Writing in the Press and Journal, Gabrielle Fagan looks at key trends for home interiors in 2010.

Amongst trends such as Spring Greens, Flower Power and Monochromatic Magic, Gabrielle writes that Coastal Style is definately a look for 2010.

“A relaxed coastal look will be ultra-fashionable,” says Marnie Janaway, head of home design for Sainsbury’s.

“The allure of the sea is strong this year, with all things nautical in vogue. Refresh a home with an airy Hamptons beach house palette of tranquil blues and understated neutrals.

“Cool cottons, natural rattans, galvanised metals and folk-inspired patterns can be easily mixed and matched across different rooms of the home, from bedroom to bathroom.”

So why not modernise your home by painting your walls and floorboards white and adding New England Style white painted furniture? Complete the holiday home look by adding accessories such as cushions, blinds and curtains in sea blue shades.

Add a set of Beach Hut Money Boxes, and you’ll even have somewhere to save for next year’s holiday!

Beach huts may appear pretty humble but their story is very much linked with the history of the seaside resort, going back more than 250 years.

By the time Queen Victoria came to the throne, bathing machines were a common seaside sight. They were very much like a beach hut on wheels, in which bathers changed as a horse pulled them from the top of the beach down into the sea. Even Queen Victoria had her own personal bathing machine built at Osbourne on the Isle of Wight.

Doctors began to prescribe sea bathing as a rememdy to cure all ills, and the sick and their families headed to the coast to be treated. Soon the beaches were no longer just a place for smugglers and fishermen. These new visitors required accommodation and demanded entertainment, and so the modern British Seaside Resort was born.

As it gradually became acceptable for people to walk across the sands in their bathing costumes, rows of stripy changing tents appeared on the beaches. Some of the bathing machines began to lose their wheels and new purpose built huts began to appear.

In the inter-War period bathing machines were becoming obsolete as sunbathing became the new fashion and modern looking blocks of beach huts beagan to appear. After the Second World War, once all the barbed wire and defenses had been removed from the beaches, holiday makers came back in their droves. The last of the bathing machines disappeared and the beach hut was very much in vogue.

Beach Huts at Mudeford, Photograph by Jim Champion

Even today, beach huts are hot property, changing hands for vast sums.

Take a memory of your seaside holiday home and store your collected shells and treasures in our Beach Hut Storage Boxes, or start saving your pennies for your next trip away in our Beach Hut Money Boxes.

© Copyright Jim Champion and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence