Updated Beach House Tour!: a house log
Although we have been sharing plenty of little peeks of our beach house progress on social media, John and I realized it has been nearly THREE WHOLE MONTHS since we gave you a full tour of everything (since this video tour from back in December!). And not only have there been some big projects since then, like building in a pantry and constructing the bunk beds, there have also been a flurry of smaller updates that we have not posted about at all – some that we completed as lately as this past weekend. And thus, this post was born.
similar chandeliers / dining chairs (ours are “gray”) / marble “vase” / range hood / glass pendants
As usual, I will kick off the post with the video tour because it is the easiest way to get the full update on everything (if you scroll past it and check out the pics, you will get a general gist… but no amount of photos + words can compare to a moving video through a space – and I dive into a lot of bonus stuff in the video simply because I like to flap my gums). Oh but we realized afterward that, most likely due to my aforementioned propensity to jabber, I forgot to walk into the mudroom and the downstairs bathroom – but the mudroom is in short simply a holding room for our tools and scrap wood right now, and the downstairs bathroom looks the same as the last time we shared video footage, so you are not missing much. Anyway, the rest of the house is covered, so you can get a detailed wak-through of the progress we have made (and the areas that are still, shall we say, lacking) right here in the video. Note: if you are viewing this in a feed reader you may need to click through to the post to see the video. You can also watch it here on YouTube.
If you cannot dive into the video quite yet, I will give you some highlights via photos (the video has a lot more POVs though). First is the project that John was surprisingly keen about since it has been a long time coming: at last putting a top on the secondhand coffee table that I found for $5 on a local buy/sell/trade group. Up until now, you’ve likely stared curiously at that strange octagonal cage that floats around aimlessly in the middle of the living room, simply begging to no longer live her life topless and alone. You can see it below in this photo from way back in October when we first moved in furniture (before we switched out the light fixture for something larger with more light, brought in a rug, and hung curtains).
art (it moved to the front bedroom) / similar chandeliers / ceiling medallion
We have been attempting to get a top for it for MONTHS now. First I got a few quotes for having an octagon-shaped marble or quartz top cut for it, but they were staggeringly pricey (as in more than $500 and sometimes more than $800 – even for remnant slab pieces) so that was out. But we were set on the idea of a light colored stone look, simply because the rug and the couch are dark and we want to break things up with something pleasant and light in the middle. Then we realized we could create a white concrete top that would do simply that if we built a wood top and used Ardex feather finish to skim coat it for that solid white concrete look – sort of like we did to our old kitchen counters. We enjoy that it’ll end up being lighter & easier to move since it is simply a veneer of concrete, and we have never used the white concrete feather finish yet, so we will certainly keep you posted when we get to that step. So far we have simply constructed the wood top:
light fixture / sofa (no longer sold as a sectional) / similar rug / similar coffee table
Also in the living room, you may have heard us debating several pink chairs on our podcast (and previewing them as they came in and immediately left on InstaStories – ha!). We kept coming back to the fact that this cane chair that we have had for years was a better fit than anything else we could find. And I swear it is much more comfortable than it looks (let me tell you, John “Practical” Petersik does not tolerate uncomfortable chairs for purely decorative purposes) so that is a legit endorsement to give cane chairs a chance and simply sit in them to see if they are truly bad or truly good.
curtains (we cut the tabs off) / rods / lamp / similar side table / similar chair
I simply brought in a seat cushion that I found at Pier 1 (the flamingo pillow is from HomeGoods years ago) and it is starting to look right at home. I only wish we could find another identical chair so we could have a matching pair in there. We found this one at a thrift store ages ago, so perhaps someday one will pop up on Etsy or something? This weekend we also got to hang some big art to anchor a large empty wall in our kitchen. It is from Urban Outfitters of all places, and it was ideal in simply about every respect: the theme (it is an aerial photo of the sea meeting a sandy beach), the color scheme (pink + blue), and the price ($199 for a giant 30 x 40″ print that comes framed!). The fact that the natural wood frame is so similar to our 100-year-old pine floors was a fairly exciting revelation for me when it arrived. It also comes in other sizes and other frames and it is 20% off right now if you are in the market for some art.
similar rug / similar stools / art / glass pendant lights / sconce / hardware
You’ve may have also noticed that we wrapped up hanging curtains downstairs (extra long curtains + 9′ ceilings are strong for bringing the eye up and emphasizing the brought in height) and I at last got around to hemming them all this weekend. We have been buying Lenda curtains from Ikea, washing them to pre-shrink them, and then cutting off the tabs before clipping them up. Some still need more steaming but we at last found a steamer that does the trick (after returning another one that did not do a thing). This Mac daddy upright one from Target was the winner. But even if some of our curtains are a little creased, they make the house feel so much more complete and oh so beachy. Long breezy white curtains FTW!
