ways to make your landlocked home feel beachy

I know the plight of being landlocked while desperately wanting to be by the sea! For years (30!) I lived in verrrrry landlocked Tennessee, wishing and dreaming that I was closer to the East or gulf coast. I vacationed as a child in Jacksonville, Florida with my entire extended family (my grandparents rented out the whole of a fabulous little motel on the beach). Nowadays the smell of frying bacon and salt air brings me back immediately to my fondest childhood memories!

I remember being 8 and 9 years old, looking out the window on the 12-hour car ride at little houses in Florida, thinking through what it would be like if I lived in one of those houses (and could get to the beach in only 15-30 minutes).

I asked the checkout girl at J Crew Factory in Destin, Florida on my college senior beach trip what it was like to live there. I always thought to myself, “If they can live here, why can’t I?” Unfortunately, my family didn’t feel the same way and I couldn’t get a job anywhere coastal right out of school. But once I married my college sweetheart, I started begging him immediately to move me to the beach.

It only took ten years, but we made it!

In the meantime, I made myself feel like I was on the coast as many ways as I could.

Window Treatments

When Drew and I got married and went on our honeymoon in Mexico, one of the things I immediately needed upon our arrival back stateside was flowy white window sheers. Breezy white sheers made me feel like I was in a resort (or the Pearl Harbor movie, lol) and hanging up some beachy blue curtains outside on our apartment balcony gave us privacy from our hundreds of immediate neighbors while still feeling elegant and windswept.

Tropical Plants

Oh man… the amount of palm varieties I have killed through the years! I had cane plants in my office back in my Nashville wedding planner days but the only light that came in was a teensy little 2ftx1.5ft window so they were doomed from the get-go. We had majesty palms on the patio and everywhere I could fit them. I brought a sago palm back from Savannah one year and tried to keep it alive but I just never could save it.

That said, if you use the right potting soil (tropical!) and have some daylight streaming in or can pop your plants outside for sunlight and bring them in during the winters, many tropical plants can technically live indoors. The shopping malls always had huge majesty palms soaking up the skylights, so you just have to give them what they want.

Paint

Everywhere you go in Charleston, the houses are filled with rooms drenched in pale blues and greens and white and natural tones. The lighter the color, the better (subtle, y’all). Bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, everything looks better in a coastal color. Make sure you have plenty of natural daylight or fake it with a bunch of lamps in a variety of heights (NO OVERHEAD LIGHTS), and go for light or natural washes of wood. My 2012 self was all about that “espresso” rinse on all our particle board furniture (lol)… just say no. Antiques are fine, just avoid dark and moody stains, anything “honey” colored (ick!)… natural driftwood, sunbleached palms, seagrass, jute are your besties.

Not-too-Literal Decor

As tempting as it may be to get a starfish shower curtain or giant metal crab… less is more when it comes to beachy decor. You want to “nod” to it, not be explicit. We’re going for more of a British Colonial vibe than a Panama City Beach condo ;). This is a line you have to toe carefully — I’m all about brass palm tree candlesticks, rattan fish lamps, and literal seascape paintings, but ceramic mermaids and tin turtles are just too much. As a rule of thumb, stick to natural materials… brass, jute, rattan, linen, palm leaves — and use your best judgment. Of course, if you’re in love with something and it’s super kitschy, just lean into it. Life is too short to take yourself too seriously. Don’t let me steal the joy that “BEACH HOUSE” metal sign gives you. (But also… avoid anything with words and phrases, especially if you are literally a thousand miles from the nearest beach. Is anything sillier?)

Landscaping

If you have the option to put in a pool and set up your own tiki bar in the backyard, kudos to you!!! You create your own little slice of heaven. Just know that palm trees don’t survive Tennessee winters… back in like 2014 there was a company that had a beautiful palmetto right off a main road for one summer and the best of intentions of bringing the beach to middle TN… it turned brown come December and was dead as a doornail by January. Sad day. Hire a professional landscaper to figure out what will make it (banana plants seem to live in a ton of places, or at least come back year after year!) and pot the rest, bring them in the garage in the winter, and live your best coastal life.

Raising a Topo Chico in your honor!