How To Decorate A Nautical/Coastal Room

   

And Not Go Overboard!

When summer has arrived we all tend to think of the beach and anything coastal. 

Often we want just a touch of that in our homes as a reminder of happy summer days at the beach, and summer time is a great time to add touches of a nautical/coastal theme to our homes.

You might wonder why I just put up the buyer beware sign. 

I have seen some lovely rooms with nautical/coastal touches, and then I have seen rooms that look as if they are a tourist shop in a beach town on the boardwalk.

Whenever we add touches to our home that are thematic we really need to use restraint. There is such a fine line to be aware of when doing a Coastal, or Nautical room.

We could probably all make a long list of elements that we would think of when decorating a Coastal home, but trust me you don’t need one, or two of each item on that list.

Try being very strategic when you add these touches.

Step back, and look at your room, and think about where you might add something you really love, and if you want to add more, step back again, and be honest with yourself is it going to take you into a beach gift shop status?

I am going to show you some good examples of a Coastal/Nautical look in some rooms.

You will notice they are not overtly Nautical, or Coastal……

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The obvious pieces are the sail boat, and the knotted  ropes on the pillows. 

What is not so obvious are the textures that are brought into the room with the sisal rug, basket, wicker furniture and the boards on the wall reminiscent of a beach cottage.

Of course the blue, white, and sand colors are all naturals for this look.

If this homeowner had added a bunch of shells, and Japanese fishing floats, or a lets go to the beach sign, it would have taken this room over board in the Coastal department.

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In this room you will be hard pressed to find a coastal looking anything, and yet it is definitely giving a coastal vibe. 

If you look closely the door stop is the closest things to nautical in the room. Now take a closer look, notice the blue and white color scheme, the textural sisal rugs. 

The coffee table evokes the look of a weathered piece of driftwood. The coffee table next to the fireplace looks as if it is a crab trap. The two side chairs look almost like a folding deck chair. 

This room is a perfect example of how you can do a Coastal looking room without all the kitsch found on the boardwalk at the tourist shops.

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This room has shells, so naturally that is a giveaway this is a Coastal room. 

Notice how the shells are all in one area and displayed nicely in the book shelves. 

They used mostly creamy whites here with the addition of blue and sand, again making the room feel Coastal without being overtly Coastal.

Keep in mind the colors and textures you use in a room that you want to have a Coastal feel.

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This vignette does have shells, and it does have nautical prints, but it is done with restraint. 

Another addition that gives a Coastal feel is the large banana leaf plant that naturally reminds me the feel of soft ocean breezes on a tropical island.

Notice the color of the wood here as well. It has that soft patina that driftwood gets from the ocean and the ocean air and sun. 

Again, we see sisal rugs reminiscent of the sand I like the way they used the one gold frame with the fun little gold crab sitting on the books.

I guess the one thing I would say loud and clear is…….

……. “If you want a coastal look in your room try to use coastal elements with restraint. Do NOT have them all over the room, choose one or two areas to display your coastal elements.”

In my new home I want to have a Coastal vibe to my home, but one of restraint and a traditional bend. 

In making plans for the future I have tried to use great restraint on where I will use certain elements to evoke the feel of a Coastal Cottage.

Some might think it odd since my home is in a community that is surrounded by grape vineyards, but you see I have a love for the ocean so I am going to continue in the same vein I used in my other home.

I wrote another blog post on Coastal rooms for those of you who prefer not to decorate with blues, but like more neutrals….

HOW TO GET THE LOOK OF A SUMMER ROOM!

Click HERE!!

 

 

A Look Inside Our New House

 

This past Monday we got to go into our house for our pre-drywall walk-thru to make sure we got all of the electrical changes or add-on etc, that we wanted.

Doug listened intently while I flitted around taking pictures and important measurements! I had my own agenda!!

It was so fun!!!

One of the features we THOUGHT our home was coming with we found out it won’t have and I did a happy dance inside.

See the arches!

I don’t mind the one big one leading from the kitchen, but the others were causing me angst! 

It was also going to be an extra cost to us to make the wall flush for our TV area, since I have some plans on adding some architecture to that wall. 

Needless to say when I got the email verifying NO arches, we were both very happy.

Here is the picture of that wall! We have a fireplace on the right and where you see my hubby standing is a 92in. wall where a console table and TV will be hung on the wall.We thought we were going to have an arch like pictured below…….

Worked for this homeowner, but just  not our style so NO ARCHES for us.

I was noticing as we walked around that all the door frames were squared so I mentioned if they were going to be arches wouldn’t they already be framed as an arch and he said yes, but I still asked if  would  double check the master plans to make sure for me. 

Whew!!

This is our entry with a temporary door. Small but big enough for one of my small console tables. I have plans for this area!!

Our Great room, however I am referring to it as our family room. After all it is not GREAT, kind of more medium. 

Love all of the windows since I am all about light, and fresh air. We have 10 ft. ceilings throughout the house.

The two windows at the end of this room is our dinette.

This is the dinette wall that has the funny little windows that did not make any sense, I am happy to report they are not as bad in person as I anticipated, so that was another good discovery.

Our galley kitchen, the pipes coming up in the floor is where the sink will be and the 9 ft. island!! 

Where the ladder is standing will be all the kitchen cupboards. Here is a picture of the model so you can have a better reference..

AND

Next, onto the master bedroom……

The three windows that you see are the back wall facing the backyard. We added the large window in the center for a view.

