Escape to the Beach in Your Own Home with Coastal Art

Are you an ocean lover? Do you cherish every moment at the beach? When you close your eyes, can you practically smell the fresh salt air and feel the breeze on your skin? And if so, do you want to bring the ocean into your living room with breezy coastal art? I’m guessing that if you are reading this article, you might be interested in transforming your home to a beachy getaway. Here are some simple tips to help you create a special room so that you can escape to the beach in your own home. A beach home needs coastal art. But first, let’s prepare the space for tranformation.
mod beach house art

The original watercolor painting featured is titled Green Kona Beach House in Hawaii. Shown here in print form, the original is 30×22 inches and can be framed any way you wish.

Start Your Coastal Dream in One Room

Magazines and social media are filled with picture perfect coastal rooms galore. We are a nation—a planet—in LOVE with the beach! And why not? The feeling of sand beneath your toes is an early memory that most of us hold dear to our hearts. My parents used to travel from the San Francisco Bay Area to Northern California’s Mendocino Coast every month when I was a toddler. My earliest memories are of exploring the beaches of the rugged Mendocino coast. These were very happy, inspiring times for my family. Today, my parents still travel to the beaches of Mendocino and Fort Bragg to refill their hearts with the essence of the ocean. Instead of hauling two young children, they have two adorable little terriers in tow. I personally know a lot of interior designers. They make designing rooms look effortless…when in reality there us quite a lot of skill behind their stylish photos. My first tip is to start your coastal vision in one room. Choose the room that matters the most to you. Maybe it’s the room that you spend the most amount of time in…or maybe it’s your fist room in your home.

Determine Your Coastal Color Palate

Everyone has a different vision of an ideal ocean inspired room. The Hawaiian Islands are different from the Caribbean, which is different from Maine, which is different from Santa Cruz or San Diego. Is your ocean color palate vibrant and filled with the colors of Coney Island or is it subdued and quite colors. Even those who love to decorate eclectically usually need to keep a theme in mind. Your wall color will probably be one of the biggest impacts in your room.

Try to Envision 3-5 Simple Changes in One Room

Let’s take the living room as an example. Try to envision 3-5 changes in this one room. Put your ideas onto a vision board. Most people have a couch and chairs and a fireplace in their living room. My family spends a lot of time in our living room as it’s open to the kitchen and faces our beautifully lush, tropical back yard. If your room is separate and not an open floor plan, you might actually have a quicker path to transforming your room.
If your couch or chairs are less than beachy, look for a simple beige or white throw cover. Earlier I mentioned wall colors but I would wait to repaint your wall until after you have chosen the coastal art that will be most prominent in your room. One option is to let your unique choice of wall art drive the wall and accent colors, not the other way around. This way you could pick the perfect painting.

Incorporate White Space

White space gives a chic and elegant feel to every room. In fact, open the pages of your favorite magazine and you will likely notice that a big part of that magazine’s layout utilizes the power of white space to create breathing room. This concept is in part going to be related to my next topic (that is about minimizing). A surface might only have 1 or 3 items. A book shelf will look elegant with  a couple books stacked then a free section followed by a shell or a candle. These are tricks that interior designers employ regularly, those talented ones! We could ALL use an interior designer in our back pocket. Even artists need interior designers!

A high quality framed art print of Tranquil Blue Island Beach by artist Jenny Floravita makes a wall look large. Framed art print shown here is 36×36 inches. Prints available in many sizes and presentations.

The Great Takeaway

What I would do next is what I call the Great Takeaway. And I think that explains it all: you take away every item in that room that isn’t essential. It can be challenging to part with decor that you’ve had for twenty years but it can be done.

When I moved from Santa Cruz to my current home, which is in a Delta city, I had many decor items that I couldn’t’ find good spaces for despite the fact that my new home on the Delta was twice as large. Sometimes the treasured things you purchase for one home don’t go with the next. If you can take away items from your room now, then you can bring new treasures into the space—treasures that will make you feel like you are on vacation.

Now that you’ve cleared your room from clutter, you can incorporate items with either the right color or items that reference the ocean. For example, a beautiful glass vase in the color of sea green or aqua would fit into a room. Maybe this is a vase you already have because you love the color. Maybe you find a small picture frame for a loved one’s photo that has an ocean vibe.
So far we are keeping in mind:
  • A possible wall color pending your art selection
  • Changing the look of a couch or chairs inexpensively with a throw cover
  • Wish list of simple items that either incorporate color or incorporate ‘ocean’

Go Large with Inspiring New Wall Art

This is where my work comes into play as you probably guessed from my website. And I have to say that through my two decades plus in the fine art world, I’ve sold hundreds of paintings and my clients talk endlessly about how paintings and art transform their rooms. In fact, a beautiful and expressive work of art of our choice has the power to display your style like nothing else out there. 
Here is what a collector—I just LOVE my collectors—said recently about my island paintings:
The moment my husband I and stepped foot in the unfurnished newly renovated ranch style home for sale we both immediately knew this was it. Everything had come together, everything. We finally found our space to rest our hearts and minds. Since day one of owning our oasis we’ve been very particular in the decor we choose from the color of our accent wall to the style and color of our floor rugs, we’ve managed to keep a minimalist but beautiful bungalow, coastal cottage type atmosphere. 
In time, it was known we would chose a specific type of artwork for our walls… art work from Jenny Florivata’s art gallery and just like that, in the blink of an eye our walls shared with us, magically creating the perfect space once again, bringing the delicate sun, cloudy red breeze and quant brightly colored cottages riddled with stunning colorful skies and flowers into our home. The paintings from Jenny Floravita’s gallery have spoken to our house like nothing else ever could, reveling the most grand gesture of all, paradise is right here in our home!
And now that you have your concept outlined for your perfect coastal room, it’s time to add some coastal art. If you want to put the ocean front and center into your room, the easiest way to do so with big impact is to choose a wonderful painting of the ocean—one that calls to your soul. Be bold and go large for big transformation! This is the simplest way to transform a regular living room to one that has a fresh, breezy ocean feeling. It is the easiest way to make a big impact in a room is to bring inspiring coastal art into your space.  The painting here is a beach scene from my travels through the Hawaiian Islands.