Landscape Design modern home and garden landscaping design ideas inspiration for outdoor. Images and Photos created by www.house-and-garden-designs.com

Article No: 7 — Modern Coastal

Modern Beach House Designs
and Coastal Gardens

Pale timber decks, infinity pools, salt-tolerant planting, outdoor showers and light-filled interiors — how contemporary coastal homes are designed around the water.

Photo feature

Five ideas from the modern beach house

Large format concept photography covering terraces, coastal planting, pools, interiors and evening entertaining.

01A pale timber beach house terrace with low-profile outdoor lounges, a linen umbrella, coastal grasses and the ocean horizon.

Modern beach house design is built around one decision: where you sit to watch the water. Everything else — deck level, roof line, glazing, planting height — follows from protecting that view and that seat. Keep furniture low and pale so nothing competes with the horizon, and use a single fabric umbrella rather than a heavy fixed roof.

A coastal garden of silver foliage, agave and spinifex grasses with a sandstone stepping path beside a timber screen. Images and Photos created by www.house-and-garden-designs.com — 02A coastal garden of silver foliage, agave and spinifex grasses with a sandstone stepping path beside a timber screen.

Plant for salt, sand and wind

Coastal gardens fail when they are planted like inland gardens. Choose silver and grey-green foliage, succulents, agave, coastal rosemary and dune grasses — species built for salt spray and free-draining sand. Mass them in drifts rather than dotting single specimens, and let wind-shaped forms stay wind-shaped.

A white walled beach house courtyard with an outdoor shower, plunge pool, timber slat detail and palms in bright light. Images and Photos created by www.house-and-garden-designs.com — 03A white walled beach house courtyard with an outdoor shower, plunge pool, timber slat detail and palms in bright light.

Outdoor showers and plunge pool courtyards

Outdoor shower: the most useful thing you can build at a beach house — put it on the path between the beach and the door.
Plunge pool: a small 4–6m pool suits coastal blocks better than a lap pool and warms faster.
Hardware: marine grade 316 stainless everywhere; anything less rusts within a season.
Screening: white rendered walls with timber slat inserts give privacy and bounce light.

A modern coastal interior with pale oak floors, white walls, linen sofas, a rattan pendant and ocean views through glass. Images and Photos created by www.house-and-garden-designs.com — 04A modern coastal interior with pale oak floors, white walls, linen sofas, a rattan pendant and ocean views through glass.

Light-filled coastal interiors

Inside, modern coastal means pale oak floors, white walls, raked ceilings and glass sized to frame the water. Furnish in linen, cotton and rattan with a restrained palette of sand, white and soft blue-green. Choose finishes you can wash sand off — this is a house that is meant to be walked into with wet feet.

A beach house evening entertaining area with outdoor kitchen, timber dining table, festoon lights, fire pit and dunes beyond. Images and Photos created by www.house-and-garden-designs.com — 05A beach house evening entertaining area with outdoor kitchen, timber dining table, festoon lights, fire pit and dunes beyond.

Evening entertaining by the dunes

Coastal evenings get cool and breezy, so the entertaining zone needs shelter on the prevailing wind side, a heat source and warm lighting. A covered outdoor kitchen, a long timber table, festoon lights and a fire pit turn the windiest part of the day into the best part of it — and extend the season by months.

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