Nautical style: 5 Top Tips for Decorating your Home

If you're a fan of nautical decor, this style is a great way to decorate your beach house.
Nautical style: 5 Top Tips for Decorating your Home

Last update: 28 January, 2021

Whether you live by the beach or you simply love the look, the nautical style is a beautiful way to decorate your home.

The natural elements and objects which feature in this style can make our homes look so charming and original. The water, the sand, the sea, and all their beautiful colors… If you can combine these elements well, you’ll be able to create a stunning look for your home.

So, in this article, we’ll tell you all about this trend and give you some ideas so that you can decorate your home in the nautical style.

The nautical style and fresh colors

Incorporating colors like sky blue, navy blue, greens, beige, yellow, white, and sandy-tones is one of the first things to keep in mind if you want to create nautical style decor in your home.

Remember to try not to overfill your rooms with too many different colors. This will create unbalanced, inharmonious spaces when you’re trying to create a peaceful environment where you can relax with family, either on vacation or daily.

You could paint all the walls white except one, which you can paint blue, green or sandy yellow. Play around with the colors of the fabrics too.

Nautical style cushions often have blue and white stripes.

Nautical fabrics and patterns

When we talk about fabrics, we’re referring to everything from tablecloths to bedding and cushions. You can find cushion covers with nautical style blue and white stripes which you can incorporate into your living room, for example. Remember to alternate them with other designs to create a more dynamic look.

Striped fabrics, whether blue and white or red and white, are highly characteristic of the nautical style. If you decorate your cushions with these fabrics, you can also combine them with tablecloths and runners. This will create a really beautiful look.

Incorporate ropes and knots into your nautical decor

Ropes and sailing knots are a must in any nautical style home and should feature prominently in your decor. We recommend that you use them in the living room. You can hang ropes from the ceiling, or even use them to decorate the walls.

Generally, ropes should be cream or beige in color. However, if you want, you can also paint them. Let your creative juices flow and paint them sea green or sky blue. Combine them with unpainted ropes and create a really original environment.

Decorative objects

There is a huge variety of nautical themed decorative elements to choose from. Whether in the living room, kitchen, bathroom or bedrooms, you can use them to decorate anything from tables, walls or ceilings. Try to make sure your nautical theme is present throughout the house. They’ll give your home a really beautiful look and add so much character to your rooms.

Nautical themed pictures

  • Framed knots: you can decorate your walls with a beautiful glass frame and use it display different types of sailing knots. This will look really charming on a white or blue-painted wall. You’ll find tutorials online if you need to know how to tie sailing knots – take a look and find out how fun and simple they can be.
  • Nautical paintings: Paintings of things like the sea, sunsets, sand, sea creatures or boats look really beautiful in any nautical style home.

Decorate with seashells

Seashells are some of the most common decorative elements in nautical decor. And the great thing is that you don’t need to buy from the store! Collect all different types, sizes, and colors. If you find any large conch shells, you can display them on the walls in your bathroom.

You can also place smaller shells in glass jars and use them to create centerpieces for your dining room table.

Decorate with anchors

Anchors are also really commonly used in nautical style decor. Decorate your walls with wooden anchors of any size you want. You can paint them white or pale blue and hang them on your bedroom doors. This is a really charming look.

Anchors and knots are essential decorations in the nautical style.

Nautical style furniture

White-painted wooden tables would look great in your living room or dining room. You can find some with an aged, vintage finish to create a really authentic look.

Sofas with wooden frames are also really popular. Add some large white or sand-colored cushion covers. You can also put up pastel-colored shelves in the hallways or kitchen, as long as you use the same seaside color pallet.

As you can see, the nautical style is full of character. If you love this look but don’t live by the sea, you should try to find more subtle ways of incorporating nautical elements into your home. Make sure to relax and enjoy your home.


All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.


  • Tournikiotis, Panayotis: La historiografía de la arquitectura moderna, Madrid, Celeste, 1999.