“The beach is definitely where I feel most at home. It’s my oxygen. I forget how much I need it sometimes when I’m away working.” – Behati Prinsloo
There’s something about beach house interiors. It has such a sense of place and holds so much poignancy that if you see it anywhere else, it just doesn’t work. If you try to hang onto your holiday by replicating that wonder in an inner city or countryside location, it just looks wrong. There’s too much affectation.
There are only four areas of a non-beachside home that are suitable for beach side design elements – a children’s room, a family/rumpus room, an outdoor area or a laundry. If you start donning your urban or suburban living area with seashells, ship antiques and resort style prints, it ends up appearing more naff than nice.
When we see the water, we smile. When we’re by the beach, we feel a sense of calm overcome us. When we’re away on holiday, everything is OK.
Such is the power of the ocean.
That’s why it makes sense, when you’re decorating a beachside or near beach apartment or holiday house, to celebrate the ocean every moment of every day. When you go home, you cannot take it with you.
Beach houses can be as colourful as you like, but it’s really a place to revel in blue. And white. And sand. Interchange blue, white and sand colours in couches, cushions, towels, linen, doors, feature walls, vases and ornaments.
Here we shun minimalism and rejoice in the beauty of nature and adventure.
Beach houses enjoy freedoms interior decorators would otherwise shun in their urban and suburban cousins. Like themes. I have seen beach homes featuring multiple pelican prints (photographs, watercolours, cartoon style drawings). Picking a theme – your favourite thing about the beach – can work well.
That all said, just because it’s a beach house doesn’t mean we shun our own personal tastes. If we love pelicans and we’re into realism, a photo art print like this sunset print, below, is ideal.
KEEPING IT REAL: A photo art print like this pelican sunset print is ideal for those who love the real thing.
However, if we prefer bolder colours and more contemporary interpretations of our favourite subject matter, this print, below, is a gorgeous alternative. Notice how different an interior can look simply by changing the wall art.
BOLD COLOURS: This gorgeous pelican print gives a living room a contemporary, artful feel.
If your beach house is a family affair, there’s nothing more enjoyable than decorating a child’s room and, as I said earlier, the marine theme – in a children’s room – is certainly something you can do at home as well. Supporting and nurturing a child’s love for marine life will give them a strong sense of respect for the ocean so we can all enjoy its marvel into the future.
So whether it’s a bucket and spade, a toy boat, a surfboard, a palm tree, a starfish or anything else inspired by Sponge Bob Square Pants, it’s time for fun and colour.
If you have to tuck a couple of kids of different ages away in the one room, here’s a colourful print, below, that everyone will enjoy.
COLOURFUL: This beach inspired print in a children’s room is a great, fun piece for all ages.
If you’re lucky, the main bedroom to your beach house has water views. If this is the case, your window to the outside world is nature’s gift to you – a different work of art every second of the day.
The trick to decorating a main bedroom is to take a piece of that window to the world – whether real or imagined – and capture it to enjoy all day everyday (well, at least when you’re on holidays!).
Sand, sea, boats, sunrises and sunsets tell a thousand stories and, online, we have an abundance of prints to choose from. This photographic print, below, is an otherwise transient moment captured in time.
CAPTURED IN TIME: Nothing says beach like the transience of the sun, sand and sea. This gorgeous fine art photographic print is available in an impactful 30x20cm to 180x120cm print size.
On holidays, it’s also about fun and relaxation which is why kitchens and outdoor areas are so popular – and why architects are increasingly melding those two spaces together.
When we begin our holiday, we love to think it’s never going to end. Wall prints serve to prop up that holiday spirit. Holiday art, like holidays, are about fun not restraint. They’re about adventure, not limitations.
Bright, colourful, cartoony art brings hallways, nooks and crannies alive while vintage style art adds a sense of endless adventure and flow to an indoor-outdoor space.
CARTOONY: Bring hallways, nooks and crannies alive with colourful beach art.
FLOW: Fun vintage prints, like this ‘Sand Surf Sun’ canvas, give indoor-outdoor living spaces a sense of adventure.
“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.” – Dr. Seuss
A beach house is not just a home away from home – it’s something more than that. When you go away for the weekend or for a whole week, it’s a place for fun and relaxation. It’s certainly not a place for work.
We’ve taken the hard work out of decorating your beach house. Check out our dedicated Beach House gallery online, browse our abstract blues or search our ocean landscapes.
