Interior design makes living spaces more liveable by making them more aesthetically pleasing and functional. One of the most popular interior design styles is coastal design, which is touted as very soothing and relaxing.

The coastal interior design creates the beach feel in your home to give your space the soothing and relaxing feel unique to seaside getaways.

What are the key elements of the coastal interior design style, where did it originate, and how can you create coastal style in your home?

This “coastal interior design” guide will answer these questions. At the end of this article, you’ll know what to do to give your living space a soothing and relaxing coastal feel.

Origins of coastal interior design (brief history)

With “coastal” referring to things near the sea, Coastal interior design brings the beach lifestyle to your home design.

Coastal interior design relies on watery hues and natural textures to create an aesthetically appealing and relaxing seaside atmosphere in your home.

Imagine the serenity and tranquility you feel when you’re on beaches. The emotion is so alluring that it makes people dream of seaside getaways. Coastal interior design visually interprets this powerful emotion in your home.

Coastal interior design is the culmination of how people near the coasts design their homes.

It is safe to say that coastal interior design has been around since the early days of our civilization. This is because humans are known to run with the design inspirations their immediate environment gives them, so people living around beaches would tap inspiration from their coastal environment to create beachy-chic looks in their homes.

However, coastal interior design was made popular by the luxury beach homes of the Hamptons, located in New York’s Long Island’s South Fork.

The Hamptons started as a humble farming community. Thanks to its top-rated world beaches, it became famous as a vacation spot towards the end of the 19th century. Fast forward to today, and Hampton is a summer playground of the rich and famous.

As the Hamptons became famous on TV, people began to notice the distinct design and decor of its luxury beach homes. People everywhere became interested in the unique beach-feel design and sought to replicate it in their own lives. The result? Coastal interior design was officially born.

Key elements of the coastal interior design

Four key elements define the coastal style. If you can tick these elements off, you’ll successfully bring the beach feel to your home. The key elements of coastal interior design are:

Coastal colors
Spaces
Natural texture
Natural light

Light color palette

The coastal interior design relies heavily on a light color palette. Neutral colors like white, cream, and beige are common primary coastal design colors.

The light color palette perfectly mimics the coastal environment - crisp white and beige shades imitate the sand, light blue shades imitate the ocean’s crashing waves, etc. You may also use serene secondary colors like pastel grass green, rock grays, and brown to compliment the neutral backgrounds and make your design more visually appealing.

Spaces

The coastal interior design can be described by the phrase “minimalistic elegance,” as it is characterized by open spaces for an uncluttered and breezy feel.

The keyword for Coastal interior design is minimalism because “less is more” when creating the style. Don’t over-accessorize. Instead, keep decor to the bare minimum, and leave lots of open spaces in the house.

The open spaces in Coastal designs imitate the vastness of serene coastlines.

Natural texture

Coastal interior design also relies heavily on mimicking the surface characteristics of landscapes and visuals you’ll find in waterfront areas.

Natural textures like woven shades, wicker, ropes, and driftwood are popular for giving living spaces a relaxing coastal vibe.

Natural light

Another key element of a coastal interior design is lots of natural light to mimic the brilliant sunshine and natural light that make beaches charming.

Coastal interior designs bring in the light using large windows, skylights, and glass doors. The style also uses mirrors and reflective surfaces for optimal diffusion of light in the home.

What is contemporary coastal style?

The contemporary coastal design combines “contemporary style” and “coastal style.”

The contemporary style is whatever is the moment’s style. The current (or contemporary) style of decorating is defined by simplicity, subtle sophistication, natural textures, and clean lines.

A critical element of contemporary style is the “line.” Lines, which are boundaries of straight and curved surfaces, are used in contemporary designs to define a space or create an emotion. Some popular uses of lines are in color blocks and geometric shapes in wall art.

A blend of the contemporary style and the coastal style to create the contemporary coastal style is defined by elegant simplicity using neutral colors, uncluttered spaces, natural textures and light, nautical elements, and clean lines.

How to create coastal interiors

Creating a coastal interior is as simple as adding the key elements of a coastal interior into your design. Find ways to add coastal colors, create uncluttered spaces, add natural texture, and infuse the interior with lots of lights.

Some ways to do this and create coastal interiors include:

Minimize your coastal color palette

To create a peaceful coastal feel, neutral colors (particularly white and cream) should be your primary coastal colors.

A starting point is painting the walls crisp white or creamy white. These colors not only mimic the coastal visuals, but they also amplify the effect of the natural light in your interior.

When incorporating other colors, go with soft and subtle shades. Thus, you should use pastel green instead of green.

Add natural textures

The coastal environment contains different textures, so adding natural textures will help you create the style. You can add various items to the interior to give it a coastal feel, including ropes, seashells, woven shades, driftwood, sea grass, etc.

Introduce warm accents

Make some things stand out from the rest of the interior’s decor to add an exciting pop-up of color, pattern, and texture.

There are different ways to accent your coastal interior. Some of the most popular include

Accent walls. Paint or wallpaper one wall to give it a different color, design, or texture from the other walls.
Area rugs. Use a rug that covers only a small part of the floor. Accent rugs add a splash to your interior as they add interesting color, patterns, or texture. Jute rugs are popular for accenting interiors in coastal designs.

Throw blankets and accent pillows. Add a touch of color, pattern, or texture to the foot of your bed using throws. You may also use pillows to add the color/ texture pop-up.
Small furnishings. You can add small furnishings to the large furniture in your home for a grander feel. Small furnishing accents can be as simple as adding a bench at the foot of a bed, or a table to hold accent lamps.

Artwork. You can use hanging art pieces to accent your interior. Art pieces that complement the color scheme and other accessories in the room work best.

Let in plenty of natural light

Natural light is a key element of coastal interiors. So, one way of creating the style is to let in plenty of natural light.

You may need construction changes to infuse light into your interior, such as adding more windows, making windows bigger, adding skylights, and using glass doors.

If you’d rather not make construction changes, there are a few tricks to flood your interior with natural lights, including:

Paint the walls white to amplify the effect of light in the room.
Use see-through sheer curtains and drapes that allow more natural light to enter the room.
Add reflective surfaces to the room. For example, add glass tops to your tables or place mirrors strategically (like opposite windows) to diffuse the light that enters the room.

Conclusion

A coastal interior design brings the beach lifestyle to your home, giving your living space the soothing and relaxing feel unique to seaside getaways.

You can turn any living space into a coastal interior by adding the elements of the style to the home, such as: using soft coastal colors, using minimalism to create open uncluttered spaces, adding natural texture and elements, and infusing the interior with lots of natural light.

While you can create the coastal interior design yourself, it is only engaging a design professional that guarantees you'll get it right. One of the best design professionals in the United States is CURATED.

Whether you want to entice potential buyers or maximize your enjoyment, CURATED. guarantees thoughtful interior designs that look and feel heavenly, making your home more beautiful and appealing. Also, CURATED. delivers design projects in a fraction of the time so that you can start using your property before you know it.

Thinking of creating calming coasting interiors? The coastal style is one of our specialties. Whatever your vision, we would love to hear it and help you make it a reality.

For interior design services locally in South Florida, nationwide across the United States, and in the Caribbean island nations, contact CURATED. today!