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What exactly is a “nautical theme” when it comes to interior design? Sometimes alternatively called the “maritime trend”, the nautical theme is described in a Medium article as a “beach-inspired look” incorporating elements related to sea life – such as anchor motifs and colours like white and navy.

Of course, this is an overly simplistic way of describing the nautical theme, which could lead you to struggle with discerning how to capture it effectively in your own home. Here are a few tantalising ideas, though…

Choose the right colours

What exactly are “nautical” colours? You don’t have to think too hard about this question, as the answer is likely very much what you are already thinking. Yes, you should include blues and greens to represent the ocean, white to symbolise beach huts and yellow to reflect the sunshine.

“Reflect” in what sense – representing the sunshine, or literally reflecting it? You could actually achieve both, such as with hairpin legs to which a yellow metallic finish has been applied.

Use oceanic-styled wallpaper

The nautical theme is encapsulated by various memorable symbols – including those of ships, anchors and even sea creatures, which is actually a pretty broad category of its own. So, wouldn’t it make sense for you to apply a large amount of wallpaper adorned with visual icons like these?

Consider the example of the crustacean wallpaper shown by Good Homes, with writer Christina Chrysostomou sharing the magazine’s view that this wallpaper “would brighten up any room in the home.”

Pay special attention to your bathroom

When people imbue their homes with the maritime look, they often start in the bathroom – and it’s not hard to see why, given that it’s obviously already built to hold its own against a lot of water splashes.

A bathroom is also an easy place to equip with luxury fittings. For example, you could look into having a charmingly traditional-looking bathtub installed in your bathroom – and, while the above-mentioned wallpaper wouldn’t be suitable for a bathroom’s walls, tiles of various styles certainly would be.

Don’t walk the plank – add it to your wall instead

If you’ve long been thinking of possibly emulating the maritime look for your home, you have probably already perused a fair few pictures of this style on image-sharing sites like Instagram and Pinterest. Along the way, you might have particularly often come across the sight of white planks affixed to walls.

This is indeed a common approach to nautical-themed interior design – and you could follow suit by laying several white planks horizontally, as doing this can help to make a space feel larger.

Earn your stripes by adding some… stripes

As nautical decor has become more fashionable in 2021, stripes have become an increasingly common feature of interior design.

If you are unsure how to use stripes in your particular property, rest assured that the Homes & Gardens website has a few pictures of stripe styles you could try. Those include “razor-thin Breton stripes” as well as “broad and bold” alternatives, to quote from the site itself.