Making the Most of Your Coastal Block

Australians love living near the water and many dream of building the ultimate coastal home. Unfortunately, it's rare to find a block with perfect beach side frontage for an affordable amount, so sometimes you need to be a little creative with how you build your home. 

Make the most of your views

Traditionally people love to have their views most visible from a lounge or living area, which is usually at the front of the home. However, depending where your views come from you may need to have a different design such as having a rear facing lounge room, or having a large window of one of the sides of an upper story if you want to be able to have them as a feature. Otherwise, you might just choose to have a beautiful view from your master bedroom and let everyone else enjoy the smells and sound of the ocean, even if they don't get direct water views.

Windproof the yard

While a sea breeze is a lovely way to cool down on a hot summers night, it also tends to bring with it sand. Choose tight fitting windows, screens and shutters to prevent it getting through out the house. It can also be a good idea to have easy to sweep down smooth paving for the same reason, so that it can be easily swept and cleaned after a windy night. 

Coastal breezes easily blow away any loose soil so it's good to mulch or cover garden beds in stones to prevent your top soil from growing away. Using plants that are native to the area can also help as they usually have hardy root structures that keep them firmly in the ground year round. 

Take inspiration from ship builders

Having a coastal home is a great time to look at using some less common building materials. Marine grade steel can be great to use on balconies and for garden water features, and marine grade plywood is a good option for decking or flooring in outdoor living areas. These options will fare well when exposed to the salty winds and this will lead to fewer repairs as well as being a unique talking point for your home. 

If you are looking to build a fantastic coastal home and enjoying the coast lifestyle, you should talk to a custom home builder to come up with a design that really works for you. 


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