Coastal style inspiration

Sarah Graham Contributing Editor2 April 2026

Coastal style has an eternal appeal – even if you're nowhere near the shore

The filmmaker and artist Derek Jarman once described the landscape around his seaside Dungeness home as a place without limits. “There are no walls or fences. My garden’s boundaries are the horizon.” His words capture something essential about our relationship with the coast.

Perhaps it’s because we live in a country so defined by its coastline, or simply that coastal environments offer a calm and clarity that modern life so often lacks, that coastal style has become one of our most enduring design languages. Defined by weathered woods, soft linens, chalky whites and inky blues that instantly lend ease to a space, it’s a style that continues to influence interiors today.

Few homes express the quiet poetry of coastal living like Jarman’s Prospect Cottage. Standing alone on a shingle headland, its tar-black timber, sun-bleached driftwood and bursts of sea kale form a space that was both shelter and sculpture. Further along the coast, Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group found a gentler refuge. Monk’s House, the home Woolf shared with her husband Leonard, opened onto shifting coastal light that subtly influenced her writing. With hand-painted walls, mismatched furniture and well-loved textiles, the Bloomsbury approach still feels strikingly aligned with what we now associate with coastal living; informality, ease, creativity and an appreciation of light.

Designer Pearl Lowe’s former home in Winchelsea offers a more bohemian expression of coastal living. Known as the Shell House, it was built in the 1940s by an Allied soldier as a love letter to his artist wife, who adorned its façade with seashell mosaics. Set among Winchelsea Beach’s ethereal pebble fields, the house feels inseparable from its landscape. Inside, bleached woods, washed-out pastels, soft-washed finishes, woven textures and deep indigo accents created a calm, lived-in atmosphere.

Along the east coast of the UK, especially across Suffolk and Norfolk, a quieter, more restrained coastal aesthetic takes hold. In Aldeburgh, composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears found clarity at The Red House, their thoughtfully pared-back retreat. Textural elements and window-framed views of reedbeds and shingle offer calm simplicity – a feeling of being at one with the landscape.

Today’s interpretation of coastal style avoids the literal nautical motifs of the past. Instead, it favours atmosphere, with layered, natural textures, relaxed materials and colours drawn from sky, sand and sea. It aligns naturally with contemporary values of craftsmanship, sustainability, natural fibres and enduring design. It speaks to a universal desire for calmness, offering a sense of escape and clarity that contrasts gently with the pace of modern life.

At John Lewis, the design team aims to capture this feeling for Spring/Summer 2026. As senior designer, Sarah O’Sullivan explains, “We started with the feeling of a wild, early-spring walk along the coastline – that cool, luminous moment before the season turns.” This idea of pre-spring clarity shaped the collection’s palette, textures and materials. Colour is a foundation: Soft whites and warm neutrals recall chalk, lime-stone and sandstone cliffs, while deeper, inky blues reflect the sea under shifting skies. Notes of sienna and nutmeg appear across towels and bedding, in a fresh take on the classic coastal stripe.

Texture is key to creating atmosphere. The Dune woven coffee table and cabinetry, with natural fibre doors, bring sandy tactility. Whitewashed woods feel sun-softened, while cane and bamboo pendants filter light with breezy softness. Chunky woven cushions, reactive-glaze ceramics and seagrass placemats echo the tactility of driftwood, smoothed chalk and shell. From above, the Salcombe ceiling light, with its enamelled profile and sienna-trimmed edge, casts a warm, downlit glow reminiscent of coastal golden hour.

As O’Sullivan explains, “We wanted everything to feel softened by light – relaxed linens, woven textures, pieces that look gently weathered as if shaped by the elements. It’s coastal style translated for real homes, making them tactile, relaxed, and quietly transformative.” To bring this feeling into any space, use neutrals to ground the room, then build depth with restrained touches of deep blue. Layer pale woods, linens, seagrass and reactive glazes. Use lighting to create warmth and softness. Think in terms of atmosphere rather than theme.

This is a coastal sensibility, rather than a literal motif. Our enduring love of coastal style points to a different way of living and, through thoughtful design, that feeling can be brought home – no matter how far inland you are.