Coastal Decor

A creature is a subject, an object is a texture

A manatee, a dolphin or a pair of seahorses is one animal held in a frame, and attention goes to it and stops there. Starfish and sailboat designs spread evenly over the surface, so nothing in them asks to be looked at first. Drop a creature into a room that already has something dominant in it and the two argue. Put an object design in the same spot and it fills the gap without starting a second conversation.

• Neutral room, creature design. With nothing else competing, a manatee or a dolphin can be the thing worth looking at.
• Room already carrying blue, object design. Starfish and sailboats deliver the theme without introducing a rival focal point.
• Objects shrink better. A starfish design still works at fourteen inches square, a size where a whole animal ends up squeezed.

It is used inland, and that is fine

This look appears far more often in landlocked houses than in beach ones, and there is no reason to pretend otherwise. What it is doing in a suburban bathroom or a spare bedroom is signaling light, air and an absence of clutter, and it does that job perfectly well four hundred miles from any water. Where it struggles is a room already committed to something heavier, because these designs were drawn assuming a lot of pale wall around them.

• Bathrooms and guest rooms take it easily. Both are rooms where light and calm are the point, whatever the geography.
• It expects pale walls. Against a deep or saturated color the artwork loses the openness it was built on.
• One room rather than the whole house. Coastal registers as a theme very quickly, and repeating it start to finish is what tips it into costume.

The wind chime plays by other rules

The wind chime is strung glass rather than printed polyester, and almost nothing that applies to the textiles applies to it. It hangs, it needs moving air before it does anything at all, and it makes a sound that carries into the house and next door. At twenty six inches it also needs real clearance, which puts it under a porch roof or an eave rather than beside a window.

• Give it a draft. In a sheltered corner with no air movement it is a hanging ornament and nothing more.
• Glass is softer than metal. It still carries at night, so think about the bedroom window before the hook goes in.
• Allow for the drop. Measure from the hook down, not from the ceiling, and leave head height underneath it.

Which piece goes where

The coastal designs are spread across three different jobs, and matching the piece to the position is most of the decision. Below is the short version of where each one belongs.

• At the entry. The dolphin and starfish artwork runs as printed door mats for a porch or a hallway.
• On seating. Manatee, seahorses and the sailboat scene are printed pillows at the larger square.
• Outside the door. The wind chime is the piece meant to be hung rather than sat on or walked over.