I am so glad that we did.

The side wall in our master is where our night stands will go under each window, and the bed in the middle.

It couldn’t be more perfect for us.

That’s about it except for one more thing!!! You are about to see something you will probably never see again!

Me wearing orange!!!

It did say VIP on it, I guess that was suppose to make us feel important!!

 

 

The Process Of Selecting A Piece Of Furniture!

 

I love the design process, and trust me it IS a process. One that you need to take time, and do some deep thinking, and careful planning.

It has been so fun for me to treat myself like a client, and delve into what I really want my new home to look, and feel like.

PLANNING IS IMPORTANT!

Luckily I am pretty solid in what I like in my home, and the style I like. However, once you start looking around even I find more than one look, or direction my home could go towards. 

This is why it is so important to plan it out carefully and really try to stick to the overall style and design you want. If you just start purchasing elements without a plan you just might end up with a room you never wanted.

 STUDY AND DO YOUR RESEARCH

In studying rooms, and analyzing what  elements I love I have realized I can go a more traditional, elegant coastal look, or I can go a more traditional, relaxed coastal look. I have to admit I probably will have a touch of understated elegance in my home, I just seem to gravitate towards that look.

THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD

Even my granddaughter at a very early age when asked by her Mom if they could do something to their home to make it be like Grammy’s home, she replied, “NO!” in a  very matter of fact manner.  

When asked what she liked about Grammy’s home so much she said, “ It’s just fancy!” Of course you have to realize at that time we were reading the, ‘Fancy Nancy,’ books, but we were both amazed at her observations at such an early age.

So I WILL have a touch of fancy here and there, but overall I wish to achieve a more casual look and feeling. 

 I Did My Research

I came to this conclusion after looking at several of the elements that I want to incorporate in my home eventually. 

This will be a process over time for us, it won’t all be done at once. Time or budget will not allow for that.

That is another reason that it is important to have an overall, flexible plan.

I already have my base furniture pieces, and will actually only have to purchase, maybe two items. I will know better once we move in, and have everything in its proper place.

One item I know for sure that we have to purchase is a console cabinet for the wall that our TV will be going on. 

We have one wall in the family room where the TV and our fireplace will be placed.

This particular wall is going to be my greatest design challenge, and I am sure I will learn some important lessons along the way. I will delve into this subject more at a later date. I think that will be a post in of itself.

The reason I am bringing up the TV console is it is going to play a very integral part in setting the look and feel of our main living area.

I Did My Homework

The first thing I had to consider is the size and then the style, or feel of the console, and also it needs to have a white finish.. I did copious amounts of sourcing and studying of images of rooms.

I did discover something about myself, I don’t particularly care for the big entertainment units which would actually be a natural choice for this wall. In my looking I found I like a buffet, or console cabinet the best for my design aesthetics.

Scale Is Important

Most TV media tables are a bit lower than will work in our room, we have 10 ft ceilings, and our TV will be placed on the wall so something low would look out of place in my minds eye.

Now back to some of the choices I am looking at. You have to keep in mind two things, I tend to like a more simple look for my home, and I will need a  cabinet that our remote will be able to see the signal. 

I decided that something with a grille, or glass would work, and that way you would not see the inner workings as readily as when they sit on a shelf. 

The glass doors would have a bit of a reflective glare that would camouflage them, or a grille would hide them almost completely.

The looking began with the size in mind first, and then the style, and one more thing, the finish needs to be white.

CHOICE #1

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Simple, clean and fresh, has good storage, and a place for the components and a very good price point.

This cabinet is tall enough and the depth is good, but it is only 50in. wide which will work, but I think I might need a bit wider. 

To be honest I won’t really know until all the other pieces are in the room.

CHOICE #2

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Right size, right style, but this will have to be painted so we have to consider adding an extra cost factor to this one. 

I am also very enamored with the X motif, and have plans on this design element in another area of my home so this would make a nice visual flow by repeating the X motif element.

It also comes in a style that has some more storage and is a bit higher by 4 in. I just might need the height because of the 10 ft. ceilings……

CHOICE #3

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I think this has a lot of character and it would also work nicely in our home.

CHOICE #4

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I found this very interesting, but I would have to contact this company to find out just how big each drawer is to see if it would work with the components. 

It is already white, and has hardware that will fit in the overall design aesthetics of the room. It is all about the details.

CHOICE #5

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This is just the right size, but we would have to pop out the panels, and add glass, and without seeing this in person, I can not judge if this would be possible.

This is a bit more traditional with more going on with the details, but I like it’s details.

CHOICE #6

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This is just the right style, white and has glass, the only problem with this one, is it goes from the smallest width of 50in. which I think will be too small all the way to an 80in. width which I fear will be too large and overstated for the size of our room.

As I said before, I will know more once we move into our new home, and see how all of my furniture looks once placed in the room.  I did make up three possible furniture placement plans to try.

Plan A

 

I have a room plan and it all fits on paper, but any designer will tell you what looks good on paper does not always translate in the room.

Plan B

However, we still need to do a floor plan so we do not make unnecessary purchases. Design is not an exact science, but one of creativity, and individuals interpretation. 

Plan C

That is why there are so many different styles to choose from. What is pleasing to one homeowner might be distasteful to another.

So there you have it!! Which console is your favorite, and which room plan do you like?

I have been asked what is the program I used for the room plans, here is the link if you are interested click
HERE!