Old Florida design

Like many Southerners before me, I dream of having a place in Florida. I imagine a vacation home in the Santa Rosa/30-A area. I'd love to have an old Florida style cottage that looks as if it has had the same decor since the 1940's. Picture a corrugated metal roof, clapboard and huge screened porches.

The room above is from House Beautiful and it looks perfect for my little dream cottage.

You can get the look on a budget. I found a $77 oil painting on eBay that would be a great addition to my design. Find five such vintage marine paintings, all of ships or beaches, and hang them together.

As for the side table, the room above is using a small woven table (which is great since I'd be willing to have a bedroom that's a shoebox in order to get the house), but I would probably use the tree stump side table from West Elm. Kind of like I found an old cypress stump and used it.