Coastal decorating ideas for every room
Bring the ocean indoors
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Cultivate Cornish chic
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Here, a rustic feature wall bursting with natural texture transports this living room straight to the Cornish shores of Poldark country. The hit TV show is famously home to weathered coastal cliffs peppered with distinctive stone-walled farmhouses. Soft neutral colours lighten the rugged and rich-toned wall, while a smart navy sofa makes the space comfortable and modern.
Add seascape-style artwork
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Create a simple yet calming gallery wall with coastal art that shares a coordinated palette. Design your gallery with prints filled with watery shores, moored boats and coastal caves. Then frame them simply with coordinated beech wood frames.
Choose classic coastal stripes
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A classic seaside staple, nothing says coastal quite like blue and white stripes. Here, this iconic pattern has been layered and carried across the small living room using curtains, upholstery and cushions. A fresh backdrop of floor-to-ceiling, white-panelled walls completes the calm and collected look.
Call on charming window shutters
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Enliven a coastal-style breakfast room with a smart and fresh window treatment that looks the part. Uplifting white shutters lend themselves so well to seaside schemes thanks to the strong lined and chunky wooden window dressing. We love how fresh this room feels, complete with watery wave-print wallpaper in a turquoise hue.
Find your coastal grandma aesthetic
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The micro trend 'coastal grandma' is making big waves on social media right now. To get the look, intermingle calming coastal colours with vintage-style accessories to create a bright yet welcoming coast meets country decorated space. This bedroom ticks all the 'coastal grandma' boxes. Country charming wallpaper shapes a pretty backdrop for fresh, white wooden bedroom furniture. Pale blue bedlinen layered with sandy-toned linen cushions makes for a cosy finish.
Fall for the French Riviera
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When searching for coastal decorating ideas, look beyond classic blue and whites to other bright nautical colours. The Furniture Village Riviera collection teams weathered ash furniture with uplifting and vivid seaside town colours to create a vibrant and fresh 'cosmopolitan by the sea' vibe.
Introduce watery hues
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Weave beautiful watery paint effects into your scheme for a more sophisticated take on the coastal look. This beautiful bedroom idea reinvents beach style with soothing eau de Nil colours of the palest green-blue. Create balance and oceanic character with refreshing white bed linen awash with blue-printed sea creatures.
Head to the modern Med
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Give your living room a calming and contemporary coastal vibe with clean shapes and pale shades of wood. Deeper denim tones and modular lines transport this living room to the stylish Mediterranean coastline. Pair natural woven textures with weathered leather and wood to finish the look.
Raise the temperature
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Team a white backdrop and wicker furniture for a laid-back contemporary look—tropical island style. This modern and airy dining room takes on a sun-baked effect with a pale wood circular table teamed with wicker chairs and pendant lights. Add to the white-hot vibe with light and bright accessories and a dose of greenery.
Display sea-life-inspired accessories
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Transform a plain white living room into a welcoming beach house retreat by staggering seaside accessories across a few levels. Simple floating shelves make the ideal surface to display a selection of sea-bird prints, coastal-coloured ceramics and glass storm lanterns. For a final sand-dune-style flourish, add greenery in white pots.
Create a coastal-look kitchen
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Get the coastal kitchen look just right with a fresh white backdrop enhanced by coastal-inspired attention to detail. Striped ceramics, natural sisal-fibre floor rugs and glass nautical-style pendant lights make a practical and pretty beachside fit.
Swap kitchen wall tiles for cladding
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An easy way to extend the coastal look to the kitchen is to switch the kitchen wall tiles with country-style wood panelling painted in a neutral tone. Ensure you give the woodwork a layer of splash-proof protection for long-lasting results.
Turn to tropical climates on the terrace
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Add a touch of tropical to your coastal-style garden terrace. Pair whitewashed tones with a modular corner sofa upholstered in sun-bleached toned fabric. Then top with turquoise cushions printed with sea-life motifs for a cosy coastal corner packed with personality.
Cosy up by the Atlantic coast
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Make a tiny living room cosy by the sea with two-toned wood-clad walls and mismatched furniture. Fill in the gaps with pops of bright-coloured cushions for a look that is full of fresh air and coastal character.
Create a coastal home office
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Turn a home office into the perfect coastal-style workspace. Start with white-clad walls and an industrial-look desk then frame the space with vintage seaside-inspired wall art and accessories to make a work day feel like a holiday.
Embrace oceanic ombre
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Make waves with wallpaper
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Whimsical turquoise waves wallpaper surrounding a crisp white bed turns a classic bedroom into a refreshing coastal-style space. We love this graphic print that adds an alternative Japanese twist to the coastal look.
Layer up natural textures
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Channel the natural textures of a beachscape and opt for rattan seating and beautiful woven accessories. Teamed with blue-grey sealife prints, it'll offer a more contemporary take on the coastal theme and create a laid-back look with clean lines and cool colours. Breezy voiles and textured rugs continue the chill-out factor while bleached driftwood wall art adds in notes of the Med.
