Coastal Summer Style for Every Home — Ocean View Not Required

You don’t need to live near the coast to make your home feel like summer. Here’s how to capture California coastal summer style — no ocean required.

I want to share a true story about where I grew up – and surprise! – it wasn’t near the beach. I was raised in a small Bay Area town in the shadow of an oil refinery. We lived in an ordinary tract home in a small suburban neighborhood. The only water nearby was a branch of San Francisco Bay, but we certainly didn’t have a view of it. And there definitely wasn’t a beach nearby.

In fact, I don’t remember going to the beach much at all growing up, and when I did, it was mostly in high school on school band trips to Southern California or Hawaii. So the fact that as an adult I am privileged enough to look at the ocean and go to the beach everyday is not lost on me. In fact, it’s somewhat surreal. My husband and I pinch ourselves every day.

Although my dream of having a home near the water has only recently come true, I have been a collector of coastal decor for most of my adult life, way before we ended up living part-time in San Diego. Growing up, I dreamt about living in a house that looked out on water (any water!) and I would imagine what it would look like inside. Some girls grow up fantasizing about planning their weddings, but I was always thinking about what my future dream home might look like. So when we did finally achieve that dream, I already had a collection of coastal decor ready to go!

I’m sharing this because I want you to know that if you’re someone like me who loves coastal style but lives in a landlocked city, a suburban neighborhood in the mid-west, or a city apartment with a view of a parking garage, you can still “live” the coastal aesthetic. You might wonder if the look is really for you. It absolutely is. And here’s the thing: that style of living is completely portable. The California coastal summer aesthetic is not about proximity to the Pacific. It’s about a feeling, one that can be recreated anywhere.

Here’s how to bring that feeling home, no ocean view required!

Start With Light

The first thing I do every morning when I get up is open all of the blinds. I need to have sunlight immediately, even before coffee! This may sound redundant, but if there’s one thing that defines coastal summer style more than anything else, it’s the quality of the light. A home that’s dark and moody won’t give you that feeling of lightness that we tend to associate with “coastal”. And although you can’t always control the amount of natural light your home gets, you can enhance whatever sunlight you do have.

Leave Windows Uncovered If Possible

If you have good natural light and simply need privacy at night like we do, opaque shades are a good choice. We leave our windows bare for most of the day, only lowering the shades during the brightest part of the afternoon when the sun reflects off of the water.

However, if you need more privacy during the day, consider using sheer panels that you can draw closed without losing the light entirely. White or warm ivory tones work best. Avoid bright white, which can feel stark; instead look for off-white, oyster, or natural linen tones that feel organic and sun-bleached.

We inherited some pretty linen Pottery Barn curtains in our bedroom from the home’s previous owner, and they are great for letting in light while still protecting our privacy.

Use Mirrors

One more light trick: mirrors. A well-placed mirror opposite a window doubles your light and makes any room feel more open and airy, two qualities that are central to the coastal summer aesthetic. This mirror is one of my favorite purchases for our home. It opens up our guest/office room and reflects the view.

I prefer using large mirrors over smaller ones for more impact, but a gallery wall of smaller mirrors would be equally effective at bouncing light around a room. This set is from Walmart.

Bring In the Palette

Color is one of the fastest and most affordable ways to shift the feeling of a room, and a coastal summer palette is surprisingly accessible. You don’t need to repaint to bring this palette in.

That said, the red, white and blue preppy coastal palette of say, Nantucket, or the bright pinks and greens of Palm Beach aren’t the look you’re going for here. The colors you’re reaching for are the ones that actually resemble the California coast: warm sand, bleached linen, weathered driftwood, and the faded blue tones of the ocean.

A simple formula: start with a neutral base (whites, creams, warm beige), add one or two natural material textures (rattan, jute, woven linen), and then bring in a single accent color from the coastal palette, whether it’s blue, gray or green. To learn more about a great resource for selecting a whole-house color palette, check out this post.

Summer is also the perfect season to put away any darker, heavier textiles you’ve been using in winter and replace them with lighter versions in these warmer, airier tones. Throw pillows, a new throw blanket, a linen table runner, a ceramic vase in sage green or soft white — these small additions shift the feeling of a room more than you’d expect.

Let Natural Materials Do the Work

The California coastal summer aesthetic relies heavily on natural, honest materials. Luckily, they’re available everywhere, at every price point. Because our home is a more modern style, we chose furnishings with modern, clean lines for our main living area. The focal point of the room is a large round coffee table with a organic-looking wood inlay in the center. We paired it with a light sand-colored oversized sofa and some gray suede barrel chairs. It’s a look I like to call “modern coastal luxe”. You can read more about it here.

