Barnacle Beach Find Bottle from Anthropologie.com
Half the fun of going to the beach is foraging for the (non-endangered) houses of abandoned sea creatures, carrying them in our pockets back to our place, and giving them a home of their own upon the mantelpiece altar. But if your summer was anything like mine, not only did you not make it to a beach worthy of said foraging, but you finished summer with a rock collection under your kids’ beds instead of the glint of mother-of-pearl and the scent of the ocean permeating your home.
I’m all for faking it when necessary, and have decided that an instant shell collection may be on the cards. Or perhaps a piece of décor created from someone else’s more successful beach gathering, or a single stand-out specimen turned into a work of art.
No one will ever know I, dressed in my scuba gear, didn’t pluck these barnacles off the bottom of a boat myself!
Left to right, top to bottom: Coral Beach Find Bottle, $598, anthropologie.com; Assorted Beach Shell Vase Filler, $12-$16, set of 11 in multi or 15 in white, potterybarn.com; Roost Shell Birdhouse, Round, $31, velocityartanddesign.com; Shadowboxed Shells, Clams, $149, wisteria.com; Message in a Bottle, $149 set of 3, one in each style, wisteria.com; Roost Petite Shell Mirrors, Abalone or Scallop, $18-$23 each, velocityartanddesign.com
Left to right, top to bottom: Sea Life Sculptures, from $365, neimanmarcus.com; French Seaside Birds, $79 set of 3, wisteria.com; Seaward Chandelier, $872, obxtradingroup.com; Natural Shell Napkin Rings, $15 set of 4, obxtradingroup.com; White Starfish Mirror, $239, beachgrasscottage via etsy.com; Roost Seashells, $60 set 9 large, velocityartanddesign.com
How will you be displaying your shell collection? Tell us in the comments…
