Coastal home decorating is bringing the beach, coastal life and marine life inside your home. It is incorporating these themes in your home decor. If you love the ocean or you have recently spent time at sea, and can not part with your endearing memories, then coastal living decor may be the best decorating theme for you.
So what are the main concepts when it comes to coastal decor? For one, furniture pieces are clean, seamless and are found in two colors: blue and white.
A nautical theme is similar to coastal home decor but it is more than a rusty anchor or a miniature sailboat. Furniture pieces may also be distressed and aged to create a coastal beach motif too. Some pieces such as ottomans, side tables, back tables, armoires, and dining sets can also distressed which complements every item in your home.
Accessories used for coastal decorating can be anything with a marine or beach flair. So pillows, vases, cabinet decor, and baskets are all over the place and have the slightest accents related to the beach or coast. You can also find these accents on fabrics such as tablecloths, chair covers, curtains, drapes, and sofa covers.
Wall color is definitely important to coastal designs. You can actually pick from a few colors but try to maintain a bold accent color on your main wall. You can choose from blue and all its wonderful shades, then add white, black, brown or green plus all their interesting shades. Wood cabinets will pop out when painted in blue or green while window and door frames will look great in brown, blue and green.
Lighting is an essential part of coastal decor. Try a classic chandelier that hangs from the middle of the room. Also consider spot lighting on essential pieces and accents in your coastal home like on a picture frame, a model sailboat, or a cabinet of books. Lamp shades with a nautical flair can be placed on each side of a sofa, while pendant lighting would work great on an armchair.
A coastal home decor theme is a wonderful and colorful theme to use for your home. Even if you live miles from the beach or any body of water, you can always wake up to your own paradise with this creative nautical theme.
Speaking of a nautical theme, have you ever wanted to try nautical home decor for your living room or bedroom? There are so many great nautical decorations and furniture that convey the nautical theme. Here are a few ideas that could help you out.
There are things that will instantly remind you of the sea, of a great ocean adventure or simply a cruise that you went to on a holiday. Things such as an anchor, a sailing ship, a life preserver, an oar, or the steering wheel of a ship will instantly transport your imagination to a wonderful place where the smell and the feel of the sea is imminent! And these things are not just placed uniformly in a room. These could be integrated in every day home furnishings and home décor.
If you can’t find a real rusty anchor, use an anchor decal on your wall or anchor designs on your pillow cases, mats, mirrors and frames. A ship is definitely too big to even fit in your home so try model ships instead. Miniature ship building can even become a wonderful hobby for you!
A life preserver hung over the mantel can be an overpowering sight, but you can tone it down a bit with life preserver pillows, mats, curtains, and decorations.
You could bring home a real life steering wheel from a real ship! There are bargain pieces from retail outlets online and offline that look even better than the real thing! There are also steering wheel chandelier pieces and center tables that will make your home emanate the nautical theme!
The color blue and white seem to be two of the most familiar colors when it comes to creating a nautical home decor style in whatever room of the house you wish to transform. The easiest way to use blue and white color is to paint your room blue and white.
Here is an example color scheme for a room with four walls. A main wall where all the decorative pieces and furniture pieces are centered is painted navy blue. The remaining three walls are painted white. You can also try a white and blue striped pattern on your walls for a more dramatic nautical impact.
A nautical home decor style is all about matching sofa and chair covers, rugs and mats and also on pillow cases and curtains. You will never be able to get enough once you start decorating nautical style.
4 comments
I love the ocean and being on the water, so I think that having a coastal decor office would be awesome for me. I like that you talked about being able to walk into your own coastal paradise is still possible if you’re miles from the beach. I’m going to have to see if my wife can help me design a coastal decor office so that I always have a space to escape to paradise!
Awesome! Good luck!
Wow, I never knew that coastal decor could have so much variety. It’s interesting that you mentioned how light is essential for this type of decor. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind seeing the different types of lighting people have used in a room/home. Perhaps it offers a good chance to get creative if you want a certain feel.
Thanks for this great post, Blake! I have a Coastal Cottage and I’ve (unknowingly? intuitively?) implemented several of your suggestions! Thank you though for the cool design snob confirmation. I’m so glad that you suggest decorating beyond white wicker and British colonial palm trees – though The Bombay was kinda epic years ago! I also appreciate finding another blogger who has a penchant for using the exclamation mark as much as I do! I have a link to my Coastal Cottage blog (mostly to expand upon my rental profiles) off my main blog, I invite you to check it out.
Cheers, dear!
Gwyneth Jones – The Daring Librarian