Love the idea of a beach house, but live in suburbia? Steal these six easy coastal beach decor ideas for your beach house in the city.
If you’re like me, you love the idea of having an easy, breezy beach house that overlooks the ocean and has an immediate sense of calm. If you are indeed like me, you’ll instantly realize that this whole concept is probably not going to happen. We can, however, take the whole beach house concept and attempt to decorate our suburban or city dwellings with a little coastal flair to at least bring on some of that calm. Here are a few beach decor ideas that you can steal for yourself, without making your house look like a nautical cliché.
This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something through these links, we may earn a commission. Thanks!! Featured image artwork: Fade by NLS Design – Studio Collection.
Easy Beach Decor Ideas
Don’t Do the Typical Beach Theme
First and foremost, resist the urge to go straight to the nautical or beach theme. This means no seashells, netting displays or boat sculptures everywhere.
Instead, think about what your own personal style is and then add nods to the coastal or beach decorating theme in one or two spots around the room. The image above is very much modern and luxurious, but by adding some palm tree plants and an abstract shoreline painting, it instantly gives the whole room a coastal feel. The views out the windows don’t hurt either.
Consider a Beach Color Palate
If you think about sitting on the beach, or gazing out your non-existent beach house window, you can easily get a color palate. Think soft sand beige, sky blue or deep ocean blue, light white sunlight or even a pale green sea glass color. These colors easily lend themselves to that coastal feel without being a clichéd theme. Starting with clean white walls and then adding in these beachy colors is an easy way to get started.
You could also go with the classic deep or navy blue and white color palate. It is timeless and you can find thousands of home accents at many different retailers while still having everything coordinate.
Use Natural Elements
When you think about a beach house, you don’t think thick shag carpet, you think hardwood floors. In the same arena, you can add natural elements with a jute or sisal rug, contemporary wicker furniture, or a rattan lamp shade. These natural elements help bring the outside in.
Try Slipcovers and Paint for Your Furniture
Not so thrilled with the current state of the furniture you have? This can actually become a positive if you are looking for beach decor ideas because many beach houses judiciously use slipcovers and paint to update their furniture.
Slipcovers are almost a necessity if you live at the beach since they can easily be cleaned when the thousands of house guests get them dirty. Try a more fitted style over your couches and love seats, and even your dining room chairs. Be careful not to get the ones that you have to tuck in everywhere, because it can end up looking more college apartment that beachy chic.
If you have an old dreary wood night side stand or end table, get out a paintbrush. You can even consider painting your woodwork or cabinetry. Think about your coastal color palate and go with a traditional white, or a deep blue. The great thing about beach decor is that your paint job does not have to be perfect. Think chippy white paint or a distressed chalk paint. Chalk paint is very forgiving and easy to use. You don’t even need to prime, and if it chips off, all the better.
Don’t Forget the Fabrics
Fabrics are an easy way to bring coastal décor into your house. Ticking stripe, cotton matelassé, sheer white, and ball fringe are all perfect examples of beach décor ideas. You can easily find a blue and white ticking stripe curtains, or shower curtains, seersucker duvet set or white sheers for your windows at most stores or online pretty inexpensively. Ticking stripe and ball fringe also work really well on accent pillows or throw blankets. A crisp white cotton matelassé or ticking stripe bedspread and shams also adds that perfect beachy feel to a bedroom.
The Decorative Accents
Last but not least, consider all of the different home accents that you can add to your space to pull everything together. The easiest one to think about is artwork. In looking back at tip number one, try not to instantly go for seashells and boats. Look for something that evokes the beach or coast, but isn’t so overt. An abstract or impressionistic beach landscape or water view are always popular and easy to find. An inexpensive gallery art wall with matching frames and images in your color palate is also and easy DIY and a great way to fill up a large wall.
Affordable printable wall art is super easy to find. You can obviously try out any of the NLS Design Studio Collection pieces that are featured in this blog post, or I always like to check Etsy – my shops (travel/nature and abstract/landscape) or others.
If you want something already done and ready to hang, you can get any of my artwork framed, printed or on canvas through Fine Art America. I’ve already done the uploading, so it is an easy experience. If you want to opt for someone else’s artwork (boo), I still like Etsy, or even Amazon, but I would stick to smaller pieces that you can make a gallery wall out of to save yourself shipping charges.
Decorating your dream beach house that’s actually in suburbia does not have to be overwhelming. With these beach decor ideas, you can easily pull together the look you want without going overboard. (See what I did there? 😊 )
