Window Shopping At The Art Of Plain In Seaside

I am right now hanging and shooting the canopy that I made for over Clara’s bed (ahh! it simply might be cute!) so I will be back with those photos and the whole rundown for you tomorrow. I was in fact thinking about writing about September 11th today. I lived in NYC at the time, and it was one of the most life-changing days that I have ever experienced, but for some reason, even 12 years later, I simply cannot put words together about it. So I am sending out plenty of NYC pride and enjoy to everyone affected by such a horrible day and trying to drum up the courage to talk about it (I am reminding myself how healing it was to share Clara’s birth story). Perhaps this afternoon.

So I have a window shopping adventure to share with you folks this morning instead. It is been way too long since our last virtual shopping spree. As most of you know, these are not paid or perked or anything – we simply walk through a store with a camera and take pics of whatever inspires us for you folks. And I especially enjoy discovering small, tucked away, one-of-a-kind places like this. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: The Art of Plain.

I stumbled across this sweet little store while we were on vacation in Destin (it is in downtown Seaside for any interested locals) and I had to break out the camera the second we walked in. The shopkeeper was so pleasant, and everything in there was so inventive and inspiring. So if you are a local – dude, get in there! But even if you are nowhere near Florida, I’d imagine you can give them a call if you fall in love with something in the hopes that they’ll ship it – or simply draw inspiration from the eye candy for your next Hands-on project.

For example, some of their white bookcases were backed with beadboard and I thought it gave them a truly pleasant crisp look. Some brought in interest, if you will, instead of that flimsy back panel that most bookcases come with. I also enjoyed the color palette of the store. Plenty of white with hits of red, gray, and aqua – among other splashes of color in the lively things that they sold of course.

There was this cool accent wall along the back of the store too (white subway tile with gray grout) and I enjoyed it with the old barn-board-looking floors in their gray-washed tone. They in fact were not even wood, they were stick down laminate! Could not you see a wall of subway tile with these floors in a laundry room or a bathroom? Yes please.

As sort of an exclamation point in the back of the shop there was this INSANE (in such a good way) red beaded chandelier. I hoped to run off to Paris with it. I did not catch the price and I am sure it is not low-cost, but if it is not in your budget perhaps you can draw inspiration from it and spray paint a beaded chandelier with candy apple red spray paint? Urban Outfitters and PB Teen typically sell small beaded chandeliers that might look like this gal’s little sister with a new paint job.

They also had these excellent signs. I enjoyed that they were black with ivory lettering (feels like a modern and understated-cool take on some of the more colorful/bright signs that people sell these days). I also truly liked what they said. How much lively is The Laundry for a laundry room or The Shanty for your entryway among a gallery of frames? Every house deserves a cute nickname.

This chick had me at hello. I hoped to bring it home but John nipped that in the bird bud. I have seen some fairly remarkable Pinterest DIYs for making lighted signs though (never seen a chick yet, but I bet it could be adapted!).

There were also some truly cool globe ideas, both for folks who want to walk in and snatch them up or for someone who might already have an old globe but wants to tweak it with a little at-home project. This one appeared to be painted with blue paint and rubbed with some distressing glaze and then the countries looked to be painted on with black paint (or drawn on with a big black marker that was outlined in a gold sharpie).

And this one was covered entirely in chalkboard paint and then what appeared to be a turquoise paint pen was used to sketch the countries as well as the measurements along the equator.

These old metal letters had the ideal amount of patina. And I ENJOY the idea of using an old metal caddy like this in the laundry room for sorting clothes.

These lights were truly interesting to me too! I even ended up chatting with the shopkeeper about them, who told me that the colors of the flowers on each pendant are customizable!

She whipped out these rings o’ crystals and I was in awe. So if you are redoing your kitchen and simply want a pendant for over the sink with three of your accent colors (say they are emerald green, teal, and navy) you can make it happen by ordering one of these babies. They were not low-cost (I think around $350?) but in a spot where you simply need one, it might be a lively splurge, especially if you can justify it with savings in other areas (like if you save $500 by buying all of your appliances in bulk).

These plain little mussel shells were $9 and I enjoyed that they were sold with other soap holders so the idea for a unique way to use them was sort of planted in your brain. They had a truly fairly pink color going on with some bronze. I bet they’d look excellent in an old school bathroom full of black and white tile on the floor and a white pedestal sink.

These were legit marquee letters from the 1940s, and they were heavy and metal and fully cool looking. Predictably, John was drawn to them like a moth to a flame.

This charming painting of an old gas pump was one of my go-to things in the whole store. I enjoyed the rustic wood frame around it and the fairly red and teal colors. Even the red easel that it sat on was crazy inspiring to me.

So there it is. A little shuffle though a sleepy beach town store that I am still thinking about a few weeks later. Hope you folks enjoyed the virtual shopping spree! Is anyone else discovering new boutiques to ogle? If there are any here in VA, tell me all about them!