(Re-Run #2!!!) Guest Post from The CSI Project...{Beach Vignettes}

Hey there!

It’s Wendy from Craft Goodies here for another fun stop at CSI.

 I’m excited to be back and even more so to be sharing my little beach vignette with you.

I’m currently working on decorating our back patio and this week’s theme fit in perfectly with my plans (and gave me a kick start to get it finished!) I had an odd little corner that needed some attention. A Beach-ey vignette was a great solution, here’s what I did:

I started by moving in an already painted blue-chippy and aged storage chest to serve as a base.  From there I draped an old twine net across the top of it to work as a table runner. My idea of a “beach” look is more soft colors, chipped and faded paints and natural woods, aged by the sun and water so when I ran across an old crate I couldn’t pass it up. Onto the chest it went.

The patio is also home to our swimming pool and I wanted to incorporate that idea, thus this “Lifeguard on Duty” sign. I made it with six paint sticks. 5 of them cut to 8 inches in length and the other cut into two 5 inch pieces. I painted them, glued them together, white washed the entire piece and then sanded it a bit. I hand painted on the lettering and then nailed it to a quickly constructed post. My post came from a piece of 2x2 nailed to a chunk of 2x4.

The candles were super fast and easy.  I simply tore a strip of map long enough to wrap around the base of the candle and mod podged it onto the candle.

The glass floats are actually plastic holiday ornaments-the ones that split in half. I spray painted the insides with a light coat of blue followed by a heavier coat of brushed nickel and then snapped them back together.

You can’t have a beach without a little sand, right? But where to put it? On my letters of course! I cut out the letters from ½ inch MDF and then slapped on a layer of mod podge and dipped them into some decorator’s sand. Once they dried, I repeated it all again to really cover them well.

With all the pieces done we just had to figure out where to put them! I rearranged three or four times, added in some sea shells, a few drifty looking pieces of wood, and a punch of color, sat back and LOVED IT!

Perfect colors, fun textures, cool ambiance…I’m a happy girl and the patio is looking so much better!

CSI Gals-thanks for letting me stop by again; it’s always a blast and such an honor.

Jump on over to Craft Goodies anytime! I’d love to have you there!

Happy Crafting.