A Beach Bedroom: Create the Look with a Whitewash

There is nothing quite like a beach cottage bedroom to remind you why soft, washed finishes are so beloved. This particular room — airy, breezy, and effortlessly relaxed — was the perfect inspiration for recreating the look with a whitewash at home. Sometimes a space arrives so beautifully styled that the only thing left to do is study it and learn from it.

The room that started it all

The bedroom in question sits in a seaside cottage, and it ties together every colour the coast has to offer. The furniture came as-is from a local shop, the bedding was a HomeGoods find, and the walls were painted in Benjamin Moore Woodlawn Blue — a soft, watery blue-green that reads like sea glass. Everything in the room works in quiet harmony, the kind of effortless coastal calm that is harder to achieve than it looks.

Recreating the whitewash

Inspired by that room, the goal was to capture the same light, faded, beachy quality on furniture using a whitewash technique. A whitewash is one of the simplest and most forgiving finishes there is, and it suits coastal pieces especially well — we leaned on the very same approach for our whitewashed driftwood dresser.

• Use Old White, one of the soft neutrals in the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint colours range, thinned down for a soft, sheer wash
• Brush it on and wipe back to control how much wood shows through
• Build gradually if you want more coverage, layer by layer
• Let the grain show so the piece keeps its character

The result is a finish that looks sun-bleached and salt-softened, exactly the sort of thing you would expect to find in a cottage by the water.

A common question: do I need to sand?

One question comes up again and again with whitewashing: does the furniture need to be sanded down first? The good news is that if the piece does not already have a finish applied, you can skip the sanding and wash straight over it. The key is that the wood should be bare — no shellac or varnish sealing the surface. A whitewash needs to sink into raw wood to do its softening work.

The wash really sinks into the wood. It often does not even need waxing afterward.

As for sealing, a whitewash over bare wood frequently stands on its own without wax — the wash absorbs deeply enough to feel finished. You can certainly add a wax for extra protection if you like, and it will be perfectly fine either way. Both routes work.

A soft wash, a coastal palette, and a little inspiration borrowed from a breezy bedroom — that is all it takes to bring the calm of the shore home. For more finishes in this family, browse our paint tutorials.