Tile-Stones Love seeing these drawings :) Good to have a bit of humor!

Roots and Rafters "Themed" houses can get super tacky super quickly if you're not careful to avoid going overboard. Thanks for the PSA. :D

Rough Linen Cast-iron lighthouse doorstop? Life-ring bought, not scavenged?
However WIND-BLOWN sand in your entryway is a get-out-of-jail-free card!

lisalovesquilts One of my sons has the lighthouse lamp, that's all. Am I ok?

sjkingston On the other hand, for those of us who do have a small beach cottage, decorating it with themed items can be a lovely undertaking and a large part of the joy of owning such a place. Sure, some folks go overboard, but that is true in any undertaking.

pinkchicken44 I have the vintage sign, on my garden shed which is painted pale seagrass to look like a beach hut......!! Do I need help?

lisalovesquilts Pinchicken44 maybe a little sandpit?

Pink Fortitude, LLC We have a US Navy "inspired" (dare not to say theme) guest room (and hubby is Army go figure). Not beachy, but some nautical flavor. Is it bad that I kept 2 "anchors away" type Christmas ornaments out in the room for enjoyment throughout the year? LOL. Always fun to go right up to that line. Or maybe slightly over.

olldroo Lisa, you're safe if I am. I have a lighthouse that holds a tealight candle that I really love. It is all blues and white though - very understated.

I have also used a beach theme in my ensuite with two soft blue and white 'treasure chests' on my vanity to hold cotton balls and buds. The tiles are a softly patterned white and I have blue and latte towels. I love the clean fresh look of it all.

hfallon Hope the "overboard" comments were intentional. I have to admit admiring and considering at least half the items above for our beach house...........

olldroo hfallon - I think the examples above are a little passe. There are many beachy theme accessories now that are really classy. Might take time to find, here we have specialised beach shops that have amazing accessories and even $2 shops have great things from time to time, just have to be quick as they are snapped up very quickly.

artzi Our master bedroom & bath have a shore theme. But the only thing I have shown is a shell platter with sugar sand & a few real shells we picked up on one of our trips to the Gulf of Mexico where the sands are white & the ocean emerald. I do however, have fishing net draped over drift wood branch on one wall with sea horses, barnacles , sand dollars, more beautiful shells attached. Several mobiles I made from wire & sea glass in shapes of dolphins, fish & starfish & several shell wind chimes from the ceiling. Lots of art work by artist in the area, plus many Sherewater pottery pieces. We collect Walter & Mac Anderson prints too. We also have a few wood carvings of sail boats by artisans. Don't really have any beach Kitsch but have actually contemplated a 'this way to the beach' sign !

patricia beharry Those of us living near the ocean see seashells sand and driftwood every day. DO NOT want it in our house. Its like living in NY and having souverniers ( I know , it is the wrong spelling), of the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State bldg, or pieces of asphalt as our decor. But I really like the TO THE BEACH sign. I am going to get one.

astraea Cute .. since I do live near the shore & like "coastal themes"! Recently a friend brought a serving dish with that flip-flop theme .. I'll probably only use it when she visits! (LOL) I think themes need to be soft-pedalled, no matter what they are, or they look too contrived .. or "theme park"!

colt Oh oh......

betappel I think the problem comes when you have ALL of the aforementioned items. Then it is overkill. Any one (or two or even three) probably isn't a problem. Except the sand in the door, I can't even imagine that.

Fine Art & Portraits by Laurel This is cute, but no one should defend their choices. It's your home. Play with it as hard as your want! Especially if it's one particular room. Go overboard, please!

larryboy47 My 'this way to the beach' sign really does point towards the beach, my frame is actually a canoe frame, not flip flops (so doesn't count), and my shells are embedded in a candle...not in sand...so I think I am okay!

maddecorator Ha! I love this. I admit to having too many lighthouses (I can't help it; I love them.) and shells in my nautical/cottagey guest room. However, I do try to keep it confined there, and it's so much fun! I'm 60 miles from the beach — does that count as coastal?

shannonbarker Nope, don't have any of those. And I would love to get rid of the sand in the doorway and all through the house, which appears to be impossible. So, instead, I love it...it does mean I am 30 feet from the beach.

Francesca Oh dear, some of the vacation homes I have seen near Charleston SC fall victim to this particular 'over board' design. Of course, most people spend time on the porch or down on the beach when they are in the home, so they might not notice ;-)

4pintobeans Wish I had read this last week before I decorated our beach condo in Destin, FL. I am sure I have too many starfish and pictures of water in my "theme." It's so easy to get carried away and I had someone reining me in. I might do some swapping next visit.
Happy New Year!

Architectural Elements This sort of chachki is a requirement at the vacation/rental community, Sea Brook, on the Washington coast.
Chachki is defined in the Urban Dictionary as follows: "Some type of nick-nack, but usually a piece of crap; usually a small piece of junk."

Brenda Bloods 4pintobeans, your space is gorgeous!!

4pintobeans Thank you very much. It was a team effort.

