3rd November 2026A coastal home shows its real plan in summer, when the stacker doors stay open more often and the alfresco becomes a second living room.Good indoor-outdoor living design starts with the bones of the house.For Summer 2026/27, we look at three homes on the NSW and Queensland coast, at Port Stephens, Norah Head and Burleigh, and at the part mouldings play in framing their doorways and long views through to the pool.What does indoor-outdoor living mean in a coastal home?Indoor-outdoor living spaces in a coastal home are those where the main living areas open directly onto the outdoors, so the kitchen, lounge and alfresco work as a single zone through the warmer months. They depend on wide openings, flooring that continues across the threshold, cross-ventilation from the prevailing breeze and detailing that stays consistent on both sides of the door.Mouldings matter more than usual in this kind of plan. With every door open, the eye runs from the entry straight through to the garden, and every architrave and skirting along that path is in view at once.Three coastal homes designed around summerThe Ambers, Port StephensSet on five acres outside Newcastle, The Ambers sleeps up to 22 guests across seven bedrooms. A sunken lounge opens straight onto the pool and outdoor entertaining zones. In a house this size, continuity is the hard part, so one profile serves as both skirting and architrave throughout, curved walls included, and the modern coastal palette holds together from the billiards room to the bunk-lined rumpus. Dream Home 9, Norah HeadOak & Orange designed this Central Coast knockdown-rebuild, built by Better Built Homes, around its setting. Louvre windows draw a cross-breeze through the house, and large stacker doors open the living and dining area to the alfresco. Arched windows and curved walls called for a skirting and architrave with curved detailing, used in every room so the same curve repeats at floor level and around each door. Burleigh Beach Shack, QueenslandFront Porch Properties designed and built this Queensland coastal home, with interiors by Donna Guyler Design. In the open-plan kitchen and living area, a coffered ceiling lined in V-groove boards draws the eye upward. Below it, one skirting and architrave profile runs through every room, so the muted coastal palette and its deeper accents look like one continuous scheme from front to back. Summer interior design starts with the openingsAccording to the Australian Government’s Your Home guide, good orientation, shading, insulation and cross-ventilation generally provide adequate cooling in temperate climates. On most of the east coast, breezes blow onshore from the south-east to north-east, which shapes a coastal plan in three practical ways:Place openings on opposite sides of the main living zone, with the larger openings on the downwind side, and keep the path between them clear of tall joinery.Shade north-facing glass with eaves sized to block high summer sun and admit winter sun.Run the same floor finish across the threshold where the build allows.Architraves frame each of those openings. Around a wide stacker door or a bank of louvres, a slim 90mm architrave painted to match the walls keeps attention on the view outside.Biophilic interior design in Australian coastal homesBiophilic interior design applies biophilia, the human instinct to connect with nature, to the rooms people live in. Coastal homes meet several of Terrapin Bright Green’s 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design by default, with visual connection to nature through the outlook and airflow variability through open louvres.Two more patterns belong to the interior detailing. The biomorphic forms pattern covers curves drawn from nature, such as the arches at Norah Head and the curved walls at The Ambers. Material connection with nature covers timber, and even when painted, a timber moulding brings a crafted, natural material into rooms otherwise made of plasterboard and glass. Get the look with Intrim’s coastal profilesModern Coastal and Scandinavian Coastal are the two Intrim interior styles closest to these homes. Both use clean, lightly detailed mouldings in white or pale paint, which suits houses where the mouldings are seen from the alfresco as often as from the sofa.Skirting and architraves for a coastal summer homeIntrim’s recommended pairing for modern and coastal homes is a 90mm architrave with a 135mm skirting. Intrim SK52 is an In-Stock profile in primed FJ pine, ready to paint, and sits within both the Modern Coastal and Scandinavian Coastal styles. Intrim SK1474, also In-Stock, is included in the Modern Coastal sample box.For a minimal take on beach house design, the Intrim Shadowline system gives a flush finish with a 10mm recessed shadow gap. Order a coastal sample boxOrder the Modern Coastal sample boxOrder the Scandinavian Coastal sample box Harvey QuinseyHarvey Quinsey is the Sales & Marketing Manager at Intrim Mouldings. He works directly with architects, interior designers, and builders on specification decisions across a wide range of residential and commercial projects, and has an intimate understanding of how material choice, profile selection, and finish interact to define an interior. Harvey brings that practical, inside-industry perspective to designers who want to specify with confidence.
