Image credit: Oak Furnitureland
Nothing soothes the soul more than a trip to your favourite coastline.
Whether you prefer to dive into crashing waves, relax in a tropical paradise or enjoy some good old-fashioned British seaside fun, there’s something about the heady combination of sea and salt air that leaves us feeling revitalised.
It’s also a place where we often make valuable memories throughout our life, so even if you live in the city or have retired to apartment life, it can be soul-affirming to create a space that reminds you of precious times with family and friends.
With a coastal colour palette ranging from blue to green and taupe to crisp white, and textures galore, a coastal bedroom idea is a great option for decorating bedrooms. And as blue consistently comes top in the best bedroom colours for a good night’s sleep, there’s no doubting the restful effect of a laidback coastal scheme.
But how do you pull the look off without your bedroom looking like an end-of-the-pier gift shop?
For a design that’s tasteful not tacky, we’ve rounded up 10 of our favourite coastal bedroom ideas and spoken to a range of interiors experts to find out how to get a soothing sea-inspired space.
Transport yourself to paradise
Nothing says deserted island more than a billowing white canopy hung from a four-poster bedframe that’s made from bamboo. It’s castaway chic but with all the comforts of home.
Or perhaps you’d lie here and imagine yourself sailing the sunny seas, with white sails over your head? Either way, it’s a guaranteed way to bring a coastal feel to your sleep space.
Dress the bed with soft white linen and patterned blue cushions, accessorise with distressed wooden furniture, and rather than floor tiles, which aren’t overly suitable for upstairs bedrooms in the UK, use a berber style textured carpet in a sandy shade to create an island-like feel.
On a hot summer’s night, pick the best fan for cooling your room, spritz some ocean-scented room spray and lie down under the billowing sails, and you’ll get to sleep faster than ever before.
Pair with grasses and floral patterns for a British coastal theme
“Coastal motifs often benefit from pared-back, elegant styles,” says Flora Daly, the designer at Harlequin who created this beautiful hand-painted wallpaper called ‘Air’ showcased in this bedroom idea.
“Colour palettes are softer,” she explains, “playing with neutrals and sea-to-sky tones to create calm and lightness.”
Daly tells us how ‘Air’ was, “inspired by the ethos ‘designed to dream’, depicting the softness of clouds, gracefully drifting across endless skies.
Bringing the tranquillity of the outdoors firmly inside, add floral-patterned soft furnishings and layer with textural accessories like sculptural grasses and wicker baskets to complete the look.
Harlequin Air Wallpaper Panel Set, RRP £319
Pair with delicate prints and bespoke furniture
Escape to the French Riviera with a nautical-inspired striped bedlinen set. Add a Louis XIV-style bench seat upholstered in soft denim blue, and decorate walls with simple line-etched prints of coral.
Paint your floorboards white and add texture with a jute rug. Although simple in style, through adding features such as panelling and more elegant pieces of furniture, it’s a scheme that oozes quiet luxury but equally transports you to sunnier climes.
Petit Breton Stripe Bed Linen Set in Sea Blue, from £45
Bright greens and pops of pink create a more vibrant coastal theme
If you’re less about snoozing in soothing shades of blue and more about dowsing yourself in dopamine decor, create a feature wall with a bold wallpaper with a bright green and white palm leaf print.
It’s the perfect starting point for a Miami beach-style theme. Paint the rest of your walls in pale candyfloss pink and continue the green, white and pink theme in your soft furnishings.
Add a simple white bedside table, light wooden flooring and you’ll be guaranteed to wake up with a smile on your face – whatever the weather outside.
Combine the best of the outdoors into one
If you can’t decide between coastal and country, the good news is you don’t have to. As this beautiful bedroom demonstrates, combining the two works well when you use the right colours, textures and patterns.
Use blue as your accent colour to reference the coast but pick a floral-patterned duvet set that speaks of the countryside.
Continue the floral decor through accessories, such as lights and vases, but use weathered-effect woods and textured jute rugs to once again whisper coastal.
It’s a New England style look but in more palatable shades
Although traditional New England style favours oak with a red, white and blue colour scheme, they’re not always easy colours to have in a bedroom, making us think of teenagers rather than adults. But worry not – we have a solution.
With oak, one of the easiest woods to match with colour, you can still create a New England coastal feel with softer shades of sea glass green, white and grey.
Add a weatherboard-style feature wall painted green behind your bed and soften a pale grey herringbone patterned wooden floor with striped rugs that could easily be switched for thicker ones during the winter.
It’s a grown-up stateside look that will never date or leave you feeling like you’ve hit the beaches at spring break.
Romsey Natural Solid Oak Double Bed, RRP £579.99
Take inspiration from weathered beach items
Although it’s easy to assume you should always use shades of blue in a coastal bedroom scheme, Lauren Gilberthorpe, owner of Gilberthorpe Interiors, often opts for a more natural palette with only a few touches of softer blue.
“To create a coastal bedroom look, start by focusing on a light and breezy colour palette inspired by the sea and sky,” she advises. “Think sandy neutrals and crisp whites.
