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The Indoor Beach
Indoor beaches apparently are nothing new. But they certainly add an odd and unexpected dimension to a space that is typically cold, dark, and/or stuffy. We have built a few iterations of them over the years, but our favorite (featured in the top images) was constructed out of a simple and lightweight wooden frame, golden space blankets, a roll of astro-turf, a couple of reclining deck chairs, a small knock-off tulip table, and two clop-on non-filtered 250-watt heat lamps. Being careful to select the right housing for the heat lamps (they require a ceramic base, high-capacity clip-on light fixture that will not melt and cause a fire!!), and to position them well away from the flammable space blankets (!!), we achieved a warm, sunny, tropical ambiance in the middle of a dark and cold room in winter. The heat and light, both reflected off of the gold foil of the blankets, had a gloriously artificial warmth to it, but when you closed your eyes, it felt as if you were out in the real sun. Personally, my favorite thing about the fake beach is the boldness with which it defies season, time of day, and formal conventions of interior space.
