is likely not the smartest choice…

Door Inspiration:

My enjoy for the old wood and chippy-painted doors in this house borders on unnatural. We have a veritable smorgasboard of original doors. A doorgasboard, if you will. So we are planning to reuse all of them (even though our contractor has warned us three times about the challenges of making old, crooked doors function properly). Assuming we can get them all back to being functional (which we will do if it nearly kills us! I am a dog with a bone!), we know they’ll give this old house character for days. Bring it on, doors. Let us do this. After we deal with the mold and the termites.

Living Room Inspiration:

The living room is not quite large and we will have a cool but layout-challenging curved wall to contend with. We are not picturing a lot of furniture in there – perhaps a couch, chair, coffee table, and TV? – so we want them to be interesting, especially since it is the first room you will see. We ENJOY the clean lines of the wooden coffee table in the big pic (perhaps we could build something like that?) and those blue ottomans got us thinking that a colorful sofa or chair could be a lively option too. Simply gotta find something dark sufficient to wear well.

Bookcase Inspiration:

I know it may seem weird to make a separate category for bookcases, but as much as we are trying to keep this house plain and uncluttered, we still want at least one or two book-filled spots that feel lived in and homey (a bookshelf packed with books, magazines, and games makes those rainy days spent cooped up at a beach house SO MUCH BETTER). So we are including these to remind us of the range of bookcases we could potentially consider. We are not sure if we will have sufficient books to emulate the top left pic, but perhaps a more casual wood rack like the one under it (perhaps in the bunk room with some colorful kids books on it?).

Stair Inspiration:

The front/main stairs of the house will remain wood (although the risers and spindles of ours are white), so the large pic on the left is making me especially excited for getting them back to their former glory. And we are fairly excited to have a bonus back staircase (some folks have asked why we are keeping that since the layout would be easier without it – and the short answer is that WE FREAKING ENJOY IT and all of the original character it adds. Many of our neighbors told us theirs was already gone when they moved in and they were so sad to have lost it, so we are downright giddy to get to keep ours!). It is certainly in rougher shape than the front steps (the risers are also already painted white), so we are thinking that might be a cool spot to inject some color. Perhaps the whole shebang like the top right pic if we cannot salvage the worn wood treads? Or simply by adding a hit of minty green to the already-painted risers inspired by that bottom photo?

Side note: I simply learned baskets like the one on the floor in the top right pic are called Belly Baskets and I ENJOY THIS ONE.

And so ends the in-my-dreams-the-beach-house-will-be-this-fabulous tour that is going on in my head. I am sure there will be a lot of twists and turns as we get closer to a wrapped up house that we can in fact paint and furnish and decorate, but it is truly lively to toss out all of our inspiration to see what sticks. One thing’s for sure: there will be built-ins! And blue-green! And old doors! And light walls! And peach pillows! And plenty of wood! Viva la beach house! Ok, back to dealing with that highly unglamorous bathroom’s-falling-off-the-house sitch. Thanks for daydreaming with me.

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