DECORATING 17 Beach Decor Ideas For Any Room

Looking for simple and easy beach decor ideas? Here are 17 ways to add a little beach to any space this summer.

It’s official.

We are back up here at the CAPE, and my heart is so happy. I walked down to the beach last night and put my toes in the sand and watched the sunset.

Another beach summer has begun.

Remember this beach tour of our family’s house that I shared?

It’s about to get another makeover.

We hit the ground running to makeover the basement before the rest of my family gets here. We’re creating two living spaces and a mini living space in bright, bold summer colors. I’m actually painting artwork that looks like flags for the walls.

I’ll show you the entire design plan and where we are starting. Then (hopefully) I’ll be finished at the end of the week and I’ll show you the after.

I think every room needs a little bit of summer to make it happy.

Every room needs a little more summer vacation in its life and a little vitamin sea.

If you are looking for fresh, easy decor ideas for summer, including summer DIYs?

I. Got. You.

In honor of summer starting and Cape Cod, here are 17 more beach decor ideas for any room.

17 Beach Decor Ideas For Any Room

1. Add a stripe to a table

Just in case you were wondering, beach style isn’t exactly nautical. Nautical is navy and anchors and reds and blues and stripes and Gilligan and his hat.

A little nautical can go a long way.

Like adding a stripe to a tabletop like this.

I taped the center stripe and then added one more piece of tape on the outside to create the two stripes on the side.

(total aside: bonus idea—look at that seashore pillow. You could just glue rope to a pillow to create a word like that on the front.)

2. These simple beach decor ideas

Hello, summer camp I’m looking at you.

Here are just a few beach decor ideas that make these two spaces work:

soft blues and reds and navy
striped anything (especially rugs)
baskets
worn, chippy furniture or antiques
striped bolster pillow
crisp white linen
vintage prints
painted floors
antique pieces

3. Lighten up spaces

If you take nothing else away from this intense discussion on beach decor and all its style, remember this.

Bringing in a coastal feel is all about light. It’s all about opening up doors and letting the sunlight into your space.

Here are a few ways you can introduce light into your home:

Add sheers to the window instead of heavy curtains
Keep walls light and bright and airy
Introduce white into the space with pops of darker colors
Add a screen door to your front door to let the sounds of outside in
Paint furniture light and airy colors

4. Bring in natural elements

Coastal style is strawberries on a lazy afternoon and sunlight dancing across your toes on an outdoor porch and the smell of fresh flowers gathered from the garden and a glass of sweet tea waiting next to a wicker chair and a really good book.

Natural elements like these fill a house with life.

driftwood
greenery
twigs
stones
shells
branches
grasses
flowers

5. Add pallet wood letters

See the BEACH sign over the armoire?

Those letters are made from pallet wood.

You can DIY them yourself.

Here are the step-by-step instructions.

6. Add texture to your home with beach decor

When you think of coastal style, just think about the beach. The beach is full of wonderful, incredible, amazing texture. There’s the coarseness of the sand and the texture of the grasses and the rough edges of shells and the smooth finish of rock.

Here are a few ideas to introduce coastal texture into your home.

Add texture with natural elements, like driftwood accessories or reclaimed wood pieces
Fill bowls with collections, like shells or rocks or driftwood pieces
Tuck a woven pouf or painted wood stool next to your chairs for a simple accessory with extra texture

7. Add a coastal paint color

One of the easiest ways to add a little coastal to a space is with paint. You can transform a room in a weekend with a new coat of paint in a soft, warm, inviting coastal paint color. When choosing a coastal paint color for your space, think of the elements outside and bring them into your walls.

Here are some of my favorite coastal paint colors and the elements that they bring in:

SW Dover White (clouds)
SW Rain (rainy days)
SW Alabaster (afternoon skies)
SW Watery (ocean)
SW Lemongrass (sunshine)
SW Topsail (wind)

8. Add a coastal feel with peel-and-stick wallpaper

If you have an accent wall or a small niche?

Think about adding a little peel-and-stick wallpaper like this blue and white paper in a coastal print.

You can see it here.

9. Slipcover furniture in bright colors

Coastal living is all about easy.

Add brightly colored slipcovers to your space that you can change out when you want to create a different look for the room.

Use wood and seagrass chairs that you can just change out the cushions on.

I shared the entire room before and after makeover before. You can see it here.

10. Create your own coastal artwork

I needed artwork for the walls and didn’t have any here that would work and I didn’t really have time to go shopping so I just DIY’d my own.

It’s the simplest DIY. I just had some wood pieces in the basement and I painted them gray and distressed them using this technique and then glued the sand dollars onto the wood. I created the other artwork in the room the same way, except I glued the sand dollars onto an old shutter.

You can glue anything you have lying around onto a piece of wood to create coastal artwork like this.

Rope tied into a knot, starfish, beach glass, shells or even a piece of driftwood.

11. Add patterned coastal dishes

One of the easiest ways to bring in color to a space is to set a table full of color.

Layer in different patterned and colorful dishes with your basic white dishes on the dining room table.

Add place cards with names written on sand dollars and tied with jute twine.

12. Add beach decor ideas outside

Outdoor is another place to add beach decor ideas.

Painting furniture or adding coastal-style pieces brings the beach to the porch.

adirondack chairs
lanterns
floral planters
wood planters
driftwood
shells

13. Layer in pillows

Looking to add a pop of color to the room?

Pillows are inexpensive and come in indoor/outdoor fabrics that are perfect for the coastal room.

These starfish pillows are the perfect example.

14. Keep it simple

Don’t overthink the space.

If you are living in a coastal environment (or just creating one in your home) think easy. For example, this mantel is created with stacks of books and shells.

Then bring in the beach with an oversized starfish for texture.

15. Collections make adding accessories even easier

One of the easiest ways to add beach decor to the home is to start a collection.

It’s so much easier than you think.

Shop thrift stores and yard sales for inexpensive furniture finds that can be painted
Layer in indoor/outdoor rugs and pillows in the rooms
Keep most of your larger furnishings and walls neutral

16. Add a compass medallion

I’m not sure how my brain thought of this?

But it did.

I found a compass decal on Amazon and used it as a ceiling medallion around a light in the upstairs gameroom.

You can see a similar medallion here that comes in tons of colors and sizes (there’s even one that’s big enough for an entire wall).

17. Transform a floor

Bring the sunshine in.

Paint wood floors lighter colors.

It’s the perfect way to celebrate summer.

That was so much fun.

I hope you liked these 17 ways to add a little beach decor to any space.

There’s nothing like the beach to make a room a little happier (just ask the living room I’m sitting in now). And now—I’d love to hear any ideas you have that are simple and we can all DIY together. Let’s discuss in the comments.

You always, always, always inspire me.

Thank you so much for being you.