Coastal, but not cliché: how I styled this seaside property

There’s something wonderfully tempting about styling a property by the sea. You can almost hear the suggestions coming…

Shells.Fish.Anchors.Blue-and-white stripes.Maybe a piece of driftwood for good measure.

And while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of those things, when I was asked to stage this property, I wanted to take a slightly different approach. I wanted it to feel like a home by the sea, rather than a home decorated around a seaside theme.

Let the location do some of the work

The property already had some of the things I wanted to work with: plenty of natural light, warm wooden floors, a lovely sense of space, pitched ceilings and… a view of the sea.

So rather than adding lots of obvious coastal accessories, I kept the overall scheme bright, warm and fairly pared back.

The idea was to create the feeling of somewhere relaxed and easy-going, to create a lifestyle - the sort of home where you can come back from the beach, kick off your shoes and put the kettle on. Not somewhere that requires a bucket and spade to enter!

Natural textures instead of nautical accessories

One of the easiest ways to bring a coastal feeling into a room is through texture rather than theme. I used wicker and rattan, linen-look fabrics, woven baskets and natural timber to add warmth and softness against the white walls.

The wicker chairs in this room are a good example. They have that relaxed, holiday feeling without being overtly “coastal”. They are indoor chairs, but wouldn’t look out of place on the balcony.

The same goes for the large woven basket and natural-textured rug. None of these say beach. But put them together with plenty of light and natural materials, and the overall feeling starts to emerge.

A little bit of blue goes a long way

I did introduce some blue, but deliberately kept it to small doses.

The striped cushion on the chair gives a subtle nod to the coastal location without becoming the main event. That’s something I think is particularly important when staging a property. You want buyers to notice how good the house feels, not how hard you’ve tried to give it a theme.

The same principle applies to colour generally. A few carefully chosen accents can create a feeling without dictating what the buyer should imagine their future home looking like.

Greenery brings everything together

I love greenery, my own home is filled to the brim with plants. I did actually count one time and I have managed to sneak 60 (yes, that’s not a typo - 60!) houseplants into our home! I always try to use plenty of greenery, even though practicalities demand that they be fake (absolutely not my favourite), and this property was no exception. Plants are brilliant when staging because they bring life, colour and height into a room without adding visual clutter.  This was especially important in this room as the pitched ceiling meant there was limited space to hang pictures and draw the eye.

The large leafy banana plant in the corner became almost a piece of furniture in its own right, helping to fill the generous space while adding another layer of natural texture. And importantly, it works with the coastal feel without actually being coastal.

The coffee table: keeping things relaxed

Even the coffee table was kept deliberately simple. A few natural objects, a plant and some texture were enough.  Another conscious choice was to give the coffee table texture, I did this by adding the Habitat table with the hammered metal surface.

When you're styling a home for photography, it's very easy to keep adding things because a surface feels a little empty. But empty space is useful too. It gives the eye somewhere to rest and allows the architecture, light and proportions of the room to come through. That matters particularly in property photography, where every object becomes part of the image.

So, what actually makes a room feel coastal?

For me, it isn't a collection of seaside objects. It's the combination of:

Light + natural materials + relaxed textures + a restrained palette + a little blue + plenty of space.

And perhaps most importantly, nothing too contrived. The best coastal interiors don't necessarily look as though they've been decorated because they're near the sea. They simply feel lighter, calmer and more relaxed. Which is exactly what I wanted to achieve here.

A beach house without the beach clichés

This property didn't need shells scattered across the shelves or a collection of miniature fishing boats. It already had the most important ingredient… the sea.

My job was simply to create an interior that complemented its surroundings and helped potential buyers imagine themselves living there. Because good property staging isn't about decorating a house to suit the person doing the staging. It's about creating the right feeling for the people you're hoping will buy it.

And sometimes, the most effective way to say “you're near the beach”…

…is not to say it at all.