Beach House Refresh on a Budget {Part 1}

A few months before the boys and I were set to head down to the beach to my spend a few weeks with my parents this summer, I asked Mom if I could help be her “interior designer” for a beach house refresh while I was there. Now of course, I use this term loosely because I am not an interior designer. However, I had been dreaming up a few updates we could implement at the house, and I was itching to get busy! Apparently zhushing houses is my love language. 🙂

After a few discussions about what I had in mind, Mom was on board! Then I recruited my sister to help while she was going to be down visiting and the plan was set in motion. While we soaked up plenty of sunshine during our vacation, we still managed to give the beach house a refresh and I am so excited to share it with you today!

It was SO fun to work on this with my Sister and Mom. And of course, a huge thanks to Dad for doing all of the hanging and hammering and being a good sport about it all in general. 🙂 

The main change I had in mind was losing the dining room and making it this additional den I am sharing. You see, the beach house had two eating areas – a more formal dining room as well as an eat-in kitchen. If you’ve been around here long you know I am all for repurposing dining rooms if it makes sense! We did it in our previous house and it was the best decision EVER. The dining room had a beautiful teak Frontgate table that rarely got used. And there was a smaller table in the kitchen area that everyone crowded around for most meals and general mayhem instead of using the larger table in the dining room. It just seemed like we were not maximizing the space (or the beautiful table!) by having the dining room only used when big dinners happened.

So the furniture shuffle began and it had a domino effect on sprucing the house up!  

We took everything out of the existing dining room and put it all in the garage. Then we started creating this room from scratch, only bringing things back in that made the cut. And I think we ended up with a very serene coastal living space! A whole new room to sit back and relax.

Of course, the dining room table had to go somewhere else so I will be back with Part 2 so you can see where the table landed. We also did several DIY’s so I will share those tutorials as well. 

The best part about this entire beach house refresh is that we spent around $170 to do it all.  The rest was using items my Mom already had around the house. We pulled the couch and pouf out of the existing living room (I’ll be back to show that room soon) and the mirror was already there. The oar is from an old boat at the lake at my parents house back home and it is weathered perfection!

I call it a family heirloom and I think my Dad just calls me crazy. LOL. 

The pair of blue chairs were a thrift store score for $75! That was the bulk of the expense in this entire beach house refresh, but really helped pull this room together. We snagged the wicker end table out of the storage shed and found the lamp for $5 at the thrift store. 

This sweet bathing beauty was already there and I think she approves of her new room. What do you think?

One of the main goals in making this feel more cozy was adding drapes to the back wall. The window is not centered on the wall and by adding curtains we were able to trick the eye so that you really can’t even notice anymore.

We found some burlap on clearance at Walmart for $2 a yard and created these no-sew drapes.  The side of the fabric was perfectly fringed so we only had to cut and glue the top and bottom.  So perfect for creating the beach vibe! The faux wood curtain rod is from Target. 

We made sure the curtain rod was over-sized for the window and hung very high so that it gives the illusion of a much bigger window and really softens up the whole room. The rod is hung 8 feet across and the drapes were made 8 feet long.

The boys definitely claimed this room as their own playroom with a race car track and of course Nerf guns galore piled around. It’s nice to have a spot for them to play out of the way. Love these little sharks! 

This console was part of the original dining room and we were able to make it a focal point of the room centered under the window. Mom already had this magazine rack filled with Coastal Living magazines back in one of the bedrooms and we pulled it out and added it on top of the console for some much needed height. We found the wooden dough bowl at a thrift store while we were down there and put Mom’s vintage croquet balls in it. Perfect for some color! 

One of the things I really wanted to create for the beach house was an official drop spot. Of course, with a houseful of people it means lots of sunglasses, phones, beach hats, purses, keys, magazines, books… you get the idea. There has never been an official “drop spot” for alllllll the things so it was something I really wanted to make happen. 

This room is attached to the back door garage entrance and I had been brainstorming on how we could create this type of space with hooks and baskets and maybe a bench…and was so happy that the house already had just the thing! It just needed to be reworked…

This bakers rack previously lived in the dining room housing extra serving dishes, but we repurposed it to work as the perfect landing zone! All we did was tie some twine and add clothespins to make a spot for hats and sunglasses. This has already become the hub for keeping sunglasses and keys corralled and I imagine it will evolve over time to really be a workhorse for keeping things organized. I removed lots of the “junk” to take these pictures, but we were hanging purses off the sides and had our phone chargers set up here too. 

There are still a few things left to get done like add a rug (there is a chance we have one at home that will work) and hang some art on the back wall, but overall we are all so happy with the results. My Dad was thrilled to “gain” some extra square footage without any construction! 

And because everyone loves a before and after shot- here is what the room looked like when it was the dining room. 

And here is where we landed this summer. 

As I mentioned, many of these items were repurposed or thrift store finds but I tried to source what I could below. 

Grace Line Vintage Travel Poster
Anchor Line Vintage Travel Poster
Side Accent Chairs
Faux Wood Curtain Rod 
Glass Ball Fishing Buoy Balls 
Wooden Dough Bowl  
Vintage Minnow Bucket
Bakers Rack
Bathing Beauty Figurine
Floor Pouf
Starfish Wool Throw Pillow
Sea Shell Wool Throw Pillow
Shark Blanket 

I’ll be back with more updates, “new” dining room and a couple DIY tutorials! Stay tuned!

Beach House Refresh Part 1
Beach House Refresh Part 2
Beach House Refresh Part 3
Beach House Refresh- DIY Oyster Mirror
Beach House Refresh- DIY No-Sew Burlap Drapes
Beach House Refresh on a Budget- DIY Latitude and Longitude Sign

xoxo-

Heather