Bring The Beach To Your Home With These Coastal Decorating Ideas

by Matt Trostle

Even if you are hopelessly landlocked, you can bring the refreshing feel of a cool sea breeze into your space with coastal decorating. Once found mostly in seaside regions, this decor style's popularity has now transcended geography, meaning that homes boasting coastal rooms can be found in every part of the country.

But today's updated coastal decorating style is much more sophisticated than the kitschy, nautically-themed rooms that defined this style in the past. Today's coastal decorating is characterized more by a beach-inspired palette than by an over reliance on garish beach-themed knickknacks.

A few of your beach memorabilia pieces like a beautiful conk shell, starfish, and maybe a lighthouse or nautical flag are not out of the realm of possibility. Just remember not to over do it.

The foundation of the updated coastal decor that is popular today is a thematic color scheme that calls on sea blues, crisp whites, sandy tans and an array of natural fibers to bring the outdoors inside. The look of an effectively decorated coastal environment is cozy but uncluttered, pairing interesting, sea-themed accents and art with crisp backgrounds.

A textured but sleek wall covering, such as white beadboard, provides the perfect contrast for coastal decor. Bold natural textures in the form of grasses and fibers make excellent floor coverings and window treatments for coastal rooms, although it is recommended to leave windows and doors as unfettered as possible to heighten the play of sunlight within the room.

Traditionally, nautical-themed accessories have been a key part of coastal decor, but the updated version of this style demands a less cluttered look. Experts suggest shopping at flea markets or second-hand stores to find interesting items to highlight.

Small collections of items such as seashells can enhance the style, but try not to go overboard, as it were -- group themed collections together to heighten their impact and reduce the risk of sensory overload.

Simply imagine yourself on your own fantasy island. Or, if you're lucky enough, look out your window. See the emerald green water, the bubbling white of the waves crashing to the tan sandy beach and look up to the crisp blue sky. Now, hold that vision and recreate that feeling into the decor of the room of your choice.

The feeling of a coastal room should be crisp, clean, and refreshing -- assess your space with a discerning eye and edit out anything that detracts from the intended effect of calming, sea-themed bliss.

Matt creates articles for GreatPricedFurniture.com North Carolina's largest online furniture store. Offering premium furniture including a large selection of bedroom sets

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Coastal - Nautical Decor and Ideas For Your Home

By Giorgina Devereaux

The Coastal/Nautical style is a wonderful way to welcome beach themed pieces with a light and breezy sense of the shore into your home. These styles bring back cherished childhood memories of those relaxed summer days filled with fun on the beach. Imagine coming home every day to the natural beauty of the beach. You can recreate that tranquil getaway in your home by incorporating various pieces of furniture and accessories.

Decorating in the coastal/nautical style is not difficult. Since they overlap due to the emphasis on the beach and its beautiful elements, we will give you a guide on the proper furniture and accessories typically used for both.

Furniture: It's not absolutely critical that the furniture match, but it would be best if the family room has several pieces that are comfortable, overstuffed, and upholstered in easy to clean sport fabrics. Striped slipcovers are a great way to capture this style. It’s an added bonus to use slipcovers because you can change them to a different coastal/nautical pattern whenever you like. This keeps things fresh, exciting, and interesting.

For wood pieces, consider those painted in pale, milky colors. You can also paint some pieces in a white, light green, or light blue color by using chippy paint. Chippy paint gives the furniture a weathered/distressed look and you can add whimsical beach themed designs on the pieces. Another super idea is to add, for instance, seagull knobs that come in antique brass, antique copper, pewter, black nickel, or bright nickel to furniture. It’s definitely a neat way to incorporate your own touches.

When trying to decide on bed and nightstands, consider choosing wicker or painted wood seaside style pieces for added drama.

Wall Color:
One of the most important things to consider when decorating your home in the coastal/nautical style is the wall color. Color can make a dramatic difference in bringing together the elements of your desired style. You may use cool and soothing colors like white, light yellow, and light blue on the walls, or you may use a simple beach themed stencil, or wall borders/murals with a coastal/nautical theme. For a New England look, you can include wainscoting halfway up the walls.

Lighting:
Lighting is a principle element for coastal/nautical decorating. You have so many exciting choices and can pick from table or floor lamps that feature sailboats, starfish, seashells, seagulls, cranes, egrets, bird cages, pelicans, flip flops, anchors, lifeguard chairs, shorebirds, bamboo, deckchairs, a lighthouses, coral reefs, sea urchins, brass combined with a glass shade, round cage bulkhead lights, and more. You can also install an overhead ceiling fan in a white finish with a brass anchor fan pull or nautical themed pendant lantern type lights. By including theme based lighting, you are sure to make a statement.

Accessories:
There are many ways to accessorize. You can display large starfish on white shelves, along with glass bowls or vases filled with sea shells and beach sand to create drama to your coastal/nautical style. Other fabulous must haves include lobster trap markers and fish nets, blue crab figurines or wall plaques, an antique hand finished wood, rope and metal sandpiper on stand, crane bookends, weathered wood seagull figures, wooden ship wheels, picture frames with a sea shell border, sea shell mirrors, mirrors shaped like port holes, and stained glass that contains images of a lighthouse.

To help complete the feeling of being at sea, you may also display sea themed items, such as ship replicas, old brass spyglasses, vintage sextants, a nautical knots shadow box, worn lanterns, and lighthouse sculptures. Another great decorative touch is by hanging an oar or fishing pole on the wall. These are never fading decorative accessories that are safe bets because they don’t go out of style. To soften the look a bit and accentuate furniture pieces, add decorative pillows with seashore designs or in solid blue and white colors.

Flooring:
You can bring warmth and add to the design theme by including area rugs throughout the home. Wonderful choices to consider are sisal mats, short pile rugs, or stenciled floor mats that come in a tan or blue color. Other examples of rugs for this style include a beautiful coastal scene featuring a blue heron with a striking black border or a rug design with a parade of sandpipers circling the coastal border. If you can afford hardwood, a light stained wood goes perfectly with area rugs.

Art:
Wall art is an amazing way to highlight your coastal/nautical theme. You can put black and white beach and ocean scene prints in light frames, as well as boats prints. To enhance this style, you can even apply watercolors of the seaside or floral prints onto chippy white frames. Other excellent choices include prints of ships at sea, lighthouses, seashells, starfish, birds, harbor scenes, and coastal scenes. You may also prefer to add a Trompe l´oiel of a port hole for the wall or hang a lovely tapestry with romantic ocean panorama.

Window Treatments:
The ideal window treatments consist of drapes or curtains that are light and airy with designs of sailboats, lighthouses, seashells, and navy blue and white stripes for that ocean feel. Fabrics include lace, cotton, and even canvas. You may also consider bamboo shades or roman shades.

Giorgina Devereaux is the creator of AskGiorgina.com, which features questions, answers, and ideas on home decor and furniture. For more information, please visit http://www.AskGiorgina.com
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