Bringing in Spring with Coastal-inspired Home Accents

The allure of the coastal environment keeps us thinking of summer beaches, crisp sea air, and finding sea-creatures on the shoreline. Bring that environment into your home with just a few minutes of your time. You can celebrate the spring season with a home makeover in coastal-inspired home accents. Here's how.
Shocks of coastal-inspired vegetation

This doesn't mean sea-weed. Any greenery that is pointed, grassy, or similar in design to a palm tree, will work for this decoration idea. Fill the bottom of a cylindrical vase (i.e. same size top and base) a little less than the half-way mark with some sand or river rocks. Place your greenery stems (silk or plastic greenery works best) into the center of the sand or rocks and place sea shells around the exposed stems. For the river rocks, you can place more river rocks are larger ones at the top to secure the stems in. Next arrange the stems so that they branch out and around the vase. You can trim and re-position them till you get the look you want. No water required!

These go great behind desk pictures, on a coffee table or a dinner table centerpiece.

Trays

These serve a practical purpose as well. Purchase trays with sea designs on the bottoms, or glue sea designs from wall-paper or greeting cards to the bottom of an unfinished tray. The size is up to you. Little trays can hold pencils, pens, scissors, tacks, paperclips, and other desk items for easy organizing. Larger trays can be used to place magazines, mail, or loose papers as well as be used for serving foods. You can also place these anywhere you want a coastal scene on a countertop, or in the bathroom and on a vanity. The wood finish you choose can be very important. A darker finish will be more reminiscent of the coast than a lighter one.

Shelving and paintings

If you need a few shelves to hold figurines, decorations, books, or just to cover up an empty place on the wall, you can add a coastal-inspired design to it. Purchase unfinished shelving and do the painting yourself to ensure the right color, and stencil on coastal-inspired designs. You can purchase pre-made shelves in a color or design that matches this theme as well. Place shells, starfish, sand dollars, and sea creature sculptures on the shelf.

As far as paintings, you don't have to spend a lot of money to hang a few new coastal-inspired paintings. These types of themes are popular subjects for art and you can find them for less than $10 at most discount stores, or even at the dollar store. Look for an ocean scene, seagulls, boats, lighthouses, and other beach sights that would be perfect for your coastal-inspired theme.

It doesn't take much to add some coastal-inspired home accents, but you'll love the new look and feel.