by Evelina Shmukler | photography by William Colgin and James Edward Bates

What makes a beach house? Proximity to the beach helps, of course. Few things can compare to that glimpse of tantalizing blue in the distance, sparkling through a well-placed window or French door. But distance to the beach isn’t the only thing that makes a beach house. Not every house near the beach is a beach house. It takes a little something more for an abode to earn that coveted moniker.

Peeking inside two special beach homes on the Gulf Coast, we found an array of characteristics that help define the term, including proximity.

Pat and Keleal Hassin’s Gulfport home, on peaceful Second Street near Hewes Avenue, is a few blocks off the beach, but its many outdoor spaces, including a screened porch, two patios and an upstairs deck, provide many opportunities to experience the proximity of the Gulf.

“We can smell the salt air, see the water, feel the gulf breeze,” Pat Hassin says. Though they live there year-round, “it’s truly a vacation home, because every afternoon when we come home, it feels like we’re on vacation.”

Like many beachy homes, the Hassins’ cottage, which dates back to the mid-1930s, has décor inspired by the marine life that resides nearby. A large wooden fish, a pelican and an egret reside on the front porch. Inside, glass fish share the mantle with a Murano glass sailboat, and more fish, made from raku, peek out from an alcove in the kitchen.

But the Hassins’ home is not strictly beachy: it also reflects their love of antiques and art, with oriental rugs on the floors, paintings on almost every wall, lovely porcelain and silver serving pieces, stained glass art — some made by Keleal, an architect who also designed the home’s expansion 13 years ago — unique lamps made from Pat’s favorite vases, and paintings, sculpture and other art that daily reminds them of their many travels together. There are those fish on the mantle, purchased as a 50th birthday present for Pat during a trip to Seattle; photographs of doors that caught Keleal’s architect’s eye in Italy; a large painting by the Chinese artist Jiang Tie Feng that they both fell in love with, twice, once in a gallery in New Orleans and then, fortuitously, six months later in Carmel, Calif.

This eclectic mix works in the Hassans’ cottage because it reflects their warm, open personalities and makes the home warm and inviting, too. This is independently confirmed in the fact that they have houseguests almost every weekend; even their children have to make reservations in advance, Keleal jokes.

In Ocean Springs, Nell and J.D. Reeves’ home also reflects their warm, easygoing style. An open floor plan leads seamlessly from the living room to the dining room to the open kitchen, providing lots of seating areas. Nell also drew inspiration from the water, with brightly painted fish, crab, shrimp and pelicans livening up the bathrooms. She painted these herself, and her artistic touch is also reflected in the restored antique dresser in the Reeves’ bedroom. It is painted a shade lighter than the walls and decorated with a delicate leaf pattern.

Walter Anderson prints with the initials of their five grandchildren decorate the kids’ playroom, which is painted a warm glowing crimson. “I wanted a red room,” Nell says. The ceiling is gray, and in the bathroom, the color scheme is reversed, with a red ceiling and soft gray walls. The living and dining areas are painted in Sherwin Williams’ Brandywine, a shade akin to the terracotta tiles on a Mediterranean roof. The ceiling is the same color, but lightened a few shades. Ivory trim completes the look.

Between the dining and seating areas is a see-through gas fireplace, letting both rooms enjoy its glow and maximizing the space. There’s only so much land near the beach, so beach homes have to use the space they have wisely.

At the Hassins’, this means a number of ingenuities, including a sideboard that is tucked into a specially designed niche in the wall, and a built-in television and even fireplace.

“Every inch of space counts when you live in a small house,” Pat observes.

The Hassins have added significantly to their home – first in a major renovation and expansion in 1997 and then in an unexpected restoration after 2005. But the home still maintains its cozy cottage feel, with a narrow, quasi-shotgun layout that reflects the tendency of beachside lots to have narrow frontages.

The Reeves, also on a narrow lot, had to rebuild their home after Hurricane Katrina, and though they rebuilt along the same lines — slightly narrower, even, but longer — they took the chance to switch the room layout so that the living areas are on the south side, facing the water. They completed the renovations in time to celebrate the home’s 100th birthday in 2007. The previous house was an older beach bungalow built for a New Orleans family, Nell says, and the Reeves were able to save the original front door and a front window.

They also put in antique hard pine floors, similar to the original home. “That, to me, made it feel like my old home,” Nell says. They also saved pair of French doors that were formerly interior doors but now provide a warm welcome to the wraparound porch, another feature from the previous home that the Reeves kept when rebuilding.

For, really, what would a beach house be without a porch?