A boxy, white, open-plan interior space with a large opening facing the sea is dotted with only white, cream, and beige minimalist furnishings. Beige modern chairs and sofas are topped with terracotta pillows and sit on a seagrass rug with a round wicker table in foreground. In the background is a simple minimalist dining table and chairs below pendant lights that end in flat wicker shades. A few black metal frames, light fixtures, and a black and white folding chair provide the only dark elements in the room.
Q&A Style, Decor & Design

Stylish and Serene Vacation Home Decor

by Laura Grey No Comments

Q: I inherited my folks’ 1970s beach house. It’s full of furniture my parents bought when I was a kid. I love the place, but Mom covered everything with ocean-related stuff. The bathroom has whale tiles and an octopus toilet seat! The curtains have an anchor pattern, the kitchen chair backs look like boat wheels, and everything is red, white, and blue. It’s a lot. I want to declutter the place and lighten it up. But if I pull out the ocean-related things, I worry it won’t feel like a beach house anymore. I want it to feel clean and modern, but I don’t want it to lose all its personality. If I add too much decoration, I worry it’ll go tacky again! How can I find a happy medium?

A large decorative clock made primarily of wood hangs on a wooden wall clad in bright red shiplap siding. The anchor shape is made of carved, darkly stained wood with a piece of rope tied around the ring from which the clock hangs, and draped to one side. In the center of the anchor is a round clock face. Just outside of each roman numeral on the clock face is a sample of a sailor's knot.
Vintage themed decor adds whimsy—and sometimes kitsch and clutter, too | Jonathan Cooper for Pexels

A: It’s common (and tempting) to decorate a vacation home based on a single theme. It starts out fun, but if everything follows the same motif, the result can resemble a stage set or a gift shop. Some love a maximalist, themed vacation-house look. If you do, have fun with it! But if you find it cluttered, overwhelming, or even kitschy, there are ways to make your home feel like a stylish, serene, coastal getaway without dressing it all according to an obvious theme.

Of course you can keep some themed elements that give it a vacation-home feel—just use a lighter touch to make it feel more contemporary. Feature a variety of your favorite motifs, but don’t announce the theme on every surface.

Let’s look at some ways to make your vacation home decor feel happy, relaxed, and personal without having to follow a theme throughout.

For tips specific to seaside homes, see my article Coastal Interior Design.

The Downside of Themed Vacation Home Decor

A large, open-plan, two-story home with exposed ducts and beams, probably a former industrial space. The left wall is brick with high, wide ceilings. in the back left corner is a black metal curving staircase that leads to a loft. The front of the loft has a black metal frme filled with frosted glass insets. Track lighting runs along the high wooden celing. The kitchen at center right has flat, simple wooden cabinets and a black granite counter. In front of that is a Danish modern table with matching MCM chairs with beige linen seats and seatbacks. Near the bottom, the dark brown floor has a large Persian rug in autumn colors. At left is a black leagther sofa topped with textural knitted pillows in white, beige, and grey. A silver metallic arc lamp is behind the sofa; the round head of it hangs over the sofa.
Mix MCM, industrial, and rustic elements for a chic yet relaxed modern lodge feel. Warm colors and woods, creamy textiles, high ceilings, and dark metal touches give ski getaway vibes. Add tartan throws, caramel leather, brass, and chunky knits for that personal touch | Aaron Huber for Unsplash

It’s tempting to furnish a holiday home to emphasize a location or favorite local activities. Beach cottages often display plentiful fishing, nautical, or tropical decor. Mountain cabins brim with antler chandeliers, blankets with bear prints, and carved wooden deer. But when all you see is themed decor, it can overwhelm everything else.

Literal or single-minded vacation home decor can make a home feel like’s trying too hard to make its theme known. Happily, your home can feel very much part of its surroundings, and unique and personal to you, without announcing itself at every turn.

Another concern about overdecorating a holiday home is that you don’t want your decor theme to distract from the views outside—views you probably paid a lot of money for! For most folks, clutter and busy decor impede relaxation. They undermine the refined, refreshing atmosphere most seek in a modern vacation home.

Feel Free to Change Things Up

A living room has a small bamboo framed daybed with white cushions, a knitted blanket, a beige sheepskin throw, and a macrame pillow. A wall-sized print on the back wall features what looks like a close-up of a stone Buddha's face. In front of that hangs a wicker lantern. Behind the sofa on a soft green wall hangs a woven cream hanging with a diamond pattern. A small wooden stool sits in front of the daybed like an end table. At right is a wicker chair.
Both dramatic and relaxing, the combo of neutral, textural natural materials and a bold wallpaper image gives us rich resort feelings (at economy prices) | Micheile Dot Com for Unsplash

Vacation home furnishings are often afterthoughts. You may spend so much on a beach home or ski cabin that you run out of money for furniture and decor. As a result, you might just fill it with whatever you find in the basement or on Craigslist.

If you’re lucky enough to inherit a family getaway, you might continue to use the furnishings your parents decided on decades before. Maybe you feel you haven’t the right to change it—after all, it’s always been this way. You figure you can cover up any shabby or outdated elements by adding plenty of themed decor elements. But hanging fish-themed art around a room, or decorating with dozens of nautical knick-knacks doesn’t necessarily pull a home together. However, it does result in more clutter—and that’s not really relaxing or serene, is it?

If your home came from your family, you might feel sentimental about its contents. Does changing them feel disloyal? It’s not. If you grew up with that giant swordfish on the wall, it may feel strange to imagine the room without it. But do you like it? Would you choose it today? Your parents don’t live there now—you do. It’s your home. You deserve feel happy there.

