Our story began when 2 starry eyed 20-somethings met 35 years ago. She dreamed of living and working by the water; he grew up going to the lake and mountains. It was love at first sight! While serving in churches for over 27 years, and raising our 2 daughters, Rita continued designing cards & gifts for others, while Tommy started crafting unique home décor from a stack of barn wood from Rita's grandfather's farm! Since starting our etsy shop here, formerly known as "riricreations" in Nov. 2008, our business has grown beyond our wildest imagination.

We took a huge leap of faith in 2014, (in our early 50's!) and moved to the Outer Banks of NC (where our extended family had a tiny beach box house), and we opened our bricks and mortar store Beach House Dreams™. Etsy has been a perfect fit for taking Rita's passion for decorating and giving personalized custom gifts online, and afforded Tommy a venue for preserving and passing along heirloom quality handcrafted wood and metal furniture and décor. But, Beach House Dreams has given us the opportunity to also work with and empower 30+ other local artists and help support their families too. We still create, every day, but our Beach House Dreams store carries retail items that are high quality yet affordable, (sometimes hard to find here) in addition to 30+ artist's creations! In fact, some of our custom prints and furniture designs are so popular that we now have to limit how often we offer them for sale, as they're time consuming to create.

These last 9 1/2 years have been an exciting part of our journey, and we can't wait to see with the next 9, 19, and 29 years bring. Check out our new LARGER store BEACH HOUSE DREAMS in Kill Devil Hills, NC. Follow us on Facebook: Beach House Dreams, and Instagram: BeachHouseDreamsOBX, and let us know what you think. We are so thankful for your ongoing support. We're beyond thrilled when our handmade and carefully curated retail items become part of your home and special celebrations: making Beach House Dreams™ a reality every day!

In addition to our etsy shop www.BeachHouseDreamsHome.etsy.com, our website: www.BeachHouseDreams.com, and our store Beach House Dreams, you can contact us on Facebook and Instagram. We hope to see you soon, and thanks again for helping make our Beach House Dreams™, and your Beach House Dreams™ come true.