Coastal Living Room Inspiration: A Quick Design Guide

Coastal living and beach house decorating styles inspired the coastal design known globally. For example, a coastal living room features white walls and natural materials, which give it its coastal look.

Some coastal living room design ideas include using seashells, dried coral, pendant lamps, wicker chairs, natural wood coffee tables, and natural fiber rugs.

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This article will provide you with current coastal living room design ideas that you can incorporate into your home for a beach-inspired look.

What Is Coastal Living? 

Coastal living is a design style that gives a beachy, organic, and calming effect. Typically, this style uses natural colors similar to the sand and ocean, natural woods, and natural textures. Coming home to a coastal space is ideal for relaxing after a long day.

Just imagine being on the beach and feeling the sand between your toes, the warm sun on your face, and the fresh salty breeze on your skin; you would know that beach living is extremely relaxing!

I mean, who doesn’t love spending time in a relaxing oasis?

For instant access to coastal design, be sure to download our ebook for instant access to the best tips on designing the perfect seaside home.

If you are one of those people that love unwinding on the coast, you can surely incorporate the same coastal vibe into your home. Doing this creates an atmosphere where everyone can enjoy being together while feeling relaxed and comfortable. The best part about coastal living is how easy it is to achieve this look by using simple elements like paint color or coastal furniture pieces!

To make your house look more coastal, you can paint your walls white, incorporate blue hues and add natural materials like a jute rug, hardwood floors, and rattan chairs. You can also change your furniture arrangement to create a relaxed environment for guests and family members.

Related: 5 Best Flooring Options in Florida Homes

What to Look for When Decorating a Coastal Living Room

To decorate with a coastal theme, you may choose to incorporate natural elements such as wood, wicker furniture, and organic fabrics.

You can also add neutral colors with pops of coastal colors such as yellow, blue, and coral.

The choice of color will depend on the style of your home. It’s important to note that since coastal homes provide a bright, airy feel, having large windows and lots of natural light will be beneficial.

The first thing to note when redesigning your living room is to choose whether you want a contemporary coastal design or more of a traditional beachy look. Knowing this will determine what colors you choose and how much they are used.

After selecting, you decide on your look, identifying the best coastal color palette will help you lay the foundation for your space.

Lastly, when you are ready to choose furniture and decor, it is important to remember that natural and organic materials will always be the best choice for a coastal home.

Colors for a Coastal Living Room

The seaside lifestyle has popularized beach-inspired color schemes for a beach house experience.

Choosing a color palette can be challenging for most homeowners. However, getting down to this task can be made easy by simply visualizing the colors you will normally see at the beach.

Coastal colors are light and vibrant and are intended to bring serenity while invigorating the space.

The color palette for a coastal house is made up of cool and warm grays, neutral hues, crisp whites, blues, greens, and coral. In addition, soft shades of grays, browns, and neutrals are common in modern coastal homes.

For example, you can choose crisp white as your main color and add blue colors to enliven the room.

The bright colors of the seaside provide a welcome reprieve from the sometimes dark and drab interiors found in most homes. Blue, turquoise, green, red, and yellow are all used to create a relaxing atmosphere in coastal house decor. By adding subtle neutrals like white, cream, beige, and gray paint colors, you can bring more balance and harmony into the space. The end result is an uplifting yet soothing decor style.

The greatest approach to embrace the seaside color scheme is by using vibrant accent hues that invigorate and revitalize the area. However, if you’re using lively hues, use them sparingly since too much color might overpower a space.

Furniture for Coastal Living Rooms

A coastal-themed home incorporated plenty of natural elements and textures.

The use of natural wood like wooden beams and natural textures such as rattan and jute rugs are common features of a coastal house. These natural materials give the impression that you’re on the beach.

A carefree, easygoing attitude characterizes the coastal interior design. There is no need for a formal living room in this style. Instead, the rooms should flow together to create a friendly and welcoming environment.

Natural wood, white, cream, or other light hues should be used for beautiful coastal living rooms. For example, furniture pieces can be made of natural wood, wicker, Bowker, and rattan and have white cushions and blue decorative pillows.

Rugs

Rugs are one of the most popular methods to give texture and color to a room’s design while also providing a sense of warmth. So, the right rug for your seaside house will be dependent on the look you want to pursue.

Popular carpets in coastal design, for example, include natural fibers such as jute, wool, seagrass, sisal, and safavieh. The rug you choose would be determined by your budget as well as the amount of foot traffic in your coastal living space. Using a more durable material like jute in your seaside living room design will be advantageous.

Fabrics

Depending on whether you’re going for a modern coastal living room or a classic beachy design, the colors of materials will vary.

If you love the contemporary design style, stick to light hues like white, cream, and light sandy grey.

Alternatively, choosing fabrics with sea patterns and designs will provide a more traditional design.

Burlap, sisal, jute, linen, and cotton are some of the natural textiles you can use. These materials are ideal for pillows, curtains, and blankets.