However, I didn’t want the whole home to be quite that formal. For the rest of the spaces, the look is more casual, with lighter woods and lots of texture. In our guest/office area, we incorporated lots of texture through the use of rattan. The texture of this material itself carries the coastal feeling. Paired with sun-bleached looking wood tones, the room has evolved into a cozy coastal haven for both our guests and our own daily use as an office.

Wood, particularly light or bleached wood tones, rounds out the material story. If you have darker wood furniture, you don’t need to replace it — but consider adding a light wood tray, a shell picture frame, or a driftwood-colored wooden bowl to the mix. It shifts the palette without requiring you to buy new furniture.

Linen is the fabric of California summer. If you can swap one thing in your home for linen this season, let it be your throw pillows or your bedding. There’s something about the way linen looks slightly rumpled and lived-in that captures the effortless quality of coastal style perfectly. It’s also genuinely cooler to sleep on in warm weather, which is a practical bonus. Quince is an excellent source for high-quality linen bedding at a reasonable price point.

Add Living Things

Plants are a non-negotiable in home decor for me. Every space can benefit from having some green plants in it. Plus, nothing says California summer quite like bringing the outdoors in — and you don’t need to live near the coast to do this.

I wrote a whole post about plants recently, but I’ll do a quick recap here. Look for varieties that evoke the California landscape: a fiddle leaf fig for its generous, architectural presence, a pothos or trailing string of pearls for the lush, overgrown feel of a California garden, or succulents grouped on a windowsill for that dry coastal hillside quality.

Fresh flowers in summer deserve a mention. A loose, unfussy arrangement of whatever is at the farmers market, such as dahlias, sunflowers, white ranunculus, and greenery in a simple ceramic or glass vessel does more for a room’s summer feeling than most decorating purchases. Here in San Diego we have amazing florists who know how to design arrangements that are loosely imperfect, with a boho vibe that speaks to the coast. I’m always looking for an excuse to order one of their gorgeous arrangements!

If plants aren’t your strength, quality faux options have gotten remarkably good. A realistic faux fiddle leaf or eucalyptus branch in a woven pot can give you the look without the watering schedule.

Engage the Senses Beyond the Visual

This is where a lot of decorating advice stops — at what the room looks like. But the California coastal summer feeling is as much about what you smell, hear, and feel as what you see.

Scent is enormously powerful. A candle or diffuser with notes of sea salt, citrus, eucalyptus, or warm sand can shift the feeling of a room instantly. Some of my favorites for this: the Gorjana signature Aura candle, anything with notes of white tea or sea mineral, or a simple bowl of fresh lemons on the kitchen counter, which is essentially free aromatherapy.

Sound matters more than we give it credit for. A playlist of breezy, unhurried music — think mellow indie, soft bossa nova, or even just the sound of waves as ambient background — genuinely changes how a space feels to inhabit. This costs nothing and takes thirty seconds.

Temperature and airflow are the most underrated elements of the California summer aesthetic. A ceiling fan on low, a window cracked to let in a cross breeze, lightweight bedding that doesn’t trap heat — these things make a room feel like summer in a way no amount of rattan furniture can replicate.

Edit, Don’t Accumulate

This is perhaps the most important principle of all, and it applies especially in summer.

The California coastal summer aesthetic is defined as much by what’s not there as by what is. Clutter is the enemy of that breezy, unhurried feeling you’re going for. A room with too much stuff in it cannot feel like summer, no matter how many linen pillows you add.

Summer is actually a wonderful excuse to do a seasonal edit. Put away the heavier, darker items that belong to other seasons. Clear your surfaces down to the essentials. Resist the urge to fill every corner. The negative space in a room is not emptiness — it’s breathing room, and breathing room is the whole point.

A good test: walk into your space and ask yourself if it feels calm. If the answer is no, the solution is almost never to add something. It’s almost always to take something away.

You Don’t Need the Ocean

As I mentioned at the top of this post, you can have a coastal-feeling home no matter where you live. The California coastal summer aesthetic is not about geography. It’s a set of values expressed through design choices: the preference for natural over synthetic, the commitment to ease over formality, the understanding that a room should make you feel something good when you walk into it.

These tips can work in a Chicago apartment, a Nashville bungalow or a suburban Ohio split-level just as well as they work in a Malibu beach house.

Start with light. Add natural texture. Bring in a little green. Edit relentlessly. And if all else fails, put a lemon on the counter and open a window. 🙂

Summer is wherever you make it. Make it yours.