My Never Ending Crush on Coastal ...

ALL of my life, I've loved the ocean ... not going IN it, necessarily (although, I'd spend hours in it when I was little), but, just how it makes me feel ... the smell of the ocean air ... the roar of the waves ... and the noise of the seagulls hunting for a snack.  It always brings back great memories of my sisters and me when we would vacation at the beach when we were young ... throwing sand at each other ... pushing each other on rafts directly into the crest of the waves so that we'd go crashing down onto the shoreline ... waiting to hear the sound of the ice cream truck ... and, enjoying fresh corn on the cob while sitting on the deck, listening to Carly Simon and Carole King.

That's why I'm so thankful I get to LIVE by the beach ... even though we don't stick our toes in the sand nearly enough, just "knowing" it's a few miles down the road makes me happy!

I suppose that's why I love adding coastal accents to our home, with our mantel being no exception.  When I spotted this pretty piece at Home Goods, I  just knew it'd be the perfect focal point for our coastal mantel:

This cute shore bird just "had" to fly the coop at Big Lots and come home with me.  He loves being perched by our mercury-based hurricane filled with sand and simple pillar candle:

Glass floats wrapped in twine (from Pottery Barn) joined the gang, too:

As did this piece of coral I had on hand:

Little starfish (also from Pottery Barn) are so easy to scatter around ... and, little mercury votive holders tie in with our hurricanes:

As I wasn't quite ready to let go of the white dogwood branches I had in place for our Spring mantel, I simply added Manzanita branches to them to give them a little "coastal" feel, too:

It all came together to look like this ...

Just a simple coastal mantel that, when I look at it, brings back great beach memories of my childhood and those that my family and I have yet to make:

So ... do memories from your childhood have an effect on your decorating styles?  Apparently, they do with mine!

I'm off to party here:

Savvy Southern Style/WUW
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia/Tuesday's Treasures
No Minimalist Here/Open House Party

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,