To incorporate all of these elements, you can choose a white sofa with yellow throw pillows, a wool blanket, and a jute rug. All of these choices provide the necessary textures for a beach-themed home. 

Decor for a Coastal Living Room

Coastal living room design is all about the beach. To get started, all you need are a few key pieces to make your space feel like home. For example, using cool colors like whites, creams, light blues, and greens will bring more freshness to the room. In addition, it’s beneficial to keep everything light since dark colors absorb more heat and are oppressive in small spaces.

In addition, think about the textures of fabrics you want to add:

• Linen looks great with seashells and wood furniture.
• Silk is always good for curtains that will let in lots of natural sunlight.
• Cotton also offers a clean surface that feels crisp and fresh.
• Wool throws add warmth without weight.

Seashells, coral, dried sea sponges, starfish, and nautical decor are advised when decorating with a seaside feel.

If you want a contemporary seaside aesthetic, use limited vibrant color and furnishings to decorate the area. This will add simplicity to the room, enhancing its tranquil atmosphere.

A coastal living room can be easy to assemble if you know what will work for your home. Here are some ideas about how to decorate your coastal living room:

Seagrass or Wicker Baskets

These baskets come in so many different shapes and sizes and can be used in your house for several things. Baskets are great for storage, so if you need some extra space in your living room, why not use some decorative baskets to store magazines, toys or even put laundry inside.

Lighting

In coastal homes, natural light is always a priority. To make the most of natural light, install large windows and skylights. You can also use light-colored paint and flooring to help brighten up the space. If you need to add artificial light, choose warm bulbs instead of cool ones to include the calm and serene vibe of the beach. White lights tend to be harsh on the eyes.

In addition, incorporating rattan pendant lights can help bring to light all of your living room design elements. You can also install a string of rope lights to create a cozy, atmospheric warmth.

Throw Pillows

Throw pillows come in all kinds of sizes and shapes. They are a great way to decorate your coastal living room as they give you the chance to play around with different colors, designs, and patterns.

Watercolor Paintings

Why not bring nature indoors? You can do this by using wall art in watercolor paintings. These paintings look great on neutral-colored walls such as beige or white and add a very peaceful vibe to the room.

Candles

What’s a room without candles? Candles are so versatile and can be used in many different ways. You can put them on the center of your living room table to illuminate the space, or you can put them inside bowls, vases, or even jars to create an elegant look. They give off great lighting no matter where you keep them, plus they are incredibly easy to use.

Plants

Bring the outdoors in with some potted plants. Of course, coastal living room decor would not be complete without a few green leaves or flowers. You can put them anywhere you want but keep in mind that some don’t do well with direct sunlight, so putting them near your large windows might not work.

Finished Wood

Finished wood pieces are great to use if you have a lot of wooden furniture in your home. You can even paint the old wooden pieces white to keep them fresh or go for a whitewashed look if you prefer that aged quality. A few finished wood items strategically placed around your home are the perfect way to give your home that coastal feel.

Picture Frames

Frame any painting hanging on the walls for an extra personal touch. You can also place some family photographs inside, along with a few different knick-knacks like shells, driftwood, and other beach-inspired items. You can put them on top of your coffee table for a rustic look.

Floating Shelves

Floating shelves are great for the coastal living room decor as they give off the illusion of more space and work well with any color or design you want to use. You can place them next to your doors, besides your windows, or under your windows inside your home. They are also very versatile as you can place small items like books or even lamps on top of them.

Prints and Patterns

The coastal living room can be an eclectic space with a lot of potential for being unique and creative. One way to do this is by incorporating nautical-themed prints and patterns into the design.

However, being careful with these choices is important because they can make or break your overall look, especially if you are going for a modern design.

If you want to add some beach-inspired patterns, you can try purchasing decorative pillows with white stripes, starfish, coral, and other nautical prints.

Hanging Decor

The rope accents in a coastal living room design can transform your space into a beachy paradise. The rope accent trend has been popular for some time now, and it’s no wonder why.

Rope is an inexpensive way to add texture and color to any indoor or outdoor decorating project.

In addition, rope is easy to work with because you can lay it horizontally or vertically without much fuss. You can also tie the rope into different shapes if you want, which makes this type of decor really versatile!

Coastal Living Room Ideas

A coastal living room is one of the most popular design trends. It is a fun and easy way to decorate your home. It is all about bright colors, soothing neutral tones, with a dash of natural elements and accessories.

Now that you know what coastal living room decor is all about, you can try it out for yourself. All you need are some great ideas to get started.

No matter how you decide to add coastal decor into your home, make sure it reflects your style and brings you peace and relaxation.

For a deeper dive into the coastal design, be sure to visit our blog post, Coastal Design: The Natural Elements of a Coastal Home, for more in-depth information about how to incorporate this stunning decorating style into your entire home. We also have coastal kitchen design ideas too!

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