Interior design can be tricky regardless of where you’re located. When you choose to live close to the shore in a place like Florida, you likely love the beach and all it has to offer. However, decorating your home with coastal elements can be challenging to achieve a beach theme without it looking tacky.

Among other interior designs, the coastal style is increasingly popular in Florida. Decorate your home to give off beach or coastal vibes in a tasteful way with these elements and design ideas.

What Is Coastal Style?

Coastal style is often confused with nautical style because when you think about the coast, you think about beach vibes which can lead to submarine-type thoughts. While a coastal look incorporates elements from the beach, it doesn’t necessarily portray a beach-themed design. A coastal interior design focuses on soft features, faded neutrals and natural materials.

Decorating with a coastal style typically involves a neutral color scheme inspired by the shore. Think about natural elements by the shore and use those colors as inspiration like light blues, greens and beige tones. Draw inspiration from walking along a shore of a rocky beach and taking in everything around you from the fresh, salty air to the beach beneath your feet.

A neutral color scheme is always a safe bet with coastal design, but you can add navy blue or sea green pops for a personal touch. Color combinations like pink and green and beige and turquoise provide a calm and tranquil vibe, which nails the overall goal of coastal style. Coastal design uses natural materials like wood, rattan and wicker for things like furniture and linen and cotton for natural materials.

Coastal Design Ideas

Decorating with coastal design doesn’t have to be a challenge. You can incorporate other popular interior designs in Florida into your coastal home. Interior designs like Modern Rustic Industrial, Minimalism, Scandinavian, Midcentury Modern, Contemporary, French Country, Boho Chic, Spanish Mediterranean and French Country are very in style right now.

Midcentury Modern design is increasingly popular in many states and features furnishings from the mid-20th century that can easily be incorporated into the coastal design style. A bamboo end table built from walnut wood is a perfect choice for a living room decorated in coastal design. Modern ceramic vases would make excellent additions to a table or mantle in a room decorated in a coastal style. Some other coastal style ideas to consider are lighting, flooring, textures and decor.

Accent Lighting

The coastal design aims for as much natural light as possible. A home built with interior design would typically offer large windows and framing landscapes to emphasize the natural light. Coastal lighting features clean and simple lines with nautical elements like you’d see in a lighthouse or submarine. Consider using lights with metallic or weathered finishes to add a nautical feel to your coastal design.

Accent lightings like wall sconces and candles give off natural light and can add to the coastal vibe of your home. Hanging lights or pendants over a kitchen island create an airy and natural flow to the room that opens up the space. Tiki torches, lanterns and adjustable spotlights are excellent for an outdoor space that wants to incorporate coastal design.

Flooring Options

If you’re renovating or building and you can choose the flooring materials, you’ll want to choose wisely. Florida homes, especially by the beach might require specific flooring. A high-traffic beach home will need something easy to clean and maintain, like ceramic tile. You can customize ceramic tile to fit your style, so it’s a versatile choice for any type of home design. Hardwood floors are also perfect for coastal design since they look stunning in every home.

High-traffic areas are no match for hardwood since they weather nicely and add a sophisticated look to any room. Installing hardwood floors should be the last thing on your renovation list so the wood can acclimate. The most important thing to note about hardwood flooring is that they can be easily affected by moisture. For this reason, the humidity level in your home should be below 50%. Vinyl is a perfect flooring option for a beach home since it’s waterproof and can withstand moist and humid conditions.

Adding Textures

Textures play a significant role in interior design regardless of the style you’re trying to achieve. For example, the right area rug can transform a space and emphasize your flooring, adding to the room's overall feel. The right textures can make or break a space. Consider soft linens to accent the windows and allow natural light into the room. Incorporate natural elements such as wood and sand into your decor to create a warm and inviting feel.

You want to try to recreate the feeling of your toes touching the sand when you arrive at the beach. Surround yourself with wood, rattan and jute textures to achieve that rustic feel with sophisticated and tasteful accents. Mix and match these textures to create vacation vibes that pull everything together. Coastal grandma style is a trend that incorporates Minimalism into its design by avoiding seashells and lending an airy, effortlessly chic feel. Use chunky knit accents, whitewashed driftwood, and brushed nickel hardware to achieve this look.

Wall Coverings and Decor

You’ll want to avoid a nautical design for your walls by avoiding stripes, anchors and seashells. Coastal design is about simple, clean lines that bring the outside into the home. Find pieces of art that involve water, clouds and other aspects of the coastline for a warm inviting beach feel without the outdated decor. Incorporate natural elements into your wall decor with wooden frames and wicker baskets hanging on the walls as decor. You can also elevate your space by covering your walls in natural elements like grasscloth wallpaper.

Find art pieces like photos of plants or other natural elements that resonate with your space. Add a rustic mirror or weathered wooden picture frames with family photos in them. Old window panes make excellent wall decor stacked or placed on a mantle. Natural wooden shelves with vases filled with plants or flowers can elevate your wall decor. Painting an accent wall to add a pop of color can also personalize walls within a space.

Coastal Interior Design Style

Coastal homes are fun to decorate, but your home doesn’t have to be coastal to include a coastal design style. You can incorporate natural elements into any design style, like bamboo furniture, cotton accents and wicker baskets. Find your personal style and incorporate elements that resonate with you to achieve the perfect aesthetic for your Florida home.