Stunning Coastal Kitchen Design You Must See

Last Updated on September 3, 2024

See how a dark modern kitchen was transformed into a gorgeous modern coastal kitchen.

The kitchen is my favorite room in a house, and this kitchen is 100% what sold me on buying our current house. The previous owner combined the kitchen and dining room to form one large kitchen with a small dining room at the end. We have a large kitchen island with a built-in range and tons of counter space. 

However, the previous owner remodeled the kitchen with brand new cabinets and painted them all brown. That’s right, he PAINTED them brown (not stained them). He also added heavy black hardware that made things feel even darker. 

BEFORE:

White Coastal Kitchen Design

I knew immediately that my modern coastal kitchen would be white, but I had to research the perfect shade. I used Sherwin Williams Pure White in my last kitchen and absolutely loved it. But it has cool gray undertones which worked perfectly in our last house. This kitchen has warmer tones with off-white granite countertops and a beige stone backsplash. I ultimately landed on Benjamin Moore Simply White, which has a creamier warm undertone. 

Fact: I’m not in love with this color. I prefer a brighter white. However, sometimes you have to compromise and work with your existing finishes, not against them. I didn’t want to rip out the stone tile and re-do it, so I embraced it and chose the white that could complement this space the best. 

I love to paint! It’s one of the only DIY things I’m actually good at. But we used professional painters to tackle this project. Don’t try and paint your own kitchen cabinets unless you’ve done your homework and are ready to put in the necessary prep. Painting a dresser or wall is one thing. Painting your kitchen cabinets is a lot of work and you want them to look flawless!

I had an idea in my head of how I would design this kitchen, but I always build a mood board to see everything together. Check out my favorite mood board site where you can drop in pictures and see your full design come to life. 

Since I was going for a more modern coastal kitchen design, I opted for gold hardware versus the satin nickel we had in our last kitchen. It took some getting used to, but I absolutely love it. I’m loving gold more and more, even though it’s been a trend for a while. 

Coastal Kitchen Design With Open Shelves

Our kitchen has a ton of open shelving. I have a love/hate relationship with it. Open shelves can help add warmth and visual interest to your space. But our kitchen doesn’t have any upper cabinets at all, so all of our plates and bowls are on display. This forces us to be ultra-organized 24/7, which is actually not an issue. I am already super organized!

The bigger issue I have is the dust. They are dust collectors, which means our dishes can also collect dust. For the dishes we use often, it’s not an issue. Consider the pros and cons if you are thinking about open shelves in your kitchen.

Coastal Kitchen Island

This island is my favorite part of the kitchen. It’s 10 ft long with lots of counter space and room for seating. We eat 99% of our meals at the island. I fell in love with the Ballard Design Bailey Woven Counter Stools which were the perfect addition to our modern coastal kitchen. The wicker seats bring in organic materials and the black metal legs coordinated with our modern kitchen railing. They are so comfortable and are great quality. I cannot recommend them enough!

The stools come with a linen natural cushion in a taupe color. I really want to switch them out for the off-white cushion eventually!

Modern Coastal Kitchen Lighting

Our kitchen has recessed lighting throughout, and we have lots of windows that bring in a ton of light. But I still wanted to bring in a light fixture. I chose the Pottery Barn Small Brass Pendant to go above our sink. It matches our cabinet hardware perfectly and brings out those modern coastal vibes. Pottery Barn honestly has some of the prettiest lighting of all the places I researched. 

Coastal Kitchen Window Treatments

I was obsessed with the Pottery Barn Riviera Stripe Roman Shades for years before I finally invested in them. You just can’t go wrong with a classic stripe window treatment in a coastal kitchen. I researched a lot of dupes before I finally caved and bought the real deal. They are worth every penny! I only have them in the kitchen, so things don’t get “too stripy” (which I definitely have a tendency to do!). You can read my full review of these gorgeous window treatments here.

Modern Coastal Dining Room in Kitchen

Since the old kitchen and dining room were combined into one, our kitchen is a really nice size, but our dining room is tiny. It sits at the far end of our kitchen, and I had to get creative with how to design it.

Since we eat most of our meals at the island, having a small dining room is not a big deal for us at all! You can read all about how I designed it in my Beautiful Modern Coastal Dining Room for Small Space post.

Coastal Kitchen Pantry

Our house did not come with a pantry. When our kitchen was designed, they kind of left that part out. I agonized over this when we first moved in and settled on a free-standing bookcase that I converted into our pantry. You can read all about it in my best pantry alternative post. 

After living with our pantry alternative for over two years, I finally decided to take the plunge and have our contractor build us a real pantry. You can read all about our pantry makeover HERE. If you are on a tight budget, I think the pantry alternative I used is still the perfect solution. 

Coastal Kitchen Design: What I Would Have Done Differently

Let me start off by saying, this is by far the nicest kitchen I have ever had! I really do love so much about it. Because this kitchen was already gutted when we bought the house, a lot of design choices were already made. Even though I made a lot of design updates, there are a good amount of things I would have done differently if I had been designing from the start.

1. Include Upper Cabinets

If I had full control over the design, I would have nixed so much open shelving. I would love to have upper cabinets to store our dishes. 

2. Choose a Different Backsplash

Our stone backsplash is pretty and sophisticated, but it’s just not my style. I would have gone with a white zellige tile or even a classic subway. I also would have chosen white quartz countertops versus the creamy granite and gone brighter on the cabinets.

3. Install a Farmhouse Sink

I think it goes without saying that the more room you have in the sink, the better. A double bowl sink just makes it harder to do dishes (especially large pots and pans) and no one needs that!

4. Build a Pantry

This is huge. I 100% would have built a pantry and this kitchen had plenty of room to do it. Luckily, we now have one!

I hope you enjoyed this post and found a little inspiration for your modern coastal kitchen design. Happy decorating!

This post is about a modern coastal kitchen design.  

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