This Coastal Home Tour Rethinks the Beach House Palette
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Tour a Sag Harbor home tour renovation where sand, ochre, and warm oak give coastal living a warmer twist!
Y’all know how much joy these home tours bring me. Part of it is getting our weekly dose of beautiful interiors, and the other part is coming away with two or three ideas we can bring straight home to our own spaces.
Today’s tour gives us plenty of both!
This Sag Harbor full home renovation, designed by Chandler Rubenstein Design, sits out on the East End of Long Island, and it has all the airiness we love in a beach house with a palette you might not expect. Sand, ochre, terracotta, and warm oak carry the whole home, giving it a Tuscany-on-the-beach feel meeting Nantucket somewhere in the middle.
The bones are traditional through and through. Coffered ceilings, wainscoting, pocket doors, panel molding. The way the rooms are dressed keeps everything feeling light and current, and that balance is what makes this one so worth a slow scroll.
As we walk through, I’ll point out the details that stopped me, along with a few ideas that translate beautifully to homes nowhere near the water.
Now, let’s take a look around!
A Coastal Entry Built on Warm Wood and Brass
The first thing you see coming through the door is a raw, bleached wood console with the chunkiest waterfall legs, and it sets the temperature for the whole house.
Above it hangs a gilded faux bamboo mirror, bringing in a bit of shine without anything feeling formal. The soft glow of the brass sconce beside it does the same. Notice that the millwork here is painted the same crisp white as the rest of the trim, so the wood and the brass are doing all the talking.
What makes this corner feel like a real family home, though, is the styling. A handful of vintage wooden tennis rackets tucked under the console, a bowl of wooden beads, a pair of red sneakers kicked off on the herringbone runner.
Collected pieces with a little wear on them will always beat a perfectly matched entry set, don’t y’all think?
A Living Room Where Coral Stands in for Navy
The living room has got to be one of my favorite rooms. Here’s where the palette really shows its hand.
The architecture in this living room is classic New England. A coffered ceiling, deep wainscoting, a white mantel with a blackened brick firebox, small flanking windows. And here’s where the palette really shows its hand. Every bit of it could have gone blue and white in a heartbeat.
But instead the design team went a different direction with a pair of armchairs in a soft coral pattern, giving the room a whole different mood.
These pretty armchairs work as an accent piece that reads warm and sunny where navy would have read crisp and nautical. Paired with the oatmeal linen sofa and the striped jute rug, the effect is still breezy, just with the temperature turned up a few degrees.
The chunky oak coffee table is my favorite piece in the room. Its heavy, almost rough shape keeps a very pretty space from tipping into too-perfect, and the raw grain picks up the pale wood floors underfoot.
A few more details worth borrowing here? Take a look at the rope-wrapped mirror over the mantel and the x-base stools with woven rope stretchers. Those details bring in the coastal texture that the color palette deliberately skips.
Plus, those oversized branches are absolutely stunning. Never underestimate what a few clippings from the yard can do for a space!
Coastal Navy Finds Its Place Behind Pocket Doors in This Home Tour
When the navy hue does show up in this home’s color story, it does it in the smartest way possible. Like in the pocket doors between the sitting room and the living room. Painted a deep inky blue, they stand almost like artwork against the crisp white walls and trims.
The sitting room itself keeps things soft. An oatmeal sofa layered with cream, sage, and rust pillows, a ticking stripe armchair, and a round camel leather ottoman standing in for a coffee table.
That leather is such a good call in a family space, since it only looks better as it wears!
I also like the little rustic wood bench pushed against the wall with a single woven bowl on top. Low, useful, and easy to pull over when more people turn up than there are seats.
A Bay Window Office With Vintage Character
Tucked into a bay with a gently tented ceiling, this little office might be the most architecturally interesting room in the house.
The navy pinstripe roman shades are the anchor. Three windows, three matching shades, and the vertical stripe pulls your eye up toward that sloped ceiling and the black iron chandelier hanging in the center of it.
Against all that soft greige paneling, the dark wood desk with slim brass pulls feels grounded but not too visually heavy.
The vintage industrial swivel chair is what makes the room, though! It’s worn, a little mismatched, and far more interesting than anything new would be in its place.
A Primary Bedroom Wrapped in Grasscloth
Textured walls do so much of the work in this primary bedroom!
Grasscloth is one of those materials I come back to again and again. From the doorway it just reads as a soft, sandy neutral, and then you step closer and catch all that woven grain running across the wall. It gives a bedroom the same texture a rug or a headboard would, only it wraps the entire room in it.
If y’all have been wanting a bedroom that feels like a beach house all summer long, this is where I’d start.
The bed continues that thinking with an oak frame around a simple linen headboard, flanked by walnut nightstands and slim black iron sconces. Bedding is where the color comes in. Dusty blue floral pillows, a terracotta lumbar, a printed coverlet folded at the foot, and a chunky fringed throw layered over the top.
If you want a quick takeaway from this room, it’s in the proportions of that pillow arrangement. Two large shams, two patterned squares, one long lumbar in an accent color. Repeatable on just about any bed.
Sand and Ochre in the Guest Bedroom
The guest room turns the warmth up another notch.
Panel molding wraps the walls in a soft greige, and a navy pinstripe shade ties this room back to the office downstairs.
From there, the bedding goes properly earthy with a slate blue block print pillow, a grain sack stripe, a rust velvet, and an ochre plaid throw with long fringe trailing off the bed.
The Wallpapered Room With All the Personality
Now this is the room I’d be claiming as my own if I ever got the chance to house sit!
The wallpaper does all the talking, and what a pretty conversation it is!
Blush and gold hexagons filled with little bonsai and coral motifs, wrapping every wall right up to the crown molding. It’s the boldest thing in the house by a mile, and it still feels completely at home, because those soft golds are the same warm tones we’ve been seeing since the front entry.
That’s the secret to a big pattern, y’all. Pull it from colors your home already wears!
Under the windows, a cane-front desk with a stone top makes for the prettiest little workspace, with a black wishbone chair pulled up to it.
A small dose of black against all that gold is enough to sharpen the whole corner.
And then there’s the daybed. Six small sketches hang above it in mixed gold frames, and I’ll admit small art over a big pattern usually gives me pause.
Those generous white mats are what make it sing here, giving every piece a little breathing room so nothing has to compete with the walls. Add the brown block print pillows, the heavy cream throw, and a window on either side, and I could lose an entire rainy afternoon in that corner.
Sag Harbor Renovation Home Tour: Get the Look
Want to bring some of this warm coastal feeling home? I’ve rounded up a few budget-friendly finds inspired by the woven textures, aged brass, and sandy neutrals used throughout this renovation. Whether you’re drawn to the raw wood pieces, the earthy bedding layers, or that gorgeous wallpaper, these are easy places to start.
Woven Basket Set | Upholstered Armchair | Ottoman Bench | Coffee Table | Wooden Gallery Frame | Antique Brass Frame | Striped Yarn-Dyed Pillows | Floral Pillow | Blue Table Lamp
Coastal style has so much more range than we usually give it credit for. Chandler Rubenstein Design kept all the airiness we love about beach houses here and swapped the expected palette for something warmer and a little more timeless.
So tell me, what caught your eye first? The coral armchairs, that bay window office, or the wallpapered room in the back?
Let me know in the comments below, and don’t forget to save this home tour for later!
If you want more decorating ideas and home tours, have a look at these!
Colonial Home Tour: A Timeless & Moody Revival
The bedroom is one of the best I have seen, all the way from the wall mouldings to the mix of blue, browns, creams etc. !!