Coastal Decor: How to Create a Summer Styling

With Memorial Day firmly behind us and the summer solstice fast approaching it’s the perfect time to turn our homes into a summer oasis. Decorating for the seasons keeps home interiors looking fresh, current and well maintained. How to create a coastal decor styling is an easy fix.

Creating a coastal decor styling on the antique secretary desk in the living room creates instant coastal interior decor for our home. Please join me as we bring all the coastal vibes indoors.

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Inspiration for Coastal Interior Design

Sea life is a great way to inject beachy vibes to home interiors, whether sea shells, coral, starfish and more. While my family lived in the Bahamas for a short stint when I was a little, my parents harvested many of these pieces. The ocean was our backyard and it was the 70s when environmental regulations were different. I inherited these pieces and cherish them dearly.

As a young adult I have always been attracted to the classic Ralph Lauren look, which uses nautical feels for summertime decor. Nautical decor always creates a relaxed feel with vistas of blue water and carefree days. This coastal styling touches on nautical, beachy and sea form decor, bringing many summertime feels together.

Details on How to Create a Coastal Decor Styling

Clean Slate

Like with any project, it’s best to start with a blank slate, eliminating outside noise and allowing focus and clarity for the task at hand. The secretary desk is stripped bare and cleaned to create an orderly stage for the coastal decor styling.

Personal Note: I usually display the photographs of the Masterpiece kiddos as babies on the antique secretary, but for today’s project I decided to stay on theme. You can read more about it here.

Build Layers

From there, start layering elements in a deliberate and purposeful manner. Larger pieces in strategic placements creates a structure. Layers naturally build from back to front and bottom up. The top shelf here is the tallest, which can display the larger pieces.

Create the Bones

The pieces that are on repeat or larger scale in a styling create the bones. Here we have books which add texture and character to the display. Books can be stacked any which way, and they also create great risers, providing height and pedestals for decor.

All the blue glass pieces are also on repeat throughout the display. Blue is of course the color of choice for a coastal styling. Included here are assorted blue Ball jars, antique seltzer bottles, a vintage insulator cap, and an ink well bottle.

Themed Accents

The stars of the show are the themed decor. Nautical pieces include the life preserver ring DIY, thrifted wooden boat, Dollar Tree boat print, which goes to show you don’t have to spend a fortune on seasonal decor. Coastal, beachy vibes are further reinforced with sea form, including seashells, starfish and coral plus a beach canvas print.

Homespun Pieces

Homemade projects always personalize home interiors. DIY seasonal pieces tend to be more affordable than store bought items, plus they are unique to a personalized style. The architectural pieces are thrifted glow-up projects, while the naked book bundles were created when they were all the rage about a decade ago and the nautical life preserver ring is the latest project. AND, and it’s a big and, the little light blue footed ceramic bowl on top of the tin on the second shelf is a Miss Masterpiece creation from her high school ceramics class. You can’t beat personal pieces like that.

Tips & Recommendations to Keep In Mind

Edit by Moving and Adding and Deleting

Once you’ve placed everything after the first pass-through take a step back and let your eye scan the entire display. Move anything that catches your eye. Remember, during the editing process it is just as important to add pieces, as it is to remove an item that doesn’t belong.

Embrace Change and Be Ready to Pivot

Changing a vignette while in progress is part of the process. Embrace these changes since invariably they help make a better composition, creating a better display. Take pictures of your display and look at them through the lens. How the camera captures something provides a different point of view than our naked eye. The different perspectives helps make needed changes.

Other Summer Themes

Beyond coastal and nautical decor, we also use garden and patriotic themed decor around here during the summer months. Use looks and motifs that work with your lifestyle, home aesthetic, and location to dress up your home during the summer months. Tropical elements, or pool party vibes or floral feels are other great ideas for summer decor.

There’s a jam packed schedule full of summer content planned for the next few weeks. Gardening projects, plus patriotic ideas plus outdoor living joie de vivre in general is coming your way. If you have a preference on articles you would like to read please drop me a note in the comments or e-mail me directly. If you haven’t already, please feel free to join the Masterpiece community and sign-up below to receive new content directly into you in-box.

Closing Thoughts

The blue glass, sea form and nautical touches gives the display a well rounded coastal feel. It has me dreaming of sandy beaches, cool breezes and ocean mist filled air. Do you have any summer vacation plans coming up? Miss M turns 21 soon and we have a full house full of family ready for the big celebration.

I hope you enjoyed your visit today and it inspires some summer decor for your home. It was lovely to have you here and hope to see you again soon. Au revoir!

Shopping the Coastal Decor Look

• Coastal Theme Decorative Books in Blues
• Collector’s Edition – Vintage Aqua/Blue BALL”PERFECT MASON”
• 12 Pcs Blue Mason Jars 8 oz Regular Mouth Canning Jars Vintage 
• Framed Canvas Wall Art Vintage Seaside Oil Painting Decor
• Vintage Style Retro Seltzer Bottle with Dispenser (black with blue bottle)
• White Coral Decor
• Mixed Beach Seashells
• Real Large Conch Shells for Beachy Room Decor

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