vacation highlights and styling projects

A typical sunrise at our beach in Sea Pines.

Summer vacation is over, and I really miss it. It's like we snapped our fingers, and it vanished into thin air! Over... so quickly. That's the way it goes with these sorts of things, I guess.

This year's two week vacation was spent at our home in South Carolina. Our first week there was dedicated mostly to DIY projects and updates in the house. 

We try to maintain the original 1968 style of the home but at the same time bring it up to more modern standards with the use of fresh paint and coastal accents.

 

Located on Hilton Head Island, our home is second row from the beach so coastal style and accessories are a must, but at the same time, we try to keep it from looking too kitschy.

 

Since we're only able to get out there for about two weeks a year, the rest of the time, the home is available on VRBO for vacation rental. 

The laundry room wall is updated with a variety of vintage baskets.

It’s been two long years since we’ve been able to travel back east, so the house needed major attention! 

We hired a painter to help us spruce up the fence, repaint the kitchen cabinets, walls and all the doors for a much overdue facelift. We tackled the more fun jobs like adding new artwork, accessories, bedding and organizing the kitchen.

An easy way to add texture and coastal charm to a room is to display a collection of baskets on the wall. 

The photo above shows our laundry room. It’s the first room that guests see when they come through the carport door, so we wanted to make it fun.

 

Most of the round baskets are thrift store finds that cost between 50 cents and $2, and I also found a couple of nice ones at Home Goods.

The wall of coat hooks is perfect for hats, bags and beach towels. We actually put that together over 15 years ago, and it's proved to be a great addition and very user friendly. 

 These vintage travel posters were thrift shop finds.

We traded out some tired artwork for bright and more appropriate beach house art and sprinkled in some new pillows and other goodies throughout the house.

 

The Savannah brick fireplace is original to the house.

The living room is a big, bright and cozy room. We simplified the look, added a few fun accents, and reupholstered two vintage slipper chairs. The bookcases did need some attention, though.

Spotted these at a consignment store, but they weren’t cheap.  

We needed a pair of vases or urns to fit into the top of the bookcases that feature arched openings. After scouring several thrift stores, Home Goods and consignment stores, we found the perfect pair.

This pair of vases were the perfect size, shape and color 

for the top of the bookcases.

I also restyled the books in a more informal manner and only used books that were in blue, green, beige, white and black tones.

 Lowcountry Produce is our favorite restaurant in Sea Pines.

Even though the DIY stuff did seep its way into our second week of vacation time, we did spend some nice beach days and dining time with our boys. Biking and fishing are also favorite activities.

This is the view from our favorite high-top table.

Here’s a peek at our top choice for dining, Lowcountry Produce. It’s really close to our home, and the food is always good. It’s more of a breakfast and lunch place, but they are open a few nights for dinner.

 

Besides the great food and surroundings, they have a relaxing playlist of music, mostly good 80’s songs. 

Their homemade baked goods are out of this world. Amazingly delicious giant peanut butter chocolate chip cookies always seemed to make their way home with us.

 

Our friend Tad came to visit us one weekend and brought his portable pizza oven, so we each got to make our own custom pizzas, which was really fun! The most unusual one we made was topped with mango pineapple salsa and local shrimp, yum!

 

Pizza night was finished off by warm plum pie from Lowcountry Produce, served à la mode, of course!

Our time in Hilton Head was really busy with all the projects we had to do, so there was no time to visit Savannah this time around. I was looking forward to visiting my favorite store and coffee house, The Paris Market, but it’ll have to wait until next time.

 

One funny thing is that while perusing The Paris Market on Instagram, I noticed that they carry a few tablecloths by Pacific & Rose!

 

The REALLY cool thing is that their website features some of the photos I styled and photographed… it's so funny how the world revolves, and then comes back compounded with the things you love most!

 

Among the pile of mail that was waiting for us when we arrived home was the new October/November issue of Cottages & Bungalows.

 

It was fun to see the little Laguna Beach project I styled back in March. We actually styled a summer look first that you can see HERE, and then we put together this quick outdoor vignette for fall.

 

We used the homeowner’s existing furniture, rugs and pillows, and I brought in the pumpkins, baskets, plaid throw, orange feather napkins, and HELLO PUMPKIN pillow.

After moving some things around, the pretty orange Birds of Paradise flowers and palms made a nice backdrop for the photo. The sunflowers really do liven things up too.

 

It was a quick “let’s just shoot something fun for fall” moment. Turned out pretty cute, I’d say. 

ciao! fabiana

 

 

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