A beachcombers’ delight

Nautical elements enliven this delightful P.E.I. cottage

 

Gilbert and Goldie Gillis have combed the beach along their property for years, gathering a treasure trove of beach décor items out of driftwood, rowboat oars, seashells, sea glass and discarded parts of ships. Now they’ve decorated their cottage, in Point Prim, Prince Edward Island, with these unique, whimsical pieces, making it a true beachcomber’s delight.

Bucolic Point Prim juts out into the warm waters of the Northumberland Strait about halfway between Wood Island and Charlottetown. Its round, brick lighthouse, the only one of this design in Canada, is a beacon for lighthouse-lov­­ing tourists.

Gilbert Gillis, a semi-retired fisherman whose family has lived in the area for five generations, has a long history with the Point Prim lighthouse. His grandfather, Angus Murchison, was the lighthouse keeper for 35 years, as were two of his uncles. In fact, he and his wife, Goldie, were married at the famous lighthouse 35 years ago.

The couple celebrate their connection to the lighthouse and the sea with the décor of their summer home. They call it Corkin View Beach House because of its breathtaking view of the beach and of the Northumberland Strait (“Corkin” is a slang word from Newfoundland that means spectacular). They built the 1.5-storey house on its oceanfront property nearly 10 years ago as a possible retirement home.

“It sits on the ocean and has a wonderful beach that’s great for swimming, clam-digging, canoeing and kayaking,” says Goldie.

The summer house gave the devoted beachcombers an outlet for displaying their finds and creations. Now every room is playfully decorated with items and debris found on the Point Prim beach. In the kitchen, a seashell clock and whimsical figurine made of fishing net and lobster-trap ropes adorn the walls, driftwood pulls and
handles are on every door and drawer, tarnished-yellow brass ship lights hang on the walls and a fisherman’s old oar holds the curtain over the window.

The Gillises have beautiful wooden oars for curtain rods in every room of the cottage, paying tribute to the region’s fishing culture. Fishermen in the area used to row out to their boats and carved their own oars by hand from spruce trees. Gilbert found most of the oars floating in the ocean while out in his boat and he sourced the rest from local antique shops. “When we realized they made excellent curtain rods, we wanted to do as many rooms with them as we could,” he says. “That was before the nautical theme got really hot so you could find these oars in antique shops for next to nothing. Now they’re much harder to find and a lot more expensive.”

The spacious living area of the cottage features lamps made with fishing net, cork floats, a driftwood foot stool and a 1937 nautical chart Gilbert received from his grandfather. Two of his favourite pieces are also here: a table he built from a deck hatch he discovered floating in the water and a fireplace mantle he fashioned out of hemlock decking from the former Point Prim wharf that had washed up on the beach.

Gilbert says that driftwood was one of his greatest finds. “I used to help my dad fish lobster from the old Point Prim wharf and I easily recognized the hemlock decking,” he says. “They used hemlock before the days of pressure-treated wood and it can withstand parasites like ship worm that put holes through other kinds of wood.” Goldie made the seashell mirror over the fireplace, which adds the finishing touch in the space.

The downstairs bedroom is cozy with a warm nautical rug from Nantucket designer Claire Murray, a driftwood night table and lamp, a hammock swagged over a fisherman’s oar at the window and two ship lights hanging high in the corner. “Our ship lights were actually mostly gifts and one came from an antique store,” Gilbert says. “Each one is different and had a different purpose aboard a ship. Some of them are anchor lights, running lights and side lights. We have almost every kind you can mention and each one told other ships what was happening on your ship, like if you were at anchor, what direction you were running and so on.”

Upstairs, two more airy bedrooms have skylights for navigating the stars late at night. One room has a lighthouse theme. “If you had a lighthouse wedding, why wouldn’t you have a lighthouse room?” Gilbert says with a laugh. Two lighthouse lamps, coordinating lighthouse-print fabrics for draperies and a boutis bedspread (a traditional French quilt) pull the room together. Across the landing, the third bedroom continues the cottage’s nautical theme with blue and white stripes and lamps decorated with seashells.

Over the stairwell, the Gillises created an imaginative three-dimensional art installation. They paired an original oil painting of an unknown sea captain with an antique telescope for a spectacular effect. “We had a friend who knew the last lighthouse keeper on Gannet Rock, Grand Manan [New Brunswick],” says Gilbert, “and that’s how we got the telescope for the old quartermaster. That was a great find.”

In the main bath there are driftwood towel racks, toilet-paper holders and hooks, scallop shells on driftwood for soap dishes, and even a piece of coral the couple picked up on a beach holiday in Hawaii. A half-model dory Gilbert built for the garden now sits next to the tub holding bath towels. “She gaffled it from me,” Gilbert says.

The couple love the fact that they’ve found a practical and creative outlet for their shared passion of beachcombing. “We’ve always been collecting driftwood and while I was fishing, I’d be collecting oars, boat gaffs and parts of lobster traps floating around out on the water,” says Gilbert. “I’ve always been intrigued by making things with lobster trap parts, too. I like the weathered look of the wood for picture frames.”

However, their beachcombing philosophy doesn’t mean gathering everything that washes ashore—they know exactly what they’ll do with a particular find or else they don’t pick it up. “I know when I’m looking for pieces for foot stools that they have to be a certain y-shape for the legs and I have an eye for driftwood hooks that I mount on a board or shelf,” Gilbert says. “I’m always searching for driftwood boards, weathered nicely and bleached by the sun, that I can use for drawer fronts of night tables or table tops as well as planking that would make a table top or stool. It’s hard to find those beautifully weathered boards but eventually you collect them up and have enough to make a little table.”

Goldie says everything Gilbert makes with driftwood is durable. “I use all wood tenons or dowels and glue on the tables and stools,” Gilbert notes. “There’s no metal fasteners or nails. It makes them very level and tight. I don’t use any paint or varnish either but there’s a lot of sanding involved.”

Goldie’s other creative passion is for painting and she enjoys gathering unusually shaped pieces of driftwood, looking for whimsical creatures in it, like her spotted driftwood frog. She enjoys how the weather, sea and sun shape and contort each piece, giving irregularities and a patina that make them beautiful to start with. “It takes creativity to imagine how you could use a piece you find,” she says. “Whether you’re collecting sea glass or shells, it takes a bit of imagination to put that all together and make a piece that’s functional yet artistic at the same time. It’s a form of art in itself.”