Decorating your yard with seashells is just as much fun as decorating the inside of your home with shells. I showed you how our friends Dick and Mary decorated the inside of their house (Tips To Decorate Your Home With Seashells) but now, hold on to your boot straps because the outside of their home is just as fabulous.
They pick up all of those big beautifully broken WHELKS and CONCHS to fill their outdoor urns and pots to decorate their poolside patio. They look maaaw-vilous! That’s exactly why we pick them up too and call them our “yard shells”.
You don’t have to always put plants into your “planters”. You don’t have to water shells! Well, except if you want to make a vase out of a HORSE CONCH.
And you don’t always have to put tools in the toolbox. Put seashells here too.
Okay, are you ready to see the “seashell garden”? It is a 22 feet long area filled with shells they found on Sanibel. I can’t even imagine how many WHELKS, CONCHS, OLIVES…. oh you name it, it’s in there.
Here’s a view looking straight down and I’d say this was a typical view of the different shells. Unbelievable, right?
They dry the shells after they wash them outside in a somewhat shaded area. This was a new batch they found.
In the last month, we have had an unusual amount of MANGROVE SEED PODS wash up on the beach. Mary decided to bring a few home to see if they would root. Three weeks later, they are sprouting.
 Now let’s move into the garage where they store and organize all of the other shells and beach bling they find before it gets placed in the yard or house. Only in my dreams, could I be this organized. And before you ask… Yes, this fine cabinet is in their garage.
Their sand is even organized.
 They both were laughing and couldn’t wait to show me this jar of beach combing oddities. Yep, they found a kid’s retainer in the surf and picked up to add to their collection of oddities. LOL
 I hope you enjoyed the visit with Dick and Mary as much as I did and hopefully you got a few more ideas of what to do with your shells you find. In case you missed Part One showing the inside of their house… CLICK HERE
I need that cabinet!! Better yet, I need them to come organize my boxes and boxes of shells!!
I Love, Love, Love their seashell garden! I would never get anything done if I had one of those! I would spend all my time “poking around” in the garden! Thank You for sharing their shell decorating ideas and tell them Thank You for letting us all take a peak at their treasures!
I’ve had “shell envy” before, but this just but me over the edge!
Pls let Dick and Mary know that they have made all of us so happy to see their ideas!!
Wow….Wow. I have been collecting shells here since I was a little girl and still only have a large hurricane lamp full (I’m super picky and like the small shells). That’s incredible.
Oh, btw, we went shelling a couple days this week on Cayo Costa and the shelling was phenominal! My hubby said it gets this way this time of year. Do you find that too?
Hi Angela,
I too go for the tiny of the tiny shells, and color. would love to see some pics of your tiny seashells. I’ll share too!!
marbear110@aol.com
have fun,
I’ll be down visiting Sanibel October, can’t wait.
have a great day,
mary ann
Awww so many shells. I love it thats coolest idea !
These ideas are beautiful! Even though I live five miles from the shore, I have a perennial garden at the side door that is lined with seashells, stones and driftwood from the beach. It’s my seaside real estate..lol…
WOWZA !!! Thanks Dick , Mary & Pam for sharing your love for the oceans treasures ! Can not wait till I can get moved down there & have my own ” seaside real estate ” like Karen said . Carla closes eyes and tells herself … Dreams do come true , Dreams do come true . Thanks many times over Pam for your wonderful web site !!!!
Holy Moly! What a shell collection, and a beautiful way to display them! Great organization as well.
WOW! I can’t decide if they are amazing decorators and collectors, or if they are bordering slightly on OCD hoarders! LOL Either way it was fun to look at and gave me some ideas. For some reason when I decorate with my shells here in Ohio, that “Florida style” looks so out of place here, so I keep it to one bedroom. Their place is beautiful, as is Sanibel. Geez I miss it!
So fabulous! Unbelievable the amount of shells one can collect on Sanibel. I’m in awe.
Love this post! I am one of those organized people too. I have little & big containers of shells gathered much the same. I’m about to redo our yard at our new house so these are great ideas. I also would like to share your post on my blog with your permission.
I love the outside of their house. LOVE IT!! They are very creative using the pots and such as shell display vessels.
Anna – I live in KY but I have shells throughout my house. I also had a shell garden when I was married – but not now.
Maybe I will have to consider driving again to get my shells home for a new garden! hmmm…..
