Growing up just a few miles from the beach I've grown accustomed to a somewhat nautical lifestyle. It goes without saying that when living with the sand and water as your backyard, the lifestyle ultimately works its way indoors.
The usual suspects are there for a reason — red, white and blue were meant to be used together. However, the nautical look is easily achieved with any combination of them. Blue and white makes just as much of an impact without red. The calming, chic, inviting and breezy atmosphere created with these colors is spot on seaside style.
Use maps of islands for wallpaper with white bedding and striped throw pillows and blanket. You don't have to go overboard (no pun intended) with stereotypical nautical items, but sometimes that's where all the fun is. Who says you can't have rowing club flags hanging on the wall? Have fun with it!
Images: 1. House & Home, 2. Lonny Mag, 3. Mini Moderns, 4. Elle Decor, 5. Pottery Barn
Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families
Hillary & Michael's Refined Roost
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Nomade Express Slee...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
How to Make Buckwheat Soba Noodles from Scratch
That boat and seagull wallpaper is fantastic!!
-Teresa
only landlubbers decorate or dress in "nautical" style... twee and tacky is what it is!
I don't like theme rooms. And while I'm quite a flag-waver, I really don't like red-white-and-blue rooms.
Nova Scotians love nautical touches and it's hard to get closer to the ocean than us. No community in NS is more than 60km from the seaside.
That red wallpaper is really striking. Wow!
Love this round up... I had JUST posted about how to get the nautical look; must be in the "water"!
http://myamericanhouse.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/nautical/
mjs7640--Wow, my comment was going to be the exact opposite.
-I LOVE theme rooms--we've got a nautical nook: http://www.brittanypowell.com/home/the-nautical-nook/
-I'm not a flag-waver, but I love red, white, and blue rooms. I've been making lots of nautical stuff: http://www.brittanypowell.com/shop/
Nice though, that we don't all like the same thing. That would be boring.
@brittanykate-
Now THAT's the proper way to disagree. Thank you for being so cordial.
Grew up on the Great Lakes. Nods to bridges, barges, freighters, and sailboats can't help but find their way into my home. Red, white, and blue - but also raingear yellow, buoy orange, and industrial greys. My uncle's mid-century navigational charts, my grandfather's oars, the freighter model my dad made. I love to have the things I love around me and sometimes they happen to fall into a theme.