Though Lavender Fields is located right near the beach right here on Long Island, we have customers all over the country who come to us for chic coastal and beach house decor. A question we’re often asked is if you can decorate in coastal or beach house style even if you don’t live on the beach.
Our answer is a resounding yes! We’re fans of laid back, relaxed, stylish coastal decor even if you’re nowhere near a beach. We love using sisal rugs, driftwood photo frames, coastal bedding, and rattan furniture in our coastal-inspired interior design projects. The trick is to layer the elements the right way so your home doesn’t look too theme-y.
Here’s our interior designer guide to coastal decorating, whether you live on the beach or not.
Start with your foundation: the flooring and the walls
If you’re in the market to totally redo your floors or are building a new space, we recommend a light colored, cool-toned wood floor like white oak. You can also have your dark wood floors whitewashed, which works even on dark wood floors. Another option is to have your floors painted white - but make sure you get a good floor company who does it right for durability!
Even if refinishing your floors isn’t in the budget, you can still add a coastal look to your space with coastal or beach house style rugs. We like using sisal style rugs and pretty striped rugs in our coastal style interior design projects. Check out our site for our full selection of Dash and Albert coastal style rugs.
For the walls, it depends on your budget. White shiplap is good for an accent wall, but is a labor-intensive installation requiring lots of materials.
If your budget is tight or you want to do something you can easily switch out, paint is a great option. We like bright white trim with Benjamin Moore’s Beach Glass (a toned down aqua), Coventry Gray (a soft gray), or Silver Cloud (a soft, cool blue).
Another option is to add wallpaper. With coastal wallpaper, we mostly stay away from novelty prints like anchors or seashells and stick with natural grasscloths or prints in a coastal color palette.
Choose a few coastal inspired investment pieces for your furniture
The good thing about coastal style is that you can layer in the soft goods like bedding, rugs, pillows, and decor to achieve a coastal look without tossing all your existing furniture. That being said, we usually encourage our clients to get some beautiful investment pieces to anchor their design.
For the bedroom, you can go luxe with our Seaglass collection. You could also get a simple white iron bedroom from our Corsican collection, and layer in coastal bedding.
Shop the Seaglass bed online at Lavender Fields here
We love rattan pieces for coastal inspired homes. Our Red Egg Furniture collection is handmade in the Philippines, and comes in over 20 finishes. Go with a rattan bar cart, side tables, or occasional chair to add a little natural style to your home.
Our Modern History collection features an entire line of whitewashed oak cocktail tables, sideboards, and console tables for that Montauk look.
Our website has over nine pages of coastal inspired furniture, enough for any style and every room in the house. Check out the whole selection here.
Layer in the beach house bedding
Your beach house bedding style depends on your own personal taste, and we have something for everyone.
Some of our clients are set on an all-white look, and we have so many options for that. We like to add a little detailing to our all-white bedding looks, whether it’s a ruffle on the edge of a sheet, piping on the pillowcases, or matelasse texture on the duvet or coverlet.
We also have a ton of pretty blue duvets and coverlets. These go well with light walls and a nice sisal rug underfoot.
For kids rooms or guest bedrooms in a true beach or lake house, we sometimes like to use a novelty print on the sheets, like this “Happy Fish” bedding from Pine Cone Hill.
We also have a ton of beach house-inspired throws. These are good for chilly nights and to add a little pattern and texture into your room.
The ideal bed should have the following elements, no matter your style:
Great sheets with a little interest on them (ruffles, piping, prints) or a really beautiful texture like silky cotton or natural linen
A coverlet or quilt for cooler nights - this is a really good way to add texture. Some people just stick with a coverlet, but we often like to layer a duvet on top. Our Pine Cone Hill Draftsman Quilt is a good example of one that works well by itself.
A duvet that works with your quilt or coverlet. If you’re going all white with everything, find a duvet with some interest like our Pom Pom at Home Charlie duvet cover.
Don’t forget the pillowcases and shams! There are lots of ways to do this. You can have your main pillowcases match your sheets, with Euro shams that match your duvet. You can also have two pillowcases match your sheets and two match your duvet or quilt. If you need help with choices, get in touch with us for our free design assistance.
The most fun part - the decorating! Add in a beautiful throw blanket to toss across the bottom of the bed, and layer in your pillows. We have a whole line of coastal style throws and pillows for you to choose from.
Add in coastal style lighting, like chandeliers and lamps
For beach house lighting, we have a few favorite materials.
If you want a more colorful look, try a seaglass-inspired lamp like this one from Jamie Clark. You can also go with an all-white ceramic lamp if you want a more neutral look or if the room already has a lot of color in it, or one with texture like this rope Poseidon Lamp from Jamie Clark.
For chandeliers, we like ones with wood or glass beads to bring in an organic, natural feel.
We also have a range of rattan chandeliers and pendants - these work well in a coastal-inspired kitchen.
Don’t forget the decor details
This is how you can finish your room, or how you can add budget-friendly coastal decor if a larger scale renovation isn’t in the cards for you right now.
For bathrooms, we love our Pigeon and Poodle accessories. This Bali set is made of real water hyacinth and comes in two colors.
For coastal inspired dining rooms, a little rattan on your placemats goes a long way - very Hamptons!
Our Jamie Young Ariel Shells are a coastal decor must-have, and they come in 5 colors.
For your walls, we love a coastal-inspired mirror, driftwood photo frames, and artwork from our Beach House artwork collection.
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| Shop the Somerset Bay Crescent Beach Mirror online at Lavender Fields here |
Get in touch with us for coastal style interior design
If you’d like to shop our Coastal Decor collection, we have hundreds of items just for you.
For free design assistance, you can get in touch with us here, and if you’d like Lavender Fields to design your coastal space, get in touch with us today!