“Use natural materials like distressed wood for furniture and woven fabrics for textiles, emphasising the rustic, weathered aesthetic often associated with coastal environments.”
When it comes to bed linens, she says light and airy is key, although they can incorporate patterns like stripes or botanical prints that reference the seaside.
To fully develop the scheme, Gilberthorpe recommends you, “include decorative elements such as shells, maritime-inspired art or nautical accessories to reinforce the theme.
“Finally, maximise natural light with sheer window treatments, and consider a statement piece like a rattan pendant light to capture the relaxed, inviting ambience of coastal living.”
Her final advice? “Remember, the key to a successful coastal bedroom is a balance of casual elegance and unpretentious charm.”
Bring the beach house to your house
For the ultimate beach-house vibe, take down your blinds or curtains and install wooden shutters in soft shades of cream or white. As well as creating delightfully dappled light, they can also help keep your house cool in the summer and retain warmth during the winter.
Decorating the room in neutral tones will also help to increase the amount of light dispersed around the room, while light wooden furniture and striped cushions all speak of the beach.
A strategically placed ladder also provides a great alternative as a bedside table idea, with its rungs perfect for holding extra blankets, tomorrow’s outfit or even books and magazines.
Berkeley Full Height Shutters, from £109.33
Eschew traditional design in favour of soft, flowing fabric
While the overall design of this room is clearly coastal, with its shades of blue, cream and white, it’s the clever use of soft, sheer fabric in place of a headboard that made us love it even more.
With a soft breeze flowing through a window, the pampas grass rustling gently and the fabric swaying behind your head, it would be easy to close your eyes and transport yourself to the daybed at a luxury hotel.
Sneak a peek out of the corner of your eye at the soothing coastal images beside the bed and it’s bliss from top to bottom of this beautiful bedroom.
Put your beachside bolthole on permanent display
If accessories and colour themes simply aren’t enough to satisfy your coastal cravings, pick your favourite seaside location and have it painted directly onto your wall.
While it may not suit your master bedroom, it could be a quirky addition to a guest bedroom. Although this bedroom features a wallpaper mural, there are plenty of talented artists who could create the look for you.
Or, if you fancy stretching your creative skills, why not make it a weekend DIY project and give it a go yourself?
You could even repurpose some old crates into storage shelves or make some pallet furniture such as bedside tables. Paint them white for a fresh coastal feel and add yellow for a pop of all-important sunshine vibes.
Create a horizon with a half-height painted wall
If you prefer creams and wood tones rather than shades of blue, base your coastal bedroom theme around a natural palette, but add a strikingly simple feature wall.
By painting the lower section of the wall in dark blue, it’s easy to imagine this is the horizon line between the ocean and the sky. A coastline painting close by also nods to the design feature in a subtle but clever way.
We love how this room has layers of texture with chunky wool blankets, feathery grasses and wicker tables and lights. While the light-coloured floor tiles bounce light around to ensure the darker shade of blue doesn’t dominate the look.
Feel like you have the ocean within reach
If you dream of waking up to the sound of the ocean but can’t indulge your whim to move closer to the sea, bring the ocean to your bedroom using an ombre-style wallpaper mural to create the sense of a never-ending seascape all year round.
Use complementary shades of blue for bedlinen and hang a pendant light that looks like a bird’s wings flying through the sky.
Keep night-time essentials close to hand in a matching pair of bedside tables topped with slender table lights and coastal inspired flora in simple cream vases.
Denton Coastal Ombre Watercolour Wallpaper Mural, from £32 per sqm
Go floor-to-ceiling with the same colour paint
For a sophisticated underwater feel, choose a deeper shade of blue and use it on the walls, floor and ceiling.
Add glass light fittings that feel like floating lanterns or, dare we say it, jellyfish, and stick to neutral bed linens to create an elegant room that’s encased in your favourite shade of blue.
Smaller but equally beautiful glass lantern lights can be found at Jim Lawrence – one of our favourite UK lighting designers – whose showrooms feature a range of shapes and sizes that are simply perfect for a coastal bedroom.
For a more cost-effective option, high-street favourite Dunelm has a similar version that may even be available on click and collect if you can’t wait to get started on your new coastal-inspired design.
Rio Voyager Ribbed Glass Pendant Light, RRP £59
Use cases and trunks to enhance the look
When it comes to coastal chic, it’s not just about the right shade of blue. It’s also about choosing decorative items that help to make the look feel authentic.
Francesca Hadland, styling expert for Bridgman, explains how to work on layering your coastal-themed bedroom.
“Start by introducing elegant hints of blue that will keep you on theme without being tacky. For example, combine a blue vase with a matching throw and accent chair.
“Next, tone things down with serene creams and neutrals for your cushions and walls,” she adds.
“You can even upcycle old furniture with a fresh lick of white or cream paint for a rustic twist.”
“Finally, don't overlook natural materials from the nautical nature of jute and rope baskets to weathered wood furniture and limewash floors.”
Seek out vintage finds such as fisherman style lights, wicker picnic baskets and travelling trunks and your bedroom will soon become a coastal delight.
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