You needn’t go all out on themed vacation home decor, or stick to parental furniture choices. Take plenty of photos of the home and its contents to preserve your memories. Keep the most treasured items—those that remind you of loved ones and good times. But let go of things that aren’t functional or don’t please you.

Clutter Undermines Relaxation

A small room with copious Southwestern-style decor feels like a theme-decorated motel. A mustard-colored painted brick wall at the back has three cowboy hats hanging from a bent stick over the window that holds an air conditioner. Another hat hangs from the yellow pine beams that cross the ceiling covered in acoustical tiles. The right wall is mint green with wood floating shelves holding stereo components and plants. Large potted plants sit on the wood floor at the back of the room. A beige sofa has an woven blanket with a Native American Indian pattern on it. A similarly patterned fringed woven Indian rug is on the floor covered by a yellow-wood bench used as a coffee table. At left are two MCM armchairs with wood frames and cushions. One is yellow vinyl with wagon-wheel arms, the other has turquoise, quite, and brown stripes. Two small turquoise side table are next to the chairs. Photos of Southwestern landscapes hang on the back wall.
This Southwestern room serves a lot of look—intense contrasting hues and patterns, plentiful themed decor, so many shapes and lines. Pare back the busy decor, add open space, and introduce neutral elements to relax the room | Dane Deaner for Unsplash

Many people add new pieces of themed vacation home decor each year. They hope to distract from worn out furniture or rooms that would cost a lot to replace or revive. The new decor tends to follow the theme of the home. So the home fills up with the same motifs—kokopelli silhouettes in a Southwestern getaway, or wagon wheels on a vacation ranch. Before long, you’re swimming in themed clutter.

A profusion of elements can be a visual feast, or a distracting hodgepodge. A more cohesive, less cluttered setting may make your getaway spot more restful and appealing. That said, it’s your home. What decorators like doesn’t matter a whit if you don’t like it! If the swirl of items delights you, live it up. But ask yourself—is it relaxing? Or is the clutter keeping your vacation home from looking and feeling the way you want it to?

Here’s an effective way to corral clutter. Gather all like elements together and display them in one place, instead of spreading a collection throughout the home. Dedicate a single wall in a bedroom to all the fishing trophies. Display Papa’s hand-carved boats together on the high bookshelves. Are Mom’s many ceramic seahorses tucked all over the place? Display only the best dozen on a bookcase shelf, and store, gift, or donate the rest. When gathered together in one place, collections look more important, and they’re less likely to be overlooked. They read as a single decorative element, which feels more elegant, and less cluttered.

Evoke a Feeling Without Being Literal

An A-frame chalet of whitewished pine walls with natural pine door and window frames and crossbeams has darker wood paneling on the wall around the front door. Trailing plants hang from a window shelf over the door. A large rectangular glass coffee table sits on a bleached, gnarled wood base on cream wall-to-wall carpet in front of a large cream sectional topped with a Pendleton Indian-style blanket in beige, orange, and white and a coordinating cream pillow with similar patterns. A small painted totem pole sits next to an arc floorlamp with a beige drum shade at the back of the room in front of a window opening onto a deck that faces a stand of trees.
A light-filled lodge in Stowe, Vermont, brings natural elements indoors for a cozy apres-ski retreat. These colors and materials (with a beach-friendly wood or tile floor) would make a fab beachside getaway, too | Andrea Davis for Unsplash

You want your home to feel connected to its location, of course. So choose supporting elements like natural colors, textures, and materials that coordinate with the home and its location. Now add key decor elements—a few will go a long way. A mountain cabin doesn’t need moose heads and log furniture for a lodge-like feel. Set the scene with subtle colors, textures, and materials that fit the setting. Pepper your place with a few regional or thematic items instead of a slew of them.

Choose a few specific elements that mean something to you. Let them be the stars of the show. Grammy’s favorite Pendleton blanket draped over a forest green sofa at your hilltop getaway? Or Granddad’s antique nautical lanterns on the bleached-wood coffee table at the beach house? Delightful. A few carefully chosen things tell a story, but still leave plenty of open space.

A Tip for Coastal Homes

If you’re decorating a coastal home, your spaces will feel most cohesive and relaxed if you choose a single regional substyle. Consider focusing on one coastal area—say, Newport, St. Barts, or Santa Monica—instead of mixing Maine lobster prints with Bermuda palmettos. Too many simultaneous styles in one space can make a room feel disjointed and confusing.

For more tips on choosing a coastal vacation home style, see my article The Best Coastal Style for Your Home.

Keep a Light Touch

Professional decorators recommend limiting themed vacation home decor elements to no more than 10% of the total. To make up the other 90% of the design, use elements that support the theme but aren’t literally related. These may include blue walls, natural fiber rugs, unbleached linen, whitewashed wood, rattan pendant lamps, and butcher block counters.

Detail of a pale rattan chair with a white woven pillow on it covered in bumpy texture. Next to and behind the chair are green tropical plants. At left is a white curtain.
A classic combo of natural, textural elements creates relaxing tropical style—no fuss, no clutter, and minimal cost | Stephanie Harvey for Unsplash

For a more cohesive and soothing room, keep furnishings from competing with each other. If your eye is distracted as you survey a space, notice where the visual flow is interrupted. Remove a few things until the room looks right.

Furniture and decor should support each other to create a harmonious whole. You want plenty of room to move around in, or to stretch out in when you sit. Tables shouldn’t be so covered with clutter that you can’t place things on them.

Open space is a great luxury. Leaving enough of it in your holiday home will instantly make you feel lighter.

At top:

Modern coastal homes are serene, airy, and often neutral in color, with plentiful natural materials and textures | Keegan Checks for Pexels

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