Set up a terrace by the tide
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Whether you're near the ocean or not, set the scene on a patio or decked terrace with beach pebble tones and nautical patterns. Frame pale wooden garden furniture with plenty of striped cushions and snug blankets, then pull out the storm lanterns and listen out for the sound of waves against the shoreline.
Makes waves with a blue area rug
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Anchor a traditional coastal-style living room with a large area rug that evokes the feel of the deep blue sea. Coin the classic look with an antique-style print in a blend of cream and indigo blue, then continue the refined coastal vibe with seascape artwork and brass-finish lighting and lanterns for nautical charm.
Call on seafood prints in the kitchen
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Give a navy blue and grey kitchen a coastal update with smart lobster silhouette print fabric accessories. Add to the look with colourful red crabs printed on crockery for a modern twist on a coastal kitchen.
Inject beach hut vibes into a bathroom
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Incorporating nautical details into your bathroom scheme can transport you to the beach in a flash with minimal on-a-budget effort. Sailboat, compass or anchor motif transfers make a classic and charming addition to simple boardwalk-style cladding.
Invest in cosy coastal textiles
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A pared-back wood backdrop and white sofa are all it takes to make this minimalist beach-house-style living room coastal quaint. The layers of pretty seaside motif lightweight mix-and-match fabrics stand out against the off-white walls and seal the deal.
Take tips from Miami
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Play on beach house panels
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Recycled or faded furniture is a key element to coastal schemes as well-worn and sunbleached wood surfaces take on an organic feel. Complete a bedroom scheme with light fabrics in ocean-inspired motifs. Pinstripe pillows look relaxed and clean—especially set against watercolour tones. Sandpiper bird motifs hopping over the bed linen make a refreshing alternative to classic gulls.
Inject colours of the deep
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A pale, tonal colour scheme that maximises available light needn't feel bland. Use bright textiles in rich blue shades for a bold focal point. Here, inky blue tones that echo darker ocean days make a real statement in this fresh white bathroom, while creating a sense of coastal atmosphere and openness.
Sail away on a window seat
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Create a charming nook to enjoy sea views—or dreams of them—with fabrics that continue the vibe. An alternative to blue, this shade of stormy grey looks smart and refreshing with zingy yellow sailboat and lighthouse motifs.
Choose classic coastal materials
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Bring a little beach life to your dining room with a beautiful collection of recycled glassware inspired by the colours of the sea. Enhance the vintage beach shack chic with matching pendant lights, upcycled dining furniture and classic coastal-style linen fabrics in bleached tones.
Choose stormy greys
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Coastal schemes needn't be bright and whimsical. If you're yearning for a home by the sea, stormy grey tones can create a stylish and contemporary space with plenty of atmosphere. Potted coastal grasses bring the seascape indoors and make a sculptural statement in this laid-back living room.
Decorate with driftwood
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For a modern coastal scheme, create a feature wall of driftwood with rustic sanded wood planks or raw panelling. This textured backdrop creates a striking feature wall and is the perfect way to offset a muted dining table dressed with organic linens and a vase of coastal reeds.
Install a wall mural
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Make it rich and moody
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Give your bedroom a maritime mood with dramatic navy blue walls. The rich tone will instantly transform your space into a cosy, smart and effortlessly elegant retreat. Balance the heavy walls with a weathered wood headboard and smartly striped bed linen. Then, use lighting techniques to create pools of warm light. We love how the brass frame of the tripod lamp shines out from the deep blue backdrop.
Add tranquil tiling
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Break away from blue
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A coastal scheme evokes a soft blue palette, but don't be afraid to turn décor conventions on their head. This country bathroom with rustic bevelled wall tiles is a stylish example of how other colours can work, too. The rich red roll-top bath and cabinet offer a gentle nod to the coast when teamed with a rope-framed mirror, delicate seashell handles and glass hurricane lighting.
Plump for pastels
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Ideal for guest rooms, this calming coastal scheme uses pastel blue and soft taupe to create a restful sleeping space. The daybed is layered with rustic linens and soft fabrics for a subtle country twist, while the oversized hamper basket makes a textured nightstand solution, with hidden storage.
Fake it with wallpaper
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Embrace a theme
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Feel the breeze
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Accessorise with blue ceramics
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Plump for pops of colour
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Light the way
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Go vintage with nautical motifs
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Take it traditional
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Team inky fabrics with whitewashed furniture for a smart Long Island-inspired scheme. Traditional tastes will appreciate this more elegant take on the coastal trend. Match heavy white wood units with dark blue furnishings and add chrome accessories to complete the luxurious look.
Combine tonal shades
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Channel East Coast elegance
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Smartly striped rugs, oversized nautical pendant lights and blue and white crockery turn this large, bright kitchen into a Hamptons-style hub for the whole family. Created with nautical-inspired accessories that can be changed seasonally, this versatile look can be easily recreated regardless of your existing cabinetry.
Anchors away
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Enhance with weathered wood
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Combine sea and sand colours
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Transform an open-plan living room into a relaxed seaside scene with a calming palette of sandy neutrals and sun-bleached white, offset with waves of deep ocean blue. Accessorise the coastal colour scheme with weathered wood and wicker for a relaxed and airy feel.
Love classic décor? See our inspiration for country-style decorating
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