Styling the China Hutch in a Beach Theme for Summer

Recently my neighbor finally got around to taking down her Christmas garland, which in turn inspired me to finally get the fall/winter china out of my hutch. Oh yeah, and the few Easter items I'd stuck in there too.

I restyled it in a beach theme with shell dishes, fish, starfish, shells and a few pieces that reminded me of coral and seaweed without being too literal. Most of the items have been collected over the year during my thrift shopping journeys and there are a few dollar and craft store items thrown in for good measure.

The blue candelabra, which was thrifted but I believe still had its original HomeGoods sticker on the bottom, looked like seaweed to me, so I popped that in along with a resin starfish from Michael's Crafts. The little blue fish is a vase or planter and the dishes are 

The green fish I think is one that is supposed to sit on a sink to hold a sponge or scrubby and he's sitting on my favorite wooden pedestal which I shared in this thrift store shopping post.

The white pedestal bowl has a ruffled edge that reminds me of waves, so I filled it with small shells from Dollar Tree (they're from the vase filler section). The gold chargers add some shine and iridescence (inside of a sea shell anyone?) and take up space and balance out the plates above. 

Oh, ooops, I do have a few retail purchases in here: the green vase was actually a gift and I thought the color and shape worked as a seaweed inspired element. The round candle lantern had a coral or sea urchin vibe. We're not being too literal here, just using what I had on hand.

This little fish plate I thought was cute layered up with another of the resin star fish - I think they came two or three in a pack for $1 or $2 and are reasonably realistic looking.

So there you have it, a bit of a summer remix for the china hutch. Hopefully I'll get this all packed away and Halloween in there before March, because I'm nothing if not predictable 3 years and 5 months behind schedule.