Every home should have a common style throughout the entire house, top to bottom, so it flows and everything is cohesive. To a guest walking into your home, they don’t want to be distracted by the different styles going on from one room to another or if there is a mish-mash of too many different styles in one room. Don’t get me wrong, it IS okay to mix styles together when decorating. I actually insist! For instance, I love to mix coastal decor with farmhouse and cottage styles. I also have a California coastal inspired room in one of my son’s bedrooms, but that room is tucked away behind a door. What’s important is that each room has a little bit of each of the styles in all of the spaces so it reads well together, seamlessly.
Coastal decor can be styled using light and airy colours, such as, whites and blues. It can include any natural colours that remind you of the ocean and its surroundings, such as, the sand and the seagrass along the shore. These colours can be used in the form of painted walls, painted doors, furniture, artwork and styling elements.
I’m going to share with you, how I style my 100-year old home using coastal inspired decor throughout. The decor in my home is constantly evolving and there are rooms that I haven’t touched in over 15 years, but that’s the beauty of decorating a home, it keeps you thinking about that next great project whether it’s a DIY project or a much bigger renovation.
Let’s begin!
The front of my house screams antique and it should for a house that is 100 years old. I live in a steel-industry city which I have watched evolve over the years from an industrial city to a city with many districts as mega cities do. The area I live in is the ever-trendy Locke Street District which used to be known for its antique shops, but is now known for its restaurants and boutiques such as our little neighbourhood book store Epic Books, the toy store Citizen Kid, the health food store Goodness Me!, and best of all, the numerous coffee and tea shops. I especially love the home décor boutiques LuLu & Lavigne and Vintage Charm. These are just to name a few.
We wanted to keep the front of our house in keeping with the time it was built. Our city is known for bricks and our home was made from those city-made bricks. We love porches, especially wrap around porches and this porch was big enough for us to want to put a SOLD sign on the front lawn! Since buying our home in the Spring of 2000, we have re-built our front porch keeping as much of the existing structure including spindles as possible. The brick piers were re-pointed, an ant infestation was rectified and the floor boards and stairs were replaced and re-stained. It’s time to re-stain those stairs again soon!
Last summer, the front exterior of the house was re-painted. We went from a grey on grey colour scheme to a dark grey with white trim colour scheme and I just love our newly painted house. It’s brighter, cleaner-looking and it just pops on the street now, especially in the summer when the flower beds are in full bloom. While the orange brick may not be coastal at all, the grey and white exterior is a popular Cape Cod colour scheme and that works for our house!
Exterior Paint Colours:
Dulux Gray Flannel
Dulux Delicate White
Check back as I showcase the inside of our house room by room. While not all the rooms are updated, there is an obvious coastal vibe and we are enjoying every project as we go along. Thank you for stopping by to read my blog. Please subscribe to receive all my weekly updates so you don’t miss a thing.
