Take a coastal beach house tour of our family’s beach house. Tips and ideas for decorating a house with coastal style.
I’ve spent every almost every summer of my life here at Cape Cod.
My great-grandfather drove my great-grandmother out to the edge of the ocean in a sleigh in the middle of a snow covered day and fell in love with each other and the land. After they married, he bought her 40 acres of beach front views in the 1920’s.
Together they grew old and raised four sons, including my grandfather, and helped generations of family to build houses and celebrate summers in a place where the ocean meets the sky.
I am lucky enough to be a part of one of those families.
We spent every summer in one of those houses.
This one.
This amazing, incredible, beautiful, keeper of the summer memories house.
The one I am typing this blog post from.
It was built in the 1950’s and it’s been in our family for over 60 years.
Want to take a tour (including the exact spot I discovered Nancy Drew mystery novels)?
Oh, good.
Here’s a coastal beach house tour of our Cape Cod house.
Coastal Beach House Tour
Here’s the view of the front of the house.
My grandmother considered herself a visionary.
She didn’t want a house like everyone else. She wanted something a little unique and mid-century modern (back when it was actually in the mid-century). So the house has an entire bank of windows that face the ocean. There are two stories of windows on the front of the house with a large roof that slants in the back.
My mother added a sleeping porch on the side of the house with additional windows (you can see it on the left-hand-side) and views of the ocean.
This is the view from those windows.
Nothing but ocean and shoreline as far as the eye can see.
There’s a little path on the left-hand side that takes you right down to the beach. The beach is amazing. It’s sleepy and not really used that much except by family and a few other people that live nearby. We leave our chairs at the base of the path and our flip flops at the top.
Here’s the view on the other side of the windows when you walk in the front door.
The house has a large central living space that can easily house generations of family. The ceiling has the orginial wood beams and the floor is the original slate that my grandmother had installed. No wood planks for her.
Remember?
She considered herself a visionary.
My dad started and my brother finished the built-ins on the left-hand side of the wall and I added the artwork where I made a flag from starfish and sanddollars.
Here’s the kitchen.
Same beams and same floor.
There’s a skylight in the top of the roof and if I squint, I can see my grandmother opening up the shutters on the skylight with a pole with a hook on the end of it.
Directly off the kitchen is the dining room. They are actually kind of the same room.
You can see the corner of the kitchen counter to the right in the picture above.
That table is my great grandmothers and I have eaten more lobster and swordfish and cohogs and corn on the cob at that table than I can count.
On the other side of the dining room is the porch.
It’s an all-weather sleeping porch with a built-in bench for overflow sleeping when we have extra family here at the house.
The gray bench on the left is from the summer camp building where I went to camp (and my kids all went to camp, t00.)
And this is my room.
There are four bedrooms in the house and this is mine.
It’s where I learned to love Nancy Drew.
It’s where I discovered that clam shells make great organizers.
It’s where I planned adventures and listened to the ocean waves against the shore and picked corn cob out of my teeth and wiped off feet covered in Cape Cod sand.
I’m so glad my great-grandmother took that sleigh ride.
It changed the course of my summers.
And in amazing news?
My feet are still sandy and Nancy Drew is still the most brilliant detective in town. 
Sources for Coastal Beach House:
- seagrass chairs in living room
- rug in living room
- super similar rug from dining room and porch
- the starfish pillows in bedroom
- similar curtains to ones in the bedroom
- the striped Euro shams from the bedroom (the set of two was under $16)
- the 24″ x 24″ inserts here
- blue and white duvet cover in bedroom
- this down alternative insert for bedding
- the bed skirt is so cute and it’s pleated and affordable.
- the rug from the bedroom
photography credit: Some of these photos in this post were taken by the amazing photographer for my book, The DIY Style Finder.
disclosure: affiliate links are used in this post. Thank you so much for supporting Thistlewood and when you purchase an item through my links I receive a small commission with no additional cost to you.
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