Some people thrive on being busy, and Barbara Peters is one of them. She’s always changing something about her three-story oceanfront beach house in Fenwick Island, Del., be it her fabulous dune garden or theme of the upstairs bathroom. “I have to have a project every minute,” says Peters. “I can’t just sit on the beach!”

Peters bought the house partially constructed in 1996. Since the house is built twenty-five feet back from the houses next door, potentially marring her ocean view and leaving her to stare at her neighbor’s exterior walls, Peters added two privacy walls, one on the ocean deck off the upstairs master bedroom and one on the screened-in porch. “Now I have the best view in the neighborhood, because I only see my own beach, unspoiled by umbrellas and sunbathers,” says Peters. “All I can see is sky, sea, and my garden.”

Using natural light and the neutral, fresh colors of the seashore, Peters’ interior design makes her guests feel as if they were on the beach. The living and dining area are decorated in beige and white, with white-washed plantation chairs each hand-painted with a different seashell design. Peters commissioned Rehoboth Beach artist Patti Shreeve to paint an ocean theme mural on the living room stairwell wall. Shreeve spent
an entire winter completing the mural, and added a six-foot mounted marlin that was caught on a fishing trip Peters took near Ocean City. 

The neutral color scheme flows into the screened porch and the open-air deck. Here guests have a close-up view of the dune garden, which Peters redesigns every year. “This year it’s going to be cutting edge with outrageous colors,” says Peters, “with black hemlocks, lime and orange canna plants, and I want some purple in there, too.”

Continuing the beach theme upstairs, Peters painted the master bedroom walls and ceiling sky blue, using 100-year-old wicker furniture salvaged from the porches of the original Baltimore Country Club in Roland Park. Perhaps the most exciting detail is the plantation shutters, which allow her to wake to the sunrise and the sound of breaking waves. “It’s like waking up on a ship,” says Peters.

As much as Peters appreciates the neutral tones, she also has a wild streak when it comes to color, which she credits to her affection for Anguilla, where she spends the winter. Her den is painted bright coral and arrayed with colorful Anguillan art. She even painted the propane tank in the basement to look like a woman in a polka-dot bikini. “Tank Woman” comes equipped with sunglasses, flip-flops, and beach bag.

Peters has put her creative stamp on the neighbors’ houses, too, by painting their mailboxes in bright pinks, blues, and purples. (She and some others are petitioning the town of Fenwick Island to colorfully decorate the lifeguard stands along the local strip of beach.)

Since she moved in, the gregarious Peters has transformed her street into a close-knit community that calls itself the “Wild Corner.” Her next-door neighbor, David Webster, tells everyone that he had lived here for thirty years and never knew anyone until Peters came to town, organizing all types of parties like an end-of-summer funeral. “I love people, so I need a fun house,” says Peters. “It’s sophisticated, but it’s very comfortable, and everybody has a good time there. It’s strictly Delmarva, hon.”

This is Beth Pryor’s first feature article for CL. She writes from her home in Bowie, Md.