WOW! I love all the decorating ideas from Dick & Mary – thanks for sharing. I really love the shell garden – if I lived there I would need one too because I would be collecting shells all the time like they do. What a great idea – I may have to make a small garden but I will need more trips to Sanibel to fill it!
Oh my gosh!! Do you think Dick and Mary will mind if I just move in? Thanks for sharing their incredible finds – so inspiring!
I always figured Dick and Mary were organized but WOW! When I see them next, I’m going to see if I can get some of their organization to rub off. Love the seashell garden idea. Think that’s going in at my house!
Really beautiful! But don’t the colored shells bleach out in the tropical sun after a few years? I goes that’s why you have to keep going to find more!
It is so wonderful to see what the love of shelling can do. Glad you have shared all the fabulous decorating tips with us all. Dick & Mary are definately awesome organizers and decorators.
After seeing this, I have picked out the perfect spot for my shell garden. I can hardly wait to go to Sanibel again!
All I can say is WOW!!!
Wow, shell mulch! There’s not a weed in that garden. Very creative & whimsical ideas both inside & out.
OMG! Besides Dick & Mary (and Pam of course) there are probably many residents of Sanibel and Captiva that have amassed that quantity of beautiful shells. Not to mention us vacationers who have stopped flying and started driving to Sanibel so we can take more shells home with us! And yet Mother Nature continues to provide for our continued addiction – God bless her little heart! :-) And thank you Pam for your wonderful blog which I fondly all “My Shell Porn”!!!
Wonderful blog article, Pam!!! Of course I’m biased….Dick and Mary are my mom and dad!! I have always known how talented Mom is (Dad too!!)…..it is nice for everyone else to get a chance to see it as well :)
WOW, WOW, & WOW!!!! thanks for sharing and opening up your home to us.
great concepts!!
love love love it. just beautiful.
OK….I need more shells…it’s as simple as that! :)
That’s a lot of cool ideas! I need to get busy and collect a lot more shells!
Thanks for the wonderful ideas!!!!!!
So enjoyed seeing Dick and Marys decorating ideas. I do much the same but only from May to Sept. and then it is time to bring out all my Fall decorations
…………….but it is a lot of work to change from season to season. Maybe I will taker a hint from them and leave it out all year. Their home is lovely and I enjoyed it so much.
The shell garden was wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LSSST
A shell garden is my new goal! Won’t that look pretty peeping out of the snow :)
OMG!!! I must be related to D & M somehow. Not only do you showcase your shells and have sand in containers like I do, but I also have a seal-lynx pt Birman :))… (I also have a blue lynx pt and a black smoke British shorthair). Wonderful displays of your collections. If I had mine outside, they would be in the snow right now, lol. I’d love to show you some photos, but not sure how to upload them here? You can also contact me at my email address and I can send you back my “collections”.
WOW! That’s all I can say. lol ;) That’s a lot of sea shells! I love how many creative ways you came up with using sea shells! So creative and fun!! I bet your house feels like the beach :D
Thank you for sharing creative ways to display our shells. It seems a lot less selfish than just stashing boxes and boxes of shells away in cupboards.
I recently holidayed at Sanibel, and was disappointed to find so few whole gastropods. Talking to some old timers, I learned that shelling is not what it used to be… I know storms with consequent losses of beach may have something to do with it, along with pollution, oil spills, etc. But I have to think some of us need to think seriously about how much/many we take home!
So before returning to Ohio I asked myself, “Do I really need 25 lettered olives? Would it not be kinder to those getting up a little later than I did, to leave some on the beach?” So I started leaving them where I found them after #3. And before we packed up to leave, I did a quick sort of all my treasures and set aside my favorites then returned the rest of my finds to the beach.
Hope this helped to make others happy!
Thanks for saying it Beryl! I have been to Sanibel only three times and I love shelling. One earlier Spring morning after a storm, during a very low tide, my young son and I headed to the beach. It was just amazing and covered with nice shells. As it got a little later, other families were hitting the beach. I looked down at our growing bag of shells and thought we had more than enough,
so we started placing them back on the beach. As other kids found them, we could hear them say, “Oh look what I found!”. My son said it was like being the Easter Bunny, leaving shells for kids instead of eggs.It was delightful! Still one of our favorite vacation memories!
I have never seen that many sea shells before! Thank you for sharing these marvelous pictures – you just showed me how I can use them in the garden this spring. And seeing so many sea shells now makes me want to go to the beach again!!!