If you love the seaside as much as I do, then this blog post on 15 coastal dinnerware ideas is for you!
The coastal style in home decor seeks to mimic the colors and the mood of being by the seaside. When applied to dinnerware, tableware, dishware or to any object used for serving and eating meals, the coastal style will impart its specific relaxed and breezy mood to your kitchen or dining room.
If this your first time on my blog, I am a designer of marine Ikebana poems. These are visual poems inspired by the Japanese style of flower arrangements or Ikebana, but instead of cut flowers, I use free verse lyrics and seashells.
Therefore, the 15 coastal dinnerware ideas from this blog post include:
- full marine Ikebana poems or
- repeating patterns derived from such poems or
- just marine Ikebana motifs.
But in all 3 cases, the actual dinnerware products are available on the Zazzle platform where you can further customize them at NO extra charge.
Poetic coastal dinnerware
These are dinnerware items housing full marine Ikebana poems.
Seen from afar, the images look like floral arrangements, but if you zoom in on the picture, you’ll notice the branches house lyrics.
Have a look at the visual poems below!
The visual poem seen on the dinner bowl below is one of my favorites. It is called “Kintsugi” and it is inspired by the Japanese Kintsugi art of repairing broken pottery with gold instead of throwing it away.
It is a subtle concept, teaching people to see flaws and repair as something beautiful which adds to the history of the object and similarly, to our own story. Because we have flaws too, right?
Subsequently, the coastal teapot below features another marine Ikebana poem called “Soil”.
It is a short visual poem about embracing your cultural soil and doing the best with what you’ve got right now, instead of focusing on what you lack.
And visually, the poem features a long and coiled Turritella seashell vase from which a blue iris bud emerges, together with the actual lyrics.
A third poem I included among these coastal dinnerware ideas is called “”Take Off” as seen on the latte mug below.
Although very short, most people will perceive it differently even if they’re reading the same poem.
Along the same line, the fine art coffee mug below includes a marine Ikebana poem called “Hoar”. It is a unique visual poem about hoar frost as a metaphor for aging.
Following along the poetic coastal dinnerware section, the food safe trinket tray below features a blue iris flower as an Ikebana vase and from it, the actual lyrics of a visual poem called “Enmity” emerge.
But despite its title, the poem is not negative at all.
On the contrary, if you think you have a problem in saying “no” to other people’s wishes and demands and you end up multitasking, you’re going to resonate with this poem.
Finally, the last visual poem I included in this section is called “the honey jar”.
Available on a latte mug, it is a lovely poem about anonymous worker bees turning blueberry blossoms into delicious honey just like unrecognized human workers make the world go around.
Coastal dinnerware with seaside patterns
Unlike the coastal dinnerware examples you’ve seen above, everything else that follows includes no lyrics.
There is no text available because these products include repeating patterns inspired by the seaside.
The coastal patterns from the pitcher, the 2 soup mugs and the coffee mug below were all inspired by the Black Sea. This is the place where I unknowingly became a seashell collector when I was a toddler and it is also my favorite place for brainstorming and active meditation.
But even if this is the large body of water which inspired these coastal designs, some seashells I used here are not native to this area.
In contrast to the seashell patterns you already saw above, the serving tray below houses a different kind of repeating pattern which looks quite Asian and Oriental. I created it from a visual poem called “Scar Collector” which was originally published in Volume I in the Diamond Dust Poems From the Black Sea photo book series.
Coastal dining accessories
You have already seen the coastal dinnerware ideas featuring either full marine Ikebana poems or repeating patterns inspired by them.
Now comes a third category of coastal dining accessories. These feature just one central motif, such as the marine Ikebana bouquet or the murex seashell from the 2 glass coasters below.
And while any of the coastal dinnerware products seen above can be customized as you wish, the last 2 examples I’ll mention next were specifically designed as templates.
For example, if you’re looking for a coastal kitchen gift, the dinner bowl below features an easy to customize “Happy birthday!” text and you can change it to whatever you like.
Or if you already own too much dinnerware, but you’d still like to add some blue accents with coastal vibes, you can organize what you already have with these easy to customize food and drink labels which come in sets of 10.
In this case, the template food storage labels feature a nautical blue iris flower inside a navy blue rectangle. You can change the rectangle color, the background color, you can pick a different type of label or even transfer the design to any other product from the Zazzle marketplace.
And with the last 2 templates, we have now reached the end of this blog post on 15 coastal dinnerware ideas for inspiration.
If any of these ideas inspired you, I’d love to know in a comment below!
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