A New Beach Lifestyle Book I Love, & Other Favorites

There’s so much to love about Lauren Liess’ newest book, Beach Life. As with all her books, she leans heavily into nature and her surroundings for inspiration. 

The above photo is a collection of shells, beach stones, rocks, and driftwood from some of our favorite beaches. Salt Creek and Strands Beach in Dana Point, California, and Ditch Plains in Montauk to Biarritz in France.

Looking at and studying the images in Beach Life Home Heart & the Sea reminds me why I love living by the water. It may look a little different on the shores of Coastal Connecticut, where I live, than in Southern California, where I used to live, but every image has a very laid-back feel. You can almost feel the sand under your feet as you go from room to room in her book. 

The colors are natural, like the landscape: warm sand, coffee-colored woods, terracotta, and muted greens like the beach grasses. Texture is another essential element. She uses wicker in baskets, pendants, and furniture.

For art, she used simple clip frames with dried botanicals, canvases with beachy (but too contrived) sayings, and even some art that looks like a photograph was copied onto a canvas—bowls, bottles, and bins filled with beach treasures from shells and rocks to dried grasses.

I thought it would be fun for Sunday Favorites with Mary Ann and Cindy to recreate a few of the ideas from her book. It was pretty easy once I started to source many of the ideas on the pages of her book. It’s making me want to renovate a little cottage somewhere! A cottage where I can start fresh using only the things I want, and minimal. Very minimal. 

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A casual sitting area tucked into a corner of a larger room

Bistro table  // Galvanized Steel Pail  // Wicker Chairs

I love how she mixes hard metals with softer organic materials like wicker and rattan. On top of the table is a galvanized bucket filled with beachy grasses. It’s simple, earthy, and beautiful without trying too hard.

Casual beachy entryway

Flushmount Stainless Ceiling Light  // O’Neill Surf Hat // Helen Kaminski Raffia Hat // Recycled Gass Vase // Wood Knot // Vintage Woven Wicker Bottle // Turkish Cotton Towels  // Scalloped Table Lamp // Concrete Doorstop // Rope Doorstop // Reed Console Table 

A small entryway table with a shelf to store Turkish towels and straw hats, a lamp, and a few objects on top creates a simple, welcoming entryway. It still feels airy but has that collected, cozy feel at the same time.

A beach house porch

Turkish Cotton Beach Towels // Turkish Stripe Beach Towel // Turkish Tassle Towels // Indio Eucalyptus Adirondack Chair

There’s nothing pretentious about this beach house porch. Yet, it makes you long for that quiet time on the porch with the sea breeze blowing, a cup of tea, coffee, or wine, and a good book.

Books by Lauren Liess

Beach Life Home Heart & the Sea

Feels Like Home: Relaxed Interiors for a Meaningful Life

Down to Earth: Laid-back Interiors for Modern Living

Habitat: The Field Guide to Decorating

Scenes from around our little beach cottage in the summertime

We live in a small beach community one hour from Manhattan by car or train (the station is 1/2 mile away, and we can hear it in the distance). We love where we live because of the proximity to the water and New York City, where our grown children live.

We love that we can go into the city a few times a week, and our kids can come home to swim, play golf, or have dinner with us on the porch. Living by the water and close to NYC is the best of both worlds, at least for now.

It’s a banner year for hydrangeas. Our bushes are so full of blooms you can cut armfuls, and they still look full and bursting with pink, purple, and blue. I made a simple centerpiece using a Cayman Seagrass bowl from Serena & Lily and a Kenzan (or flower frog) from Terrain.

A simple hydrangea centerpiece

Cayman Seagrass Bowl from Serena & Lily // Kenzan (flower frog) // Pruners from terrain

Beach centerpiece using a metal tray.

To make this simple centerpiece, I used a metal tray with magnetic candleholders that you can move around from Terrain. I arranged shells and driftwood onto the distressed metal tray, using twisty tapers that seemed to blend with the colors of the shells.

Here are a few more Sunday Favorites:

Easy 4-Ingredient Golden Oreo Milkshake Popsicles from Sheri Silver

A lovely 4th of July round-up post from Pinecones & Acorns

All leather black Birkenstocks for women are available at Nordstrom. I searched for a new pair everywhere and found them at my local Nordstrom store.

Let’s see what Cindy & Mary Ann found this week!

Cindy Hattersley Design

Classic Casual Home