Decorating Coastal Style

Ho Hum, let's see. New house. New community. Same old Christmas decorations. I'm wondering how to spice up my decor with lighter colors and a coastal sense of humor.

Of course, I can't throw out my Santa collection. And some things in the classic red and green color scheme must stay. Plus, I don't have an unlimited budget! And... I did shop on Cyber Monday making budget tighter.

But still there's got to be ways to reuse, refresh and restore the spirit. Here's how I did it.

First, I challenged myself to shop locally in my small town (population 8,500). Then, I tried to reuse as much as I have. Thirdly, not to spend a lot of money.

I started out going to a few of my favorite shops -- Comforts of Home and Maison -- to get some inspiration. At Maison I also got a complimentary glass of champagne. Woo Yaa!

At the stores I noticed colored rocks lining the bottom of jars with decorations on top. But at $20 per packet of rocks, they were not in my budget. So, I went to Walmart and bought colored bath salts to fill my hurricane glass. I topped it with my star fish and dropped in some silver balls. A bonus is it smells great and I get to soak in the salts after Christmas. Plus, the salts cost $4. In another hurricane candle holder, I added a red candle accented with colored light bulbs. Woo Yaa!

I love the color of lime green so I decide to sub-out some of the standard red ribbons in my wreaths with lime green ones. I also bought some lime green floral decor with sparkles to add some punch to my swags. It's amazing what a person can do with twister's and hot glue.

But one of my biggest changes was to make decorations out of starfish for my outdoor lighted potted trees. It was so easy, I'm almost embarrassed to admit it. I bought 12 starfish in two sizes from a local shell shop. Then I hot glued hooks on the back. Total time - about 5 minutes. I placed the starfish on the trees, then wrapped a string of red wired ribbon around the tree and topped with a lime green bow. 

To punch up my table decor, I reused my red place mats and napkins but added lime green and blue stripe napkins. Place the napkins together on the diagonal to each other, gather up, and then secure with napkin rings. I used my old gold napkin rings. It looks fresh and modern.

In our front cobalt blue pots, I planted hot pink Cyclamen accented with Dusty Miller. Both seem to be deer resistant which is a big issue in our area.

When my husband got home from work, he said, "Wow, the house looks really nice." I wanted to say, "Good, now I'm going to bed."

Then today my friend Winnie, who is an interior designer, stopped by saying how nice the front of the house looks. So, I'd say it's been a success and didn't break the bank.

Wondering how to keep my poinsettias looking fresh through Christmas.

 The Wondering Texan

Quotable Quote:
 My son upon seeing a neighbors light show (it's like the Griswold's house) said to me, "When can we put more lights up? All we have is this puny deer out front!"