My parents bought their cozy home in the Costa Brava in 2019 with their retirement in mind. Last year was the first time they carried out their plan of spending half the year in their house in the US (where my little sister still lives), and half the year in the Costa Brava near where my husband and I live in Barcelona. They’ve made plenty of updates over the years, but many things were done at a distance, with constraints such as time, necessity, budget, etc. playing a factor.
My husband and I have “our” room in this house, the small bedroom we’ve always used when we come over – which is very frequently. As mentioned previously, due to circumstances, the room become a hodge-podge of items collected to make the room livable. But there was much room for improvement.
I’ll write a separate post with photos, end designs, etc., but for this post, I wanted to focus on the inspiration and design direction we want to go in for the room. Let me paint the scene first: The house is in a residential area, surrounded by the typical pines of the area, with a traditional Mediterranean style, and located 5 minutes from the beach. The house doesn’t feel like a “beach house”. From my room, I look out over a pergola covered in wisteria. There is greenery and plants everywhere you look. Hence, my decision to refer to it as a “coastal cottage”.
The word choice is intentional. I want the bedroom to be soft, cozy, familiar, yet fresh-feeling. Hopefully we can repeat surrounding patterns of trees and greenery and bring it inside. The view is to the foliage-covered pergola, but will soon also overlook a pool! (currently under construction). The house is often surrounded by a sea mist in the fall, and the frequent beach activities that occur in the house mean we cannot ignore the sea’s influence here. But I don’t want the connection to feel forced. I’m not a fan of the maritime beach trope that is often stamped on every house within throwing distance of the coast. So the coastal element will be more implied, rather than explicit. With no further ado, here are some inspiration pics I’ve chosen to inform our direction in redesigning this room. Stay posted to see how we end up translating this to real life!
