Surf City!!!

Surfing happens to be one of the oldest practiced sports moving from Hawaii to California and then finally the East Coast. In fact, the "original" Ron Jon's Surf Shop opened on Long Beach Island in 1961. It amazes me that from a little local shop it has transformed into a surfing icon. How many cars have you passed with the "Ron Jon" label on the back window? From its small roots as a beach bungalow-size store, it is now an icon visible as soon as you enter our little island. Guests to our beach house usually require a stop there . . . although not surfers, we find ourselves shopping there for great beach sweatshirts. Our store carries a few surfboard decor items, but my favorite has to be the surfboard wooden plaque set by Suzanne Nicoll, sans shark bite and all! Our little island also has an old-fashioned burger stop called "Woody's" . . . hence our Woody surfboard rugs! Gidget and all of her beach blanket movies really boosted the sport of surfing here, along with the music of the Beach Boys! Yes, there really is a Surf City on Long Beach Island!

Bathing Beauties at the Beach!

I love these retro bathing beauties! They are reminiscent of a time when bathing suits were called "costumes" (and if you look at the old photographs, they do actually resemble a costume more than our version of bathing attire!). And every lady wore a bathing cap to keep her expensively coiffed hair in shape . . . not to mention that most of the ladies of that day still swam with their head stretching out of the water to keep that hair safe! There was actually the fashion thought that the bathing cap resembled the close fitting cloche hats that were in style at the time. They remind me of my great aunt who swam a few times a week (well up into her late 70's) traveling on a train from eastern NJ to her spot on Coney Island where she began swimiming as a child. As a kid I loved visiting her and rummaging through her eclectic collection of clothing, especially her hats. She also had a collection of swim caps and I loved the 60's version with all the crazy flowers.

The wooden retro divers are my favorite. At 46" in length they make quite a statement. I have one above the kitchen sink in our newly renoved beach kitchen (surprised, right?) . . . in aqua. The new bathing beauty diver hook pillow is on its way to our store and coordinates with so many of our other pillows in that shade. You can create quite a varied seaside look with this collection. And we could all use a little bathing beauty on a hand towel!

Mermaids at the Beach

Who doesn't love a mermaid at the beach? Mermaids and their tales have been around forever. Stories abound around their origin but the best loved story in more recent history is the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale of "The Little Mermaid". This has arguably become the standard and has influenced most modern depictions of mermaids since its publication.

We took our then very young daughter to see the Disney version of "The Little Mermaid". She spent countless hours reenacting Ariel's scenes with my husband playing the prince, of course. She knew the words to every song, long before it was so easy to find them on the internet. By default, my younger son came to love Sebastian. My husband and I can still see him in the Sebastian red crab Halloween costume I painstakingly made.

Our beach house has its supply of mermaids, also. Life at the Jersey Shore, usually means an outside or semi-outside shower area. It's always fun to bring new guests down to see their reaction to this beach-side staple. In renovating our beach house, we added a small dressing area to our shower and I used the wooden mermaid plaques by Suzanne Nicoll featured on our website. You can even add some hooks to make these plaques into towel racks.

Mermaids in a little girl's room at the beach, is well, adorable. Suzanne Nicoll Studios also has just introduced a really great new swimming mermaid in a retro polka dot mermaid costume, which we have just added to our website. I will be finding a spot for one of those at our beach house! We have also added the signature mermaid picket fence posts from Suzanne Nicoll which feature mermaids with your choice of hair color on old weathered fence posts.

Artwork for Your Beach Walls

Coastal decor artwork has come a long way from its original start as more and more artists and designers are looking to the beach for inspiration.

A few years ago, artwork for your seaside haven was limited to a ship charting its course through rough waters or a few sandpiper birds scurrying along the surf. Now our beach decor decorating choices have expanded to include contemporary and original takes on coastal decor artwork.

We chose these stunning shell studies done on canvas with a simple black background for their dramatic effect against our walls.

There are areas in your beach space where you may want a different way to decorate your coastal walls. Our online store http://www.bytheseadecor.com/ proudly carries many of the original wood plaques offered by the talented artist, Suzanne Nicoll. The colorful set of three surfboards look great in my son's room, sans shark bite and all! Standing a substantial 42" tall, this room does not need much more decorating attention.

My favorite new addition is the retro woman diver available in a variety of beach colors. I chose the aqua one (oh, what a surprise!) and she is going to find a place in my newly renovated coastal kitchen.

I am a big fan of mixing things up in decorating. No "themes" . . . simply pieces that are different but compliment each other.

Have fun dressing those coastal walls!