Beach House Blues and Jersey Reds

(Wednesday, September 28, 2011)
Last week I shared with you an "inspiration photo"
for our ongoing beach house renewal.

My sister Peggy found the picture:

The house shown, above, is a rental in North Carolina's Outer Banks,

and is bigger and snazzier

and (trust me!) fancier than our beach house out on Long Island.

It works well for inspiration, because our house shares that natural trim

and big casement windows.  We also love the big brilliant swaths of blues and whites.

We're going boldly blue, friends.

Today, I've begun painting this $15 Craigslist buy

-- a butler's tray table -- 

with a Sherwin Williams color called Hyper Blue.  And it is hyper!

We're throwing many shades of blue into our beach house mix.

The UPS man punted a box with two slipcovers up onto our porch Tuesday.

($29.99 each, free shipping, brand new -- eBay.)

Picture taken with my phone -- sorry about the quality.
The colors in real life range from a beautiful royal to a denim to a deep, deep teal.
The creamy white sets it all off just right.

Nautical stripes in blues and white,

for two club chairs already out at the house.

If these slipcovers work, I'll order white ones for the sofa and loveseat.

Blue and white -- it never fails, does it?

Hmm . . . wish we had a fireplace!

***************************************************

Meanwhile, back here at That Old House, it is another rainy day.

But that doesn't mean Dion and I don't sneak outside between the drops.

We should come up with something different for outside our sunroom door.

Inspire me!  A wet scarecrow isn't terribly glamorous.

 Below, top of the stone retaining wall behind the house -- Husband Howard's potted mums,

and a pot of summer geraniums valiantly blooming away.  And, natch, a pumpkin.   Haha, a pumpkin natch. 

 This must be a special new hybrid -- a menopausal pumpkin.

It's sweating.

On the outside table, atop the lace cloth -- which is really vinyl but ssshhhh -- don't tell! -- is another mum.

Mums, below, getting cozy with Autumn Joy sedum.  I love mums.  Sedum?  Not so crazy about them.

They are goofy looking.  Oh -- there's a nice selection of weeds in there, too.

And what I first thought were wet maple leaves stuck onto the white clapboard siding

of That Old House turned out to be leaves caught in a small spider web.

That is going to be one bitterly disappointed spider.

Back to painting the butler's tray table.

Worst part?  Removing 64 teeny screws to get the 8 hinges off.

Maybe Howard will put them all back for me!  -- Cass

Link parties.

Laura at Decor To Adore sponsors Fall In Love With Your Home ... Click here!

Susan at A Southern Daydreamer sponsors Outdoor Wednesday ...  Click here!

Kathleen at Faded Charm is the hostess for White Wednesday ... Click here!

Sue at It's A Very Cherry World sponsors Today Is Rednesday ... Click here!