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Show Your Resourceful Side With Vintage Coastal Style
Reused pieces anchor this soothing, casual design style, rounded out with soft fabrics and weathered materials
After 14 years of living in Western Australia, I returned home to Falmouth, Cornwall, to live in a terraced house built in 1846 overlooking the harbour. My personal style is an eclectic mix influenced by my travels and my heritage. My favourite projects are those which allow me to design something especially for the client, from a fabric or wallpaper print to a piece of furniture.
After 14 years of living in Western Australia, I returned home to Falmouth,... More »
Soft pastels, bleached wood, faded linens, gauzy muslins, found objects and distressed paint finishes all define the vintage coastal look. This style is resourceful — nothing is discarded. Instead, new ways are found to use worn or mismatched items. An old piece of rope can be reused as a tieback, as a trim around a table or to hang a painting.
Most important, this look shouldn't feel contrived. There's beauty in imperfection, and the appeal of timeworn objects is an enduring one. Vintage coastal style looks best when it evolves — the things that you find and collect over time will rarely look kitsch.
Most important, this look shouldn't feel contrived. There's beauty in imperfection, and the appeal of timeworn objects is an enduring one. Vintage coastal style looks best when it evolves — the things that you find and collect over time will rarely look kitsch.
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| Window Treatments Think muslin, voile or soft linen for your window treatments. Old sheets, whether linen or cotton, can make great curtains. Add a DIY shell trim for a more defined coastal look. Muslin is really cheap, so use loads of it to get the soft, opulent look that works so well in a vintage coastal home. |
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It's easy to get this look even if you can't sew. Get your local fabric shop to cut muslin or voile into the lengths you need. Add an extra half meter on the length so that it puddles on the floor. Clip some curtain rings onto the top of your fabric lengths at regular intervals and attach them to your curtain rod — or maybe use an old oar as a rod instead.
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| Color Colors need to stay soft for this vintage look — white, cream, soft corals, aquas and soft blues all work beautifully with this style. Consider keeping everything one color for a clean, airy feel. Or go for more of an eclectic look by accessorizing with occasional bright bursts. |
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| Textiles Adding color with striped bed linens, cushions and a throw creates a different vintage feel. In this case, the look is more fisherman's cottage than beach shack. |
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Furniture and Accessories
Painted furniture is perfect for the vintage coastal look. Modern pine chests, desks and tables often need just a quick coat of paint to fit into a coastal home.
Glass jars like these are perfect for a collection of beach shells. I use glass vases for my collection of sea glass and mussel shells.
Tip: Give your piece a couple of coats of paint. Try using a darker shade first, then a lighter shade, and lightly sand the edges for a distressed look.
Painted furniture is perfect for the vintage coastal look. Modern pine chests, desks and tables often need just a quick coat of paint to fit into a coastal home.
Glass jars like these are perfect for a collection of beach shells. I use glass vases for my collection of sea glass and mussel shells.
Tip: Give your piece a couple of coats of paint. Try using a darker shade first, then a lighter shade, and lightly sand the edges for a distressed look.
by Rough Linen
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Vintage coastal style is all about taking found items and turning them into something else. What a great idea for a headboard! Look for pieces of old pallets washed up on the shore or a single piece of driftwood you could use for a shelf. When you're fed up with it, turn it into something else.
by A Beach Cottage
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Take something very simple, like this deck chair, and bring it into your home for an instant and unexpected beach vibe. Some of my favorite things to use in a vintage coastal home are hurricane lamps — there are lots of different ones available, but for this look I like the ones with silver frames.
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| Materials A big part of the vintage coastal look is about making things look like they've been there forever. Using architectural moldings and paneling, such as tongue and groove, board and batten or just wide boards, you can create interesting features in an otherwise characterless room. Tip: Fix 2-by-4 foot lengths of timber to your ceiling at intervals. To make them look aged, I like to have the edges chamfered, or you can fix a rounded bead molding (available at many hardwood or craft stores) to the edges. Line the remaining ceiling with tongue and groove or wide boards. Paint all of it, including the walls, in soft whites. |
by Sue De Chiara
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Don't be afraid of painted floors! There are some fantastic hard-wearing floor paints available. And if you're using white, which really does look lovely, these paints won't yellow either.
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Wall Art
Use chunky wood to make simple frames for your beach finds. You may be lucky enough to find some wood that has been washed up on the beach, but if not, use scrap wood from your local lumber yard.
Tip: Try painting the frames using a dragging technique. Have plenty of paper towels ready and paint the wood a section at a time. As you paint each section, use another brush to drag the paint off. Wipe the excess paint off on the paper towels.
This technique is usually used with a darker paint under a lighter one, but it looks great with just one color over the bare wood.
Use chunky wood to make simple frames for your beach finds. You may be lucky enough to find some wood that has been washed up on the beach, but if not, use scrap wood from your local lumber yard.
Tip: Try painting the frames using a dragging technique. Have plenty of paper towels ready and paint the wood a section at a time. As you paint each section, use another brush to drag the paint off. Wipe the excess paint off on the paper towels.
This technique is usually used with a darker paint under a lighter one, but it looks great with just one color over the bare wood.
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| Weather-worn signs really embrace the vintage coastal look. Keep a look out at auctions or secondhand shops, or make your own using bits of old wood. Vintage coastal is all about an eclectic mix of items and styles. These old ice cream–making buckets have been made into lamps — a perfect example of upcycling. |
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by Pottery Barn
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| Think outside the box when it comes to decorating your walls. Different, quirky items can look really good grouped together as part of a collection. |
Comments
olldbobbi Love it! One of my favorite styles. Breezy and relaxed and comfortable. Great Ideabook!
8 months ago · Like
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bumbly Love this - perfect assortment of lived in and relaxed in. Clean. Brilliant stuff!!
8 months ago · Like
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ragsangle I love the concept of the house with all the wood, beach is not my style but this one is nice, I can use the concept for the cottage and shabby chic it...love that kitchen opening up into the livingroom but still separted [at least that is what it looks like to me] ...all the wood ceiling,floors and love the windows...so many ideas !
8 months ago · Like
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goosefairy I would love to know the color on the walls in the third picture down. I wish paint colors would be included in more of these pictures.
8 months ago · Like
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Laurie at Bird in Hand VTG Absolutely love this relaxed style. Feels like a perpetual vacation :)
8 months ago · Like
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Rebecca Heane Hi Goosefairy, I don't know what the paint colour is in this room, but you could try Sky Blue 103 by The Little Greene Paint Company, Caribbean Blue 119 by Sanderson or Blue Ground 210 by Farrow & Ball.They're all gorgeous! Rebecca
8 months ago · Like
goosefairy Thanks Rebecca, I'll give those a look.
8 months ago · Like
Ideabook published on Sept. 13, 2012.
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