Choose Your Style: Coastal Style is the Perfect Way to Bring the Beach Home
Lighting may only be one aspect of your home, but it is the glue that ties together both style and function, acting as both art and illumination. Chandeliers and wall lights are an expression of a home’s vibe and feeling, with table lamps serving as statues that also light up.
Welcome to the second installment of Lamps Plus’s Choose Your Style article series, in which we dive deep into four of the major styles you can find on LampsPlus.com. Previously, we explored Contemporary and Modern, and in future articles you will be able to learn all about Rustic Modern and Reinvented Traditional. However, today our focus is the easygoing and relaxing Coastal style, for those who want a little piece of beachfront living at home.
What is Coastal Style?
Moreso than any of the other styles we will be discussing in this series, Coastal cannot be tied directly to any one artistic or architectural movement. Rather, coastal is a vibe unto itself inspired by the types and styles of homes that were naturally developed in seaside towns commonly found across North America. The modern beach house as we picture it can be traced to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the architectural style solidifying in the post-World War II era, as soldiers returned from war and there was a need for more housing and beachside towns began to transition from sparsely populated areas to popular destinations for vacations. While many beach houses built in recent years trend towards contemporary or modern design, there are still plenty of examples of that classic beach shack architecture, where simplicity is the point.
The coastal style is inspired by the homes built in these seaside areas, which focused on using natural materials that felt at home in their locales. Wood, glass, and textures reminiscent of the sand beneath your feet are used to bring a breezy and light aesthetic. More than anything, coastal style is casual. This designs are meant to relax, to help you slow down and enjoy life. Lighting that feels light, rather than dark, matching home designs with open spaces and soft colors. Beach living is deliberately slow and easygoing, and coastal style lighting is designed to bring that soft appeal to any home.
Enjoy an Indoor Beachfront with Coastal Table Lamps
The coastal style is more niche than contemporary modern, and as such its popularity waxes and wanes depending on the lighting category. More than any other type of lighting, coastal style is most prominently found among table lamps. Table lamps are an easy way to diversify the lighting in your room, able to provide both ambient and directional lighting depending on your needs.
Coastal style table lamps combine a variety of colors, materials, and design shapes to achieve a look that is sure to remind you of the beach, no matter how far inland you may live. Rattan, a grouping of roughly 600 climbing palms common in Southeast Asia, has been surging in popularity in recent years, with some table lamp designs featuring woven rattan bases and shades. Wood is also a popular natural material for coastal style lamps, with both real wood designs and wood finishes being available, usually in whitewashed or lighter color finishes meant to look like driftwood found on the sand.
Some designs may also use glass bases in soft palettes, like blues and greens, to evoke the feeling and color of the ocean, often paired with textured white shades like clouds above. Lastly, ceramic table lamp bases are in right now, combining the natural appeal of coastal style with hand-crafted beauty. With many of them featuring hand-applied glazes, ceramic table lamps can be a unique piece to add to your beach inspired décor.
Light and Airy Pendant Lighting for Easy Living
While pendant lights and chandeliers are often grouped together, there are still subtle differences in the two, and as such they are considered separately when designing your home. While you can find coastal style pendants and chandeliers, the style is certainly more popular among the world of pendant lights due to the casual, almost breezy vibes they bring. Chandeliers have a tendency to be more formal in their appearance, and many beach houses lack a formal dining room for which to hang a large chandelier. Instead, pendants most commonly appear above kitchen islands, dining nook, or entryways.
Similar to table lamps, there are a few materials that are very common within the coastal style, all meant to bring that light, airy feeling of beach breezes into your home. Wood evokes memories of finding driftwood on the sand, already shaped and carved by nature into interesting forms. Wicker, rattan, rope, and other woven, natural materials are also becoming more and more popular, crafting beauty from the intrigue of washed-ashore materials.
For even more explicit coastal appeal, some pendant lights even feature woven natural seagrass shades, a catch-all term for a variety of land plants that grow in marine environments. Lastly, a new emerging trend that is based on a Philippine classic is the use of capiz shells for pendant lighting shades. Capiz shells are harvested from windowpane oysters, so-called because they were commonly used as an alternative to glass for windows in the Capiz province of the Philippines.
Outdoor Lighting for Sand and Sea
Outdoor lighting is where the feeling and evocative nature of coastal style is changed around, taking influence less from the beach itself and more from the ships that sail upon the sea. With a focus of sturdiness and weather resistance, coastal style outdoor lighting looks to the harshness and volatility of nature and finds the beauty in its ever-changing personality. From wall lights that welcome you home, to post lights that light your way, to hanging lanterns that allow you to enjoy porches at night, outdoor lighting serves as a long-lasting complement to your indoor décor.
When it comes to materials, outdoor lighting prefers metal and the coastal style is not an exception. As most outdoor lighting needs to withstand at least some exposure to weather, not many natural materials are used, nor are lightweight materials, such as resin, that may be more common amongst their indoor cousins. However, coastal style outdoor lighting does love weathered wood finishes and the occasional rope accent, with whitewashed finishes being ever popular.
It is important to remember that coastal is a style, and not every coastal style outdoor light is actually designed for coastal environments. If you live near a beach or coastline, it is important to seek out marine grade items. These are designs that use materials and finishes specifically designed to withstand exposure to saltwater and high humidity.
Coastal Wall Lights with a Love of Natural Materials
Wall lights are an essential addition to any home, from sconces to vanity lights to wall lamps with adjustable swing arms. When decorating a beach style home, people often adorn walls with paintings and pictures of the sea and coast, and what way to better highlight such art as coastal style wall lights? In keeping with the trends discussed in this article so far, coastal style wall lights have a love of natural materials and hand-crafted aesthetics, evoking that child-like feeling of finding a cool piece of driftwood and carving it into something new.
In keeping with the coastal style’s love of natural materials, rattan makes a return appearance. This plant is dried and woven through techniques honed over generations of people, and is now featured prominently in any home looking to embrace a love of the sand and sea. Ceramics are also present, found in both the main material construction and as shades in a more lightweight form, either directing light or allowing some illumination to diffuse through. Sea glass, while not a naturally occurring material, can also be found in the sand, and coastal style wall lights sometimes feature opal glass or more colorful pieces reminiscent of this wave-worn artistry.
Ceiling Fans with that Easygoing Vibe
No home is complete without at least one ceiling fan to circulate air and create a necessary breeze during hot and still days. Using less electricity than air conditioning, ceiling fans have been a home staple for well over 100 years for good reason. Many coastal areas enjoy the natural ocean breeze provided by the sea, and beach houses have typically been constructed without air conditioning, relying on ceiling fans to augment the natural wind.
Coastal style ceiling fans may not feature the same natural construction materials as the categories discussed earlier in this article, but they still feature finishes and colors meant to pair well with a coastal table lamp or pendant. You can find brass finish motors to provide a welcome accent to white finish blades for that easygoing, airy vibe.
You can also find ceiling fans designed for outdoor porches and patios, including a variety of marine grade designs specifically for those seaside areas with high saltwater exposure. Lastly, many coastal style ceiling fans embrace the low profile benefits of integrated LED modules, serving as both a source of air movement and a steady ceiling light.
Choose Your Style
There are so many styles to choose from, and Lamps Plus is here to help you find the perfect look for your home! Keep an eye out for our other Choose Your Style articles as we dive into Rustic Modern and Reinvented Traditional. Or, you can read our article all about styling Contemporary Modern at the link below.