…you can at least have the fun of decorating one. This sweltering Northeast heatwave has fueled fantasies of a little place on the shore where I can spend the days cooled by ocean breezes and brisk sea water.  I dream of this place. Being a design junky, I mostly fantasize about how I’d furnish it if I had a nice budget to do so.

I have long admired the room vignettes that Nicole Balch puts together on her totally addictive blog Making It Lovely. I have no idea if she uses the same method I did. I am sure she must have a more elegant solution than the one I used. Mine is a hodgepodge of a couple of different pieces of software.  I take a screenshot of a piece I like, I paste that into KeyNote and use the fabulous Alpha feature to isolate only the item, then I paste that into OmniGraffle to arrange my room. Be warned: this is a lot of fun and a major time sucker.

For my beach house I went with a modern, cottage-chic look. Here’s what I chose:

• Vaughn Apartment Sofa ****in military  – $1,499.00 – Crate and Barrel
• Bargello Daisy Pillow – $125.00 (x2) – Jonathan Adler
• Troy Paprika Rug – $119.00 (for the 5×8) – Crate and Barrel
• Timber Pine Coffee Table – $1,095.00 – Sundance
• Ordinal Dresser – $998.00 – Anthropologie
• The Gorda Manderin Table Lamp by Seascape Lighting – $258.oo – Velocity
• Circuit Wall Candleholder – $149.00 – Crate and Barrel
• Mid-Century Rocker in lime – $288.oo ****– Urban Outfitters
• Mustache Snow Globe ****– $12.00 – Urban Outfitters
• Fish Bowl Large ****– $125.00 – Jonathan Adler
• Fruit Basket Small ****– $128.00 – Hive
• Atomic Age Curtain ****– $88.00 (x2) – Anthropologie

The total cost of my dream room is $5,097. This definitely exceeds any furniture budget I have ever had to work with, but it sure is fun to dream. Time for a vodka tonic and a trashy paperback; this is the sort of escape I can afford.