design whim

Cruising to Mexico .... ¡Ay!

¡Nos vemos en Mexico!
Hola gente,
You know how unpredictable us whims can be. We've decided to check out the pueblas en Mexico via cruise ship. Here's to fiestas, tequila y sonrisas over the next week. Hoping to bring back some cool material for you next weekend.
Ciao for now whims ¡abrazos y besos!

Beachside motels have us hanging on ...

 
Beachside motels charm us to death- like the Chelsea Hotel exterior in Atlantic City rendered at left. We are hanging on to summer ‘til the bitter end and wearing flip flops until our toes turn blue.

Love for an outdoor kitchen

It may be true that we can be a bit of a hazard when we get our hands on the stove.  Luckily, the last time we accidentally set our shirt on fire, the expensive threads were courtesy of our unknowing roommate.  Despite our lack of cooking prowess, we do love kitchens to be aethestically arranged to reflect our undoubtable charm.  Even better, to be positioned outside as a prized addition to a glorious summer house. 

This summer house (or "sommerhus" in Danish) via the Danish blog BOLIG comes equipped with just the right size outdoor kitchen to complement the deck for summertime lounging, gathering friends and serving catered snacks that you can pretend you made on the outdoor amenities. Oh come on. It's better than putting our roommate's charred shirt by his dog's bed and saying "Fido! What did you do?!"  We're better than that these days.

Summer loungin' under terrace umbrellas

 
Sometimes it's worth it to remind ourselves to take a look at things from another perspective. We can get so wrapped up in our immediate radius that we're not really seeing all that's going on above, below and around us.  Being the snarky observer that we are, we do enjoy the beauty of the bird's eye view.  There's so much to see from way up high that we typically miss out on when we're shuffling back and forth carrying out everyday activities.

This black and white nostalgic arrangement of terrace umbrellas via Decoesfera takes us to where we want to be. Sun shiny moments of summer lounging and laziness.  Ah, it looks so good from up here.

Solar energy slick architecture in Cape Cod

When we came across this Cape Cod beach house wonder designed by energy saving specialists Zero Energy Design via Ocean Home Magazine (the latest and greatest on our list of coastal publication love), we thought "How DARE any home not live up to such solar powered standards as this one." Or at the very least, make for as wonderful topographical eye candy.

"The house produces more electricity than it needs and sells the surplus back to the grid.” says Stephanie Horowitz, AIA, of the Boston design firm.

Umm, yea...why don't you stick that in your pipe and smoke it?  Or don't!  That would smoke up our precious air.  We heart natural energy.

 

Seaside sauna

 
We do love a good sweat sometimes.  A steaming hot sauna after a workout or post-swim, ahh. On the list for our dream house? Um, duh. After seeing this boathouse sauna, we want our very own little hotbox with amazing views of the sea. Sweat..sweat...sweat. (via Sköna hem)

Viva la Havana Cocktail Club

Everything we love in Old Havana (even the Vitamin Water that we must acknowledge since it can't go unnoticed in the lovely shot of the bar....).  Vintage boxing graphics, rum cocktails and Cuban style is "where leisure is paramount". Havana Cocktail Club in Seattle, Washington branded by 51 Eggs.
 

Uruguay home. Snoozing in canoes.

 
Uruguay home (via Seaside Style from Taschen).

Above: Canoe bed. Below: Swinging kitchen storage.

 

Rockabillies on style.

Quite a tiki glass collection.  Rockabilly kitchen photo via The Rockabillies by Jennifer Greenburg via retro renovation. 

On the Set: Elvis' Blue Hawaii at the Coco Palms

Since it was Elvis’ birthday on Friday and we had been suffering a horrible case of the sniffles, we decided to celebrate the birth of the King by snuggling up with a steaming cup of Theraflu to watch some of his best films this weekend.

Blue Hawaii was top on the list since we of course, wanted to be transported away from winter's cold to a world of palm trees, blue waters and Elvis crooning tunes in a lei.

A sucker for 1960’s summer style (re: Dirty Dancing, Beach Party) we discovered that some of Blue Hawaii was filmed at The Coco Palms Resort in Kauai, Hawaii- an island devastatingly damaged by Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

The film sparked an onslaught of “Blue Hawaii” weddings since the famous wedding scene did in fact, take place at the Coco Palms (Elvis is pictured above at the resort in 1961). Touching yes- but we had a hankering to bring Blue Hawaii style to us some other way (if we’re going to get married Elvis style we’d prefer a chapel in Vegas- probably immediately followed by a frantic annulment).

We discovered this postcard image of a Coco Palms bedroom suite as it looked in 1960 on the resort's website.

Named the Outrigger Bed, the fishnet bedspread, and paddle lights flanking the outriggers (no worries of capsizing in this bad boy- and no chance of rolling out of it either!), this would make for a fun DIY project. Perhaps for a beach house guest room, but fans of kitsch let your imagination run wild.

Some lined fishnet fabric, fun trim, colorful pillows and of course, paddles could make for a bedroom get-up that rock rocks the hula (we couldn’t resist slipping that one in). An alternative to creating custom paddle lights (we understand how ambitious that can be and would no doubt, enlist someone else to do it), hang them on the wall! Wall hung oars make for an appropriate seaside style focal point.

Mahalo! Happy Birthday Elvis.