A Passion for Beach Hats

India Hicks has stacked a collection of beach hats on a shelf in her house in the Bahamas above.



Another trait my mother has passed onto me is collecting beach hats. She has always had a passion for beautiful straw/raffia beach hats. I remember her often popping on a new hat ready to head to the beach. Over the years she has collected many, many hats...favouring the designs of Helen Kaminski, Annabel Ingall & most recently Axel Mano.

In a similar way to using baskets as decoration, stacks of hats can also be a great look in a beach house. I often stack my hats on old hat blocks on tables and sideboards. I love the way India Hicks has placed her hats on a shelf in her bookcase as pictured above!!

If you look closely at the picture above you can see my small stack of hats on my sideboard at Straddie.

By incorporating usable, everyday things like hats and baskets into the decoration of our homes, whether they are at the beach, in the country or in the city, we are able to achieve a very personal, simple, cost effective yet stylish look.

Image 1 - via Shelter Blog, Image 2 - via Style Court, Image 3 - via Cote de Texas

Mixing it up!

Wow! Is it ever going snow crazy in Logan. Hopefully you're all cuddled under a warm blanket with some soup, or at least thinking about it like us.

We've had some requests that we do ideas on mixing our old and new papers together. It's a cool concept, and really, why not use all those lovely, older papers? Incorporating them can be a lot easier than you think, too!

Winnies Walls has some of the most adorable designs, so I grabbed a few papers to make cards with.


That first dainty pull out card combines blooming buds, Lovebird's lovey dovey back, Oasis's caspia cardstock, and a Mimosa glitter chiplet. A quick and easy way to say hi!

Those graphic little flowers on the second card make a great statement, especially with that yummy green chiplet against the pink! The paper is playful pansies, and the chiplet is from Mimosa.


Nothing about this layout feels dated with a subdued combination of papers and elements. The background is Madera Island's iluvia back, with a strip of Penelope's Potpourri perfect petals. The yellow seersucker is oceanfront from Bridgeport, and gazebo for the photo mat. Embellishments are a bird die-cut from Lovebirds (that one is blue), velvet ribbon from Chick-A-Doo, coaster tag from Madera Island, and flower and tag from Bridgeport. The brads are from Poppy!

We would love to see what you guys have come up with! E-mail us (seiblog@shopsei.com) or drop us a link in the comments with your results. We hope these have inspired you!

Memories & Family Traditions

Interior Designer Sister Parish once said...

"Even the simplest wicker basket can become priceless when it is loved and cared for through the generations of a family."

As well as being a fashionable accessory to carry to the beach, a basket can be very useful as decoration in a beach house as shown above & below.

Brisbane Artist Claire Stening's painting of a wicker basket.

This is such a simple yet beautiful tradition to begin. I know one day I will have a barrage of wicker baskets to love which my mother has collected over the years. Ever since I can remember, she has carted her goods and chattels, groceries and clothing to and from our family beach house in wicker baskets - big and small, much to my fathers annoyance. He always insisted that they were such a pain to pack in the car.

Always finding an excuse to use a basket my mother {during our childhood} was often seen traipsing down to the beach from the house with the three of us in tow, a beach umbrella under one arm and a wicker basket over the other arm filled with sunscreen, magazines, buckets and spades, towels, hats, drinks and enough spare change for when the ice cream man turned up.

The life-long obsession my mother has had with baskets has rubbed off on me. Gosh, I hope Harry will be prepared for all the wicker baskets he will inherit one day...

Image 1 - Elle Decor, Image 2 - Toast, Image 3 - Clair Stening