similar stools / curtains (we cut the tabs off) / curtain rods / art / pink letter board / sconce
We also got our new cabinet installed where the mini-fridge used to be (over the last few months we realized we never used it and chose more cabinetry and counter space there is so much better than a secondary fridge) and we also wrapped up adding the cabinets along the right wall of the walk-in pantry. They are shallow 15″ cabinets, simply like the ones flanking the back door in the kitchen, so it is truly pleasant to have them continue in there.
hardware / shelves / sconces / faux eucalyptus / marble board / pink bowls
Assembling and hanging the cabinets was not hard (we built them one Friday night and installed them the next Saturday morning) but we consistently forget all the little dangling to-do list items after that, like adding the hardware, cutting new counters, and reinstalling the baseboards and toe-kicks. We at last got that done this past weekend. They simply need some paint touch ups and they’ll be 100% completed. Have I mentioned the pantry is one of my go-to rooms in the whole beach house and I wish so badly I had one in our kitchen at home? That pendant is original and we had it rewired so it is all safe and updated. (*Insert dreamy lovestruck sigh here*). Note: you can see how we built the shelves along the left wall of the pantry here.
fridge / white pantry bins / similar blue mixing bowl / microwave / similar baskets
We are still assuming that not all of this room will be dedicated to food storage since it is simply a weekly vacation rental (but we do hear that people bring plenty of those large boxes of cereal and chips and even things like beach coolers, so it is pleasant to have a spot where those things can all live). We also think it may become useful for overflow kitchenware (extra dishes, cooking gadgets, etc) and even some extra towels or linens, since the house does not truly have a proper linen closet anywhere. Time will tell! We are simply grateful to have concealed storage space to spare.
cabinets / hardware / counter / plant basket / blinds
As for upstairs, if you caught our podcast show notes a few weeks ago, you’ve already seen most of the bedroom progress. We got more of those breezy white curtains up everywhere (these still badly need to be steamed) and they truly assist anchor the rooms and make them feel softer.
striped blanket / headboard / side table / lamp / rug / curtains (we cut off the tabs) / curtain rods
That picture above is the front bedroom, and before when there was simply a wide headboard sitting in front of that skinnier-than-the-bed window it felt kind of odd and unfinished. But once we hung the curtains it was immediately so much more balanced and wrapped up looking. So if you have a room that necessitates that bed-in-front-of-the-window placement (the only other free wall in here has two windows, so the bed needed to be in front of a window any way we sliced it), consider adding some curtains hung high and wide on a pleasant substantial rod. Truly makes a large difference.
The middle bedroom has sort of a warm/brass thing going on. It began with the lamps, then I brought in some of my go-to gold frames with handmade prints that I picked up at a local craft fair last year, and we even hung a mobile in one corner. I cannot explain how plain this room was to put together (matching side tables, matching lamps, two pictures, plain curtains, neutral headboard and bedding, etc) but it feels so serene and beachy. The breezy gold mobile is like the icing on the cake.
duvet / throw blanket / similar side table / lamps / frames / similar mobile / similar headboard
The back bedroom, which is where we sleep when we stay there, also got curtains and otherwise has simply seen some small tweaks: we lowered the sconces and simplified all the stuff on/under the night stands (there were baskets under them, and some leaning frames and books and stuff on top). I keep saying this, but the beach house is SO PLAIN and such a pleasant breath of fresh air to us – so I did not want to lose that feeling by piling in too much stuff.
striped duvet / side table / sconces / blue pillow / headboard / art
All of those less covered surfaces at the beach house are inspiring me to pare down at home, too! You know that plain, uncluttered, uncomplicated feeling you get in a pleasant hotel room? We have that at the beach! And now I am greedy and want it at home. Why not?! If less works out there, cannot it work at home too? Of course we have backpacks and schoolwork and a home office here at home, so it will not quite be the same, but needless to say, there are a lot of things getting donated or put in some large plastic bins labeled “duplex decor” at home, simply to thin things out around here too.
Back to moving the sconces for a second, because we get questions about them every time we show them. Thankfully, moving them was especially straightforward since we designed them with Shades of Light to simply be plug-in (so it does not require an electrician to move them and they only make a few small screw holes in the wall that can be speckled if you change their location). There is not a junction box behind them or anything – they literally simply need to be plugged into the wall to turn on, and then they are simply hung on the wall like you’d hang a mirror or a picture. That is it, and they are all “installed” – so straightforward.
The only other big accomplishment this past weekend was locking in a plan for the backyard, including the size and placement of a shed, choosing a material for a patio, and nailing down a strategy for a pleasant but not too pricey pathway from the street to the back (it is like 100 feet long!). But that, my friends, is a conversation for another day and another post…
P.S. To see other beach house posts as we have pulled this vacation rental together over the last year, click here. And for all of the paint colors and sources for every last room in the beach house, here is a page full of that info.
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