"Coastal" is as overused as "Old World Feel." Hmm. As is "French Provencal." Ask someone what that actually means and they have no idea. "You know. Frenchy." is what I was informed. Go with what you want and don't feel the need to pigeon hole your space. Blues and white are clean, crisp, traditional and contemporary, and just plain beautiful. IMHO, anything that has water outside the window can be called "coastal." Then, anywhere someone has glued sea horses, sea shells and has shower curtains with waves on them can also be called "coastal." You pick! :) This post was edited by CEFreeman on Thu, Feb 13, 14 at 14:41

I don't have a before picture, but was given a channel back chair that needed to be reupholstered badly. I took it to local guy and he eliminated the channels and I think it looks fine. Have never posted pictures but may be able to follow directions if you need to see the finished result. It sort of looks like a wing back now. d

Didn't mean that it was too narrow of course. Beach houses are usually pretty narrow. The thought only is to not make them more narrow then they have to be. The screen makes sense now. But then what is on the middle of the second floor? I thought the screen was the 1st floor garage space or something. But what the plan does is make the 3rd floor really narrow - which I see often. Looks good as an elevation. I have to admit that I am more practical and our house is boxy as a result - and we weren't allowed to have a 3rd floor. But that being said, can the roof structure be tweaked a bit to allow bigger windows on the side? I feel that 2 feet windows will not match your inspiration. Not asking for 6 ft windows, maybe 4 ft. It would still be a cool room but 4 ft windows would be better. CPartist's floor plan is what I was thinking too - bathroom in the non water side. Don't forget sunsets of course. In our area, the newer houses tower over the old ranches - mostly 40 years old on our beach. So they can enjoy the sunsets on the sound side from higher floors. This of course assuming you are east facing for your water view but not sure if you have said that.

Context is always important. I live in a neighborhood where there are graduate students and medical students and residents in and out, and furniture gets left of the street or rotates through used furniture places. Medical students and residents frequently come from medical or other professional families and have grown up in "decorated" houses and you will see two sorts of sofas left behind. One type was brand new when they moved in (seeing this more and more) and cheap enough to abandon or give away after a few years. The other is a very good quality, but old and very specifically upholstered sofa that may have started out in the LR or in a decorated basement or something that has been held onto because it's a good sofa. Maybe it even came from their grandparents' decorated house. Which looks worse sitting on the street or in a resale shop, divorced from its' setting? It's not going to be this one, which is a cheap, generic and inoffensive sofa that upon closer look is not really well made: It's going to be this one, which at some point was part of a fabulously and very specifically decorated room that was really committed to looking like something, regardless of whether it's your taste or not. I think it's similar to celebrities and models. Some celebrities and models are actually kind of ugly when they are not made up for work. Because beauty and ugliness are often just a few degrees apart, but they are usually at the other end of the spectrum from ordinary.