By Kelli Rosen

Designer Cindi LaPietra’s vacation home in Bethany Beach, Delaware, is both family retreat and creative outlet. Just outside the doors to the backyard is an exterior wall encrusted with a virtual oceanfront—sand, seashells, starfish, sharks’ teeth, sea life. “My collection of shells inspired this mosaic design,” says LaPietra, who heads Bella Interiors in Potomac, Maryland. “It was a way to bring the beach over to our bayside house.”  LaPietra designed the wall and then enlisted McAllister and Son Tile in Ocean View, Delaware, to lend a hand with the project, which took just four days to complete. “Each shell was placed to show its beauty and color,” she says.

Such seafaring touches burst from every corner of the charming canalside cottage shared by LaPietra, husband Joseph, a managing partner at New York Life, and their three children. From the tropical kids’ rooms  and artificial Christmas tree hung with fish ornaments in the great room to the cabana for the family’s two dogs built under the stairs, the 2,900-square-foot home reflects LaPietra’s objective to fill her house with quirky, seaworthy character. 

For a beachfront home, she recommends threading a common element throughout the décor. “Choose a theme and then put a touch of it on every floor,” she suggests. “My theme is mermaids.”

Fortunately, achieving the beach house look doesn’t have to cost a fortune. For the powder room, LaPietra purchased an inexpensive chandelier from Home Depot and replaced its glass crystals with sea glass. For the kids’ bathroom, she used shells as stamps by dipping them in paint and pressing them onto the walls.

LaPietra also suggests opting for a serene, spa-like color scheme and allowing the outdoors to inspire the interiors. Her faux-painted tray ceiling in the master bedroom incorporates seashells as does the kitchen, where stenciled shells and seahorses bedeck the space. “Every- thing that surrounds you should comfort you and resemble your personality,” she says.