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3 Coastal & Beach Inspired Design Boards with Top Trends in Flooring

Today I’m sharing 3 different coastal and beach inspired design boards that incorporate the top trends in flooring through Carpet One’s Twenty for 2020 flooring picks.A straw bag, binoculars, a starfish and driftwood laid out in a vignette.

Making design boards is one of my favourite ways to be creative and is something that I almost always do when starting a new project or room design. I often create digital design boards that I share in my before/inspiration posts, but sometimes I use real items pulled together as a way to help me choose various finishes for a space such as flooring and paint colour selections.  Even when you are able to visualize a space in your mind’s eye, nothing quite solidifies design choices like seeing them together either on a digital board or in real life.

Design Boards

If you’ve been following along on my Instagram stories lately you know that we’ve very recently moved out of the forest house and into our lake cabin while we begin the process of building a new home from the ground up.  We’re pretty excited about getting started on that project, and I’ve begun looking at and researching the different elements that I want to pull together to create a light, airy, modern boho coastal feel in our new home.  Flooring is one of the first places that I start when creating any room design, so when Carpet One asked me to take part in their Top 20 for 2020 series, I felt like it was the perfect fit for the projects that I’m currently working on.

July was a VERY busy month as we both moved and painted most of the rooms in the cabin before moving into it.  We had many coastal/beach inspired decor pieces saved from our previous lake house so I used those to give the cabin and light and beachy feel.  Carpet One sent me a beautiful box full of their Top 20 for 2020 flooring selections (see them all here), along with some paint colour swatches and a Pantone colour deck.  It was really fun to use them to come up with mood boards with a beachy and coastal feel.  I created three different design board schemes that, while all beachy, have a very different feel from one another.

Beachy Blue Classic Coastal Inspiration Board 

Think: the wide blue sky reflected in the deeper blue waters of the lake or sea; clusters of driftwood littering the beach; smooth stones in every shade from brown through grey to deep grey blue; the wood on the dock weathered and greyed with age.

Beachy signs on driftwood on the floor.

Beachy, blue, and coastal is the design direction that I took with our homey lake cabin.  We painted the walls a creamy white which freshened up the natural existing fir wood trim.  The decor is a mix of soft blue, white, and neutral/natural wood tones.

A classic flooring combination that works beautifully with a beachy blue and wood design scheme is a medium toned warm wood along with a hide-everything plush carpeting in bedroom areas.  The mix of brown, grey, and green flecks in this carpet tie together beautifully with the walnut colour in the luxury vinyl plank and would be low-maintenance and easy to care for.

Flooring and carpet tile samples.

Carpet: Innovia Crossroads I in Bedford
Flooring: Hydrotek H2O Shelby Lane Walnut in Buried Treasure

Alternatively, for a more modern edge a darker rich toned grey luxury vinyl tile paired with a pretty patterned grey rug would work beautifully for a beachy blue coastal design.  The grey reminds me of darker stones on the beach and the raised pattern gives it a slightly nautical feel.

Swatches of colour and flooring samples in a blue grey.

Carpet: Passages by Tigressa Bright Future in Marina
Flooring: Mirror Lake Laminate Portside Village in Knights Armor

There is a blue and white paddle amongst the samples.

California Chic Neutral Coastal Inspiration Board

Think: sand, driftwood, straw hats, and flip flops.  Starfish, sand dollars, seashells, white painted Adirondack chairs, and Queen Anne’s lace growing wild on the side of the road.  A beach house so neutral that your view is immediately drawn to the water outside.  Sun streaming in and lighting up the wide plank light wood floors.  Carpets with a natural feel that blend seamlessly with the wood.

A very neutral vibe that is beachy.

Light, bright, airy, and fresh.  I love how this design board feels… it’s almost enough to make me go neutral! Light wood floors and sleek carpeting are key for making this whole neutral design vibe come together.

Wooden beads, a starfish, and driftwood.

Flooring (bottom center): Invincible H2O West Barclay in Delightful
Carpet (bottom left): Less Studio Pier 5 in Canoe

There is binoculars and wooden beads.

Flooring: Invincible H2O Charleston Place Herringbone in Pure Beauty 
Carpet: Relax, it’s…Lees Little by Little in Ancestral 

A neutral carpet and seashells and driftwood.

Bold Bright Cottage Coastal Inspiration Board 

Think: a red canoe floating bobbing along on a glass-calm lake so surrounded by forested mountains that it looks green.  Brightly painted paddles dipping into the water and splashing children in colourful swimsuits.  A striped beach blank laying on the sand and rows Adirondack chairs painted every colour of the rainbow.  Vintage lanterns in red and blue.  White painted panelled walls, mismatched furniture tied together with bright and cheerful paints, and sleeping on the sunporch with Grandma’s colourful vintage quilts.

There is a beach themed throw pillows on the floor with the vignette.

Classic, crisp, and full of summer fun colour; this scheme would be perfect in a cheery and bright lake or beach cottage.  Pops of black in the decor temper the colour and lend well to a stronger and more colourful flooring scheme.

Driftwood grey and sunflower yellow!  I love this bold, beachy feeling combination.  I paired it with decor that  has a mix of warm grey brown striations that work beautifully with the bold mustard tones and pattern in  carpeting.

Nautical items such as a propeller and model sailboat.

Flooring: Invincible H2O Highland Springs in Cape Elizabeth
Carpet:Passages by Tigressa So Refined in Sunflower

A blue glass lantern beside a yellow paddle.

Flooring: Mirror Lake Laminate (Portside Village in Knight’s Armor)
Carpet: Invincible XT Vail Court in Vienna.

A small blue orb is beside the yellow paddle.

Well, are you inspired to take a trip to the lake or the beach?  Or if you can’t do that, just design a room in your home to feel like your on vacay at the cabin!  Head over to Carpet One for more details on all their Top 20 for 2020 Flooring Trend picks.

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7 Comments

  1. Totally love the California Chic Neutral Board.
    Wish I had known about doing a board before I moved into my Mom’s condo. I have a decent sized bedroom but need a certain type of bookcase, a dresser, and a desk. I definitely am going to follow your advice and do a board for the carpeting and wall paint color.

  2. I love your design boards. I’m always at a loss on how to create them. Are yours strictly a photograph of the flooring with items you have on hand or do you use software and compile photos to create these? I just finished an RV renovation that is similar to both your beachy blue and California chic boards!

    1. Thank you! These boards were images of items I gathered, but I also do digital boards. I’ll share a DIY tutorial on how to make them soon – it’s lot of fun! I would love to see that RV renovation if you want to share any pics:) Krista

    1. The neutral board is my favourite as well…I love blue and used a fair bit of it in the cabin, but now I’m thinking of more neutral for the new house. It’s always easy to add in pops of colour with pillows, throws, and decor if I feel like it each season:)

  3. Gorgeous design boards, Krista! Love that California Chic. I’m just starting to look at flooring options for our second floor. That herringbone carpet looks like a good contender. Will check it out!

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