Interior designer Gina Robinson gives tips to help you turn any home into a cozy beach bungalow. The all-white walls and pickled-wood floors of this California coast home provide a clean sun-washed backdrop for casual aged furnishings and beach accessories. In the light-filled dining room a dark-wood harvest table adds a pleasing contrast. Dining-room seating is provided by curvy green chairs that look as though they belong on the beach and old slatted folding chairs. Antique paintings of yachts and ocean liners add a nautical touch, and green turn-of-the-century shutters hinged together into a room screen provide warmth against the white walls. An aged beach table with a slatted top sits in front of a pair of small couches covered in new made-to-look-old striped fabric. A '20s rattan chair with its original green paint completes the fireplace sitting area. Nautical touches -- a painting of an ocean liner, seashells and a beach lantern turned into a lamp -- grace the mantel. Tips: - Rise with the sun to scout out the best deals on early-20th-century painted shutters, rattan and wicker furnishings and nautical paintings from the '20s and '30s at flea markets and antiques sales.
- The key to beach decor is to bring the outdoors in. Group together collections of seashells or beach glass collected on your last vacation, or display favorite pieces of driftwood.
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