Trolling for Towels

Finds
April 29, 2014

It is beach week here at Lacquered Life, as WWB and I gear up to head to Jamaica on Friday for our anniversary! After yesterday’s post on beach chairs, today we continue with beach towels. I wanted to do a post on towels because these days there is so much more available than the traditional striped terry cloth towel. That being said, I do love a Lands End striped towel. However, today we’re talking non-traditional beach towels, the kind that could just as easily be a sarong or pareo.
First up 8 Knots. I did a post on 8 Knots back in January, so I won’t go into too much detail, but we have two of them, they’re highly absorbent, come in a variety of color combinations, look great wrapped around your waist, and are available at favorite Charleston men’s shop Indigo & Cotton.Next are these beautiful Turkish Towels from Furbish Studio. Again, these towels come in a variety of pretty colors, and would clearly look great as a sarong. One of the things I love about all these Turkish towels is that they are so lightweight. When you’re sitting on the beach during a South Carolina summer, even lying on terry cloth can feel hot. A new favorite, the Amado beach towel and blanket from Matouk! Yes, you heard me right, blanket. So you could have a towel as well as the perfect throw for a beach picnic. What is really special about these towels is that the colored stripes are a flat weave, like the turkish towels above, and the white stripes are in a thin terry cloth. So you actually get the best of both worlds.
And finally, my favorite, the beach towels from Roberta Roller Rabbit. If you follow Lacquered Life on Instagram (you should!), you have probably seen my Roberta towel featured quite often in photos on the beach. One of the things I love about it is its size – at 46″ x 90″ not even your feet are touching the sand. So it is a little big and would not be a good sarong … but let’s be honest, you already have a sarong from Roberta Roller Rabbit so the towel doesn’t have to do double duty. Do you have a favorite towel? Time to stock up for summer!

Sitting on the Beach

Finds
April 28, 2014

Beach weather has finally hit Charleston, and after the long winter we had (yes! it was cold here too) I am so excited to finally get in some time in the sun and sand. Whenever we’re at the beach, at least one person asks us where our beach chairs are from, so I thought I would share it with you. The chairs are from Cape Cod Beach Chair Company, located in Chatham, MA. These chairs are THE BEST. Not only do they look tres chic, but they each have two cup holders, and a handle that makes them easy to carry.What is great about these chairs is that they are completely customizable. There are several different types of chairs to choose from, as well as different types of fabrics. We chose the Surfside Recliner made out of a Balau hardwood and instead of the typical sunbrella fabric, we chose a sailcloth. Cape Cod Beach Chair Company also makes a footrest attachment, tables, towels – comprehensive beach outfitters. So grab a chair from Cape Cod Beach Chair Company, and come join me on the beach!

Photos by the author, as seen on Instagram

Modern Living in an Historic Setting

Architecture
April 24, 2014

As a preservationist, I love when people make modern additions to historic homes. Instead of feeling as though they can’t live in a piece of history, they respect that piece of history and adapt it to their more modern lifestyles. Case in point, this c. 1875 double fronted Victorian in Richmond, England. Typical of the time period, this home had large formal rooms in the front, and the rooms that are more important for 21st century life – like the kitchen – were small and dark. Well looking at this beautiful front door and its surround, you wouldn’t think that the rear of the house looked like this … What is so wonderful about this addition, is that there is absolutely no confusion about what part of the house is old and what part of the house is new. Often, when people make additions to historic homes, it is unclear to the visitor what is old and what is new. As preservationists, we believe that you should be able to distinguish between the old and the new. An addition like this allows the family the wide open, functional, modern spaces they craved … While retaining, and not truly altering, many of the original 19th century elements of the home. So, what do you think?

Photos via Dwell.com