In case you missed the other posts, we just came back from Myrtle Beach. We have been there many times before and we love bringing home souvenirs, but we decided to try something different this time. Our home is mostly beach themed, and my daughter repainted the hall a light blue before we left. She thought it would be cool to hand starfish {or sea stars, as I believe they are now called} in the hall, and I agreed.
Decorating With Starfish
We spent a little bit of our vacation looking for the perfect starfish. As I have never seen a beautiful one wash up on shore, I left it to area stores to provide beautiful starfish. We searched a few stores and found the best ones at Shell World {Surfside} and Sparky’s {about an hour away from the beach on our drive home, believe it or not}. All of the materials cost us about $30 to put this together in the hall. If memory serves me correctly, the small starfish were about $1.99 a piece, the medium ones were $2.99-$3.99 and the big ones were $5.99-$6.99. I already had the netting. I bought it on a previous trip, but I am pretty sure that I bought it at Myrtle Beach Flea Market for about $5.
This is really simple to do. First, arrange your netting the way you want it and hang it on some nails. Make sure you put at least most of the nails in as the starfish can be heavy, not individually, but as a group. Then, add your starfish to the netting. Starfish have knobby things on them, so make sure you get the knobs in through the netting until they are secured in place.
Ooh Ooh That Smell
One thing that I never realized was that starfish smell fishy. That makes perfect sense, though. So, you might want to spray some Lysol after you hang your masterpiece so that your house doesn’t smell yucky. Also, I had one big starfish that I couldn’t get to fit in the netting. I am not quite sure what I will do with the lone starfish, but if anyone has any ideas, feel free to share them.
What a wonderful reminder of the vacation you took! I’m sure you’ll enjoy it for years to come!
How pretty! This would be a great vacation memory. I like displaying shells in a glass apothecary jar, but this is a great way to add some interest to a wall.
Oh I love that! I have some shells sitting around my kitchen in old blue Ball Jars {and a few clear ones}.
I hadn’t thought about a fish smell either. Interesting. This is a creative idea. The net adds a nice nautical touch. If you want photos or pictures in the room you can decorate the frame with a couple star fish.
Oh that is great idea. I was thinking about trying to make a shadow box with the other big starfish, too. If I do, I will post it.
This would be really cute for a beach house or if you have a bathroom with a beach ocean design.
We did this in our bathroom & hung the net at a verticle position from corner to corner & was able to stuff the net full. It was amazingling cool looking.
What a cute idea for your hallway. It will always remind you of what a great trip you had. As for the the large starfish and what to do with it maybe you could turn it into a clock. It’s real cheap for a battery clock kit on Amazon.com. I found one here http://www.amazon.com/Clock-Movement-Quartz-Square-Antique/dp/B001BBWQYU/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1395162834&sr=8-7&keywords=clock+kit for only $2.00.
Just a thought.
I really like decorating with a sea or lighthouse theme. This fits in perfect.
With the starfish, does the fishy smell go away? I like to use sea shells. I have glass jars layered with different bath products and shells.
I am not sure if it would have gone away on its own. Since I bought them from a store, I assume they were there for at least a little while, so I was kind of doubting it. The Lysol seems to have done the trick, though.
This is a wonderful creative reminder of the trip you took. I wonder if there is a way of preserving the starfish so that they won’t smell?
Not sure. The Lysol seems to have done the trick, though.
Your house looks so nice and calming! (You would die if you saw my apartment – furnished in Early Salvation Army, with some accent pieces from Goodwill). Once upon a time, I had nice starfish, too – I found that if I gave them a nice coating of Modge Podge, it stopped them from smelling, and protected them, too. About your big one – maybe spray, it, coat it, hollow out a couple of spaces, and use it for a votive candle holder, maybe as a centerpiece, especially for July 4th & other summer gatherings?
Oh that Modge Podge is a great idea! And the candle holder. Funny thing is, the hotel that we stayed in has starfish candle holders in our room. You would think a light bulb might have gone off in my head. I wonder how you would make a whole in it without cracking it. I have tried that before with seashells and cracked them.
Oh this is so pretty! I used to collect starfish when I was a girl. Great way to record your vacation moments!
That turned out so neat! I know i have a stack of starfish and sand dollars that I should do something like this with. My mom once used them to decorate her mirror in the bathroom. It was really cute and matched her decor.
This is a great idea, it would look great in my sea themed bathroom. I think I may spray some kind of finish on the starfish first though and try to avoid any smell. Glad you mentioned that before I got it on the wall.
I love this idea. Its also a great way to bring nature indoors, which is my favorite decor.
If you were to do this slightly smaller and frame the whole thing with some brightly colored trim, it’d look really classy! Any trim will do! Or buy a big old mirror or ugly picture from the thrift shop and spray paint it!
That’s a cool idea. I have some great frames that I bought at a fleamarket that I have been looking for just the thing to use them for. 🙂
What a great job you did! I can remember having a lot of starfish at one time and had no clue how to display them. So eventually I donated them to my son’s middle school. Wish I had your imagination! Love this!
Thank you so much! My daughter is actually the one who came up with the idea to put them in the hallway like that. 🙂