Charmean Neithart Interiors, LLC. This is too funny. I do try to advise people to not get too thematic anywhere in their house, whether beach, cabin or whatever because then it just looks like a retail store. I think it's nice when a home tells a story about the homeowner. A great storyteller, knows how to edit. Too many words can dilute the point. Same rules apply for a home, too many things can block the intended feeling or function of a space. However, I think it's fun to poke fun at ourselves every once in awhile. Great article!

Zoe Milburn Oh this is hilarious and yet a very good design lesson.
With coastal - A LITTLE GOES A LONG, LONG WAY!
It's always better to have one stunningly beautiful shell than a million others collecting dust around the house.
My professional tip: Edit, Edit, Edit your coastal collection - this is the only way to achieving professional and original coastal style in your home. The rest is just seaside tourist trash.
This mantra will always ensure you have a beautiful coastal abode with gorgeous artefacts that will stand the test of time - now that's coastal chic at it's best. Zoe x

lspatch Yes, I have at least half of these things at my beach house, but that is what makes it a beach house. We go there to relax, and I think when I have guests and they have an oar overhead or a beach chair lamp, they feel like they are on vacation too. So, I'll keep my tacky decorations and leave the designer ideas for my year round house. I also have 2 horseshoe crabs, a seashell mirror and lamp and light house pictures.

olldroo 4pintobeans - very classy!!

Aegean-Designing Whims Well, I wish my vintage lake bathroom was done, but it'll be a few more weeks before I'll have photos. We just bought a 1930's cabin in Lake Arrowhead, and the previous owner painted everything white, including the pine flooring, so lake decorating just seemed perfect. I'll post a photo as soon as it's done. I think it'll be very charming, with a touch of "overboard".
Chrysteen
P.S. I do also agree that too much of something can be "too much"

brandie072ep Ha ha ha ha! Sad, but true...I love a Hamptons feel home, but I've stayed at one too many beach themed holiday homes and if I see one more starfish....I've even had to carry around a large wooden fish with the room key on it. Colour and an airy feel is all we need!!

captnchloe We actually own Sandy Point Shoal Lighthouse so ours is authentic and not store-bought!
That's as coastal and authentic as it gets. All of our sons had boat beds and boat bookshelves. Now we have murals of the Bay and lighthouses in our entrance foyer (of our main house)

sandy Well I like a couple of those pics and do have a beachy "theme" in part of my house, and thats the thing...its YOUR house.Do and have what makes you happy,and don't be inflenced by what other people think! Looking at my shells, coral, beachy bits and pictures makes me smile, and thats all that matters. :)

Katherine Ok, this made me LOL!!! We have a pretty good sized boat and this hit home...sure don't want to have this problem!

Cathy Minard__OShea Any themed decor can get a bit much but as long as it's all in fun....GO AT IT!

lilred18 Building a house on a river. I will have a themed Flip Flop bright colored main bath since there will be kids around all the time...but will probably get tired of it quickly and send it downstairs to the outside bath/shower room!! And yes I have a beach sign (have a very large beach!) and a "It's 5 o'clock somewhere" sign!!! But the rest of the house will not reflect that beachy theme!

Debbie Laughing here at all the posts! LOVE it! We're moving to our forever retirement home on the WA coast, and I have been "collecting" beachy stuff for years---dare I confess? LOL

lisalovesquilts 4pintobeans very nice house, can I have your 'peace' sign hand if you re-design? Would you believe my 14 year old (Scottish) son likes to impersonate Tricky Dicky? He'd love that, I shall have to find one.

lilred18 @debbie98569..This is our forever retirement home to be also and the really funny thing is....my hubby works for Shell!!

Debbie @Lisaloves~~~get his own "hand" here: http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/vitruvian-collection-peace-sculpture-art-decor
;o)

Debbie @lilred~~@Ocean Shores?

lisalovesquilts Thanks Debbie. He'll go for this.

Carolina Girl I used to have a nautical themed bath before I moved to the lakeshore where I now live. I got rid of most of the fish net, light houses and knick knacks but kept a couple of oil paintings, some bookends and a lighthouse nightlight. I plan on decorating my guest room with a nautical theme. I try to use lake instead of ocean themed objects but everybody needs at least one lighthouse.

Rosalie Donlon We have lots of U.S. Coast Guard items and lighthouses around the house, celebrating my husband's U.S. Coast Guard Academy years as well as his 23 years on active duty. But we spread the decor around so it's not overwhelming.

4pintobeans lisalovesquilts, sure you can have the peace sign when I redecorate...if it survives our two boys. I was thinking of my eight-year old when I bought it and my friend rolled her eyes. Just shows you what one loves another my not. I found it at Home Goods. Less than $20. I did not purchase this sign but thought it was really fun. The original was my first post, so I am learning the ropes of these discussions.

olldroo Now that sign is my sense of humour. Old boy probably wouldn't appreciate it, doesn't see the funny side of anything.

lisalovesquilts All the nice girls love a sailor!

olldroo You speaking from experience????

lisalovesquilts Wouldn't you like to know!

vm101 Although I agree with being overboard, I don't think you can go too overboard on some of these hidden away beach cottages out there. If they are outdated and tacky, that is when I see it to be a problem. I actually like some of the cheesy people and their decorations. If we were also so precise in our decorative taste and so on the cutting edge every second, what a boring place this would end up being.

