How to Create Nautical Wall Decor

Let nature inspire your nautical decor.

Creating ocean-inspired wall decor gives your home a beach-house feel whether on one wall or as part of an overall decorating theme. It doesn't matter if you live in a city townhouse or a suburban ranch, nautical decor is just a few accessories away. Classic or casual, following a few design guidelines can help you create your own nautical wall decor. Ready to set sail?

Instructions

1. Choose the colors of the beach and ocean as a backdrop for your new nautical wall decor. The classic color combination is blue and white, with a touch or red, but any beach color can work. Think sandy beiges, palm greens, powdery whites, sunny yellows or azure blues. Use an online color visualizer to find the just right color, most paint companies provide a color-inspiration or color-choosing tool on their website.

2. Write a message, but forget about putting it in a bottle and sending it out to sea. Apply seafaring words or quotes it to the wall, instead. Word art for walls is a technique in today home decor and words can work particularly well in a nautical decorating style. Look for removable wall stickers and words with nautical inspiration or create your own with stencils to add just the right thought. Another way to add words to your nautical wall decor is by painting words on old pieces of wood. The wood can be a sun bleached piece of driftwood or odd-sized pieces of wood combined for a collage effect. Stencil on a word like "ocean" or "beach" or a full quote, like "The cure for anything is saltwater sweat, tears, or the sea" by author Isak Dinesen.

3. Employ nautical accessories as three-dimensional art. Oars and paddles make simple decorations on their own, or take on a useful life as curtain rods or towel racks. Other nautical or beach objects to use include a captain's wheel, anchors, sailing flags and even a surfboard. Antique or well-used is always better and adds a vintage feel, but if you can't find old nautical accessories, use new reproductions.

4. Apply seashells to mirrors, frames and other surfaces. Seashell-covered art can be expensive, costing hundreds of dollars. But making your own mirror is easy and fun. Just buy bags of seashells at a discount store, grab a glue gun and start attaching shells to whatever surface you want. An even simplier style is add one large seashell or starfish to a painted frame. Sometimes simple can make as big an impact as ornate and over-the-top.

Resources

• Sherwin-Williams: Color Visualizer
• Glidden: Color Visualizer
• Olympic: ColorClix Visualizer