patricia beharry You guys had too much to drink last night. LOL.

olldroo Sadly Patricia, more wishful thinking. Don't forget I'm a day ahead of you guys - one extra day to sober up.

englandcr2 Guilty of sand and starfish in the bathroom. :(

hafkiwi If you live within walking distance of the ocean or beach-go for it! What drives me CRAZY is to go to a home miles away from the water & they have replicated the "beach " w/shells & sand at every spot,painted "coastal" furniture,and "shore" signs everywhere. Snuff to make u gag!!

olldroo hafkiwi - you have to allow for some wishful thinking.

astraea @hafkiwi - What's the "dividing line"? I'm 1/3 mile to the water, but 3 miles from the closest beach (LOL)

Carolina Girl olldroo I have to agree. I had a bathroom in the mountains of NC that was very nautical but my retirement dream was to live by the water. When we sold the mountain home we moved to the lake. It's good to have hopes and dreams and even better to express them.

Carolina Girl Sand in the entry way is a great idea. If we just made the entry a sand box we wouldn't have to worry about sweeping it out all the time. LOL

olldroo Yes Joyce, as long as you didn't have a cat. lol.

The only aspect that puts me off living near the beach is forever cleaning the salt spray off the windows. I'm happy to take a back seat (7kms away) and bring what I want from the beach into my home.

astraea Roo .. why is it that whenever I get an e-mail with something I thought of posting, it turns out to be YOU posting it! (I thought about cats playing in the sand too .. and doing "other things" as well!)

olldroo Astraea - Great minds think alike!!!!! Heehee. We have been so in synch from day one.

fredericklc Living in upper east Tennessee coastal style is rarely seen. However, in our home, one of my favorite things is my handcarved mermaid that I bought from a really unique and classy shoppe on the coast of South Carolina. She cost quite a bit more than I could justify spending, but my very wise daughter convinced me that leaving her there would be a mistake I would regret forever. My daughter was right. It's been 8 years since I brought my mermaid home and there isn't one day that I am sorry about that. She is beautiful (both my daughter and my mermaid, lol).

Aegean-Designing Whims I've been dying to post these photos of our newly decorated lake cabin. I know it's very lake look, but it's a cabin. So it can stand it.
Chrysteen

lizoregon Guilty as charged in our guest bathroom. :-) I'm originally from the S.F. Bay Area, so my focal point is a gorgeous Sausalito print with sailboats in the harbor. Shells in sand. A boat in a bottle my Dad had made for me with a tiny photo of himself perched jauntily on the deck--what a treasure! Antique binoculars. A shell wreath. No plans to add more though, so I don't think I've fallen overboard yet LOL.

olldroo lizoregon - special memories don't count.

lizoregon Olldroo, Whew! Thanks for the decorating life preserver! :-)

BeachyRustica As long as you have great beachy knobs and hardware to pull it all together, it's okay! ;)

cocoanlace Whew! I passed the test. I don't have any of those items in my home as I think they are too cliche. I do have a large conche seashell and two large sand dollars, plus sand, blue pebbles and tiny shells in an old jar. But being an hour drive in traffic from actual ocean waves makes going overboard kind of silly in my case. Coastal is a tough sell when you can only view canyons and parched hillsides outside your oversized windows. But one can dream of salty air.

Debbie I just LOVE my Mermaid! Made out of a 55 gal oil drum.....design hammered w/just a nail...from Haiti.

olldroo WOW, Debbie, gorgeous

Holly Clark What a fun article and comments!! We finally built our "dream house" on a small lake and it's full of nautical items - but tasteful nautical items, if you will.....LOL. It's our house and we love it - the idea is to have FUN and not get yourself all twisted up in rules. At least, people know what to "gift" us - seashells, "to the beach" signs, mermaids, etc., etc. Hahaha!

patricia beharry Olldroo, Whatever happened to Houzz updates? I am not getting any.

olldroo Patricia, I'm still getting two a week. The ollds have all been having a lot of funny incidents of late where it can take up to 40 hours to get notified of a posting and quite often we get two notices of the same post, but no one has mentioned not getting updates. Maybe email Support and let them know.

astraea Patricia - I still get them twice a week also. You might want to recheck your profile & settings; maybe the system "burped", and caused you to stop getting some of the notifications.

Carolina Girl I also get them twice a week and the new posts often come several at a time and less frequently.

patricia beharry Olldro and Astraea, OK Guys, tell me how to get back on. I am a little computer illiterate.

olldroo patricia - go into your profile page and click on edit profile. Scroll right to the bottom and there is an Advanced setting - click on expand. There is a box there to tick if you want to receive newsletters, that may have unticked itself.

patricia beharry Olldroo..... Thank you. that box was unchecked, so maybe that was the problem. Again thanks a bunch. Lets see what happens on Wednesday.

Caron White Cracking up - but I probably shouldn't be because we are a "coastal home decor" online retailer! We try very very hard to find things that add to the beach feel in your home without being like a gift shop item that you would find at the shore. (P.S. Stripes always work!)