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Introduction: There are few home styles more inviting and charming as a Southern California beach house. But finding out what “makes a beach house a beach house” can be hard to quantify. So I dug through my photo archive of my favorite beach houses in North County San Diego to share with all of you DIYers out there who want to add beachy touches to their own homes. To be clear, there is no strict formula for what defines a Southern California beach house, but there are distinct architectural and design details that creative homeowners can apply to their homes. Let’s get started…

Pour yourself a cup of coffee and listen to Jack Johnson.

Big Design Inspiration in Humble Buildings

A life guard tower in Carlsbad, CA

Before we get into the houses, let’s first stop to appreciate the icon of the beach: the lifeguard tower.  The three details to notice here are the color, and railing, and roof:

1. Color. Over the decades, the Southern California lifeguard towers have always been aqua in colored: power blue, teal blue, teal green, mint green, etc.
2. Railing. Here the railings are modest bent piping, probably stainless steel. Although pipe railings might have reached peak popularity in the 1980s (think art-deco Miami Beach around the time of Miami Vice), they’re still a stylish and low-maintenance option that let you maximize ocean views.
3. Cantilevered Roof. Notice that the roof extends out far beyond the walls of the tower without any structural support. These cantilevered roofs shade the lifeguard from the sun, but they also point the way to the ocean view, a detail you will see in many beach houses. Although you won’t see it in this tower, early lifeguard towers had simple, low-pitched roofs that accentuated the forward-looking overhand.

Now lets take a look at some beachy details on some modest buildings at my favorite campground overlooking the Pacific Ocean. These buildings and structures are important to a DIYer because they are low-cost and simple to build, yet they still glow with beachy details.  Click on the photos below to get large images with detailed descriptions.

What details did we see?

1. Layers of painted woodwork: white and aqua in color
2. Cantilevered roofs / deep overhangs
3. Exposed rafters / no soffit or fascia boards
4. No elaborate wood cuts
5. Slender support posts
6. Staircase posts (or balusters) that attach the the exterior of the staircase and dip below the structure.

Let’s see some of these details from both the lifeguard tower plus beach side buildings and structures can be applied to a home.

Elements of Beach House Design

I snapped this photo below in Leucadia, a beach side community in North County San Diego. Notice the aqua colors and the low-pitched cantilevered roof, both details taken from traditional lifeguard towers. What is interesting here is that this room above the garage doesn’t even have an view of the ocean. The windows facing left open up to the side of their neighbor’s home; the real ocean view on the far side of the home. But the simple details give this low-cost structure an undeniable beachy feel.

A simple home with big charm.

Although the builder used fascia boards to hide the ends of the rafters, he opted not to use soffit boards so the rafters would be exposed. (Look under the overhang by the white door into the home.)

Below is another small but attractive beach house within walking distance to the beach. The details to appreciate here are the low-pitched roof, exposed rafters, white painted trim work, and clerestory windows on the left structure and above doors to the deck. These windows maximize natural sunlight without sacrificing privacy.

Notice too that the deck railing is constructed of both painted and natural wood.

The two photos below are of one of North County’s more remarkable ocean side homes. Clearly, the homeowner had a larger budget than the homes above. But it’s interesting that they did not deviate from the mystique of the lifeguard tower.

The stunning interpretation of a lifeguard tower gives a commanding view of the ocean in the distance.

Notice the multitude of exposed rafter tails.

The front entry is filled with good design.

The photo above reveals a multitude of architectural details.

• Exposed rafters are exposed beyond the roof, capped with galvanized steel to prevent them from rotting.
• Slender support posts that hang below the cement block stair structure.
• Hand rail the uses taught lines of cable, not unlike the cable found on yachts.

Let’s take a look at another well-thought-out home in quiet neighborhood close to Encinitas’s Moonlight Beach. The details to notice cantilevered roof supported by simple four-by-four post. The railing that wraps the deck is similar to the staircases that lead people from the bluff down to the beach.

A small beach house with contemporary leanings.

Again, a cantilevered roof suggests a beautiful view in the distance. But in the case of the home above, the only view is of street-side parking (notice rear window of the black SUV). The home was built on a peculiar plot of land that dipped a good 15 feet beneath the surface of the street. But clever design with well-placed beachy details allowed a charming home to rise out of made a scrappy lot.

Architectural Details

Now let’s take a look at a dozen beach homes and see how they repeat design details.

Ranch House >> Beach House

So how do you apply these architectural details to a home that wasn’t “built for the beach”? Let’s take a look at a straight-forward ranch style home that was redesigned to look like it belonged by the ocean…

My Favorite Home: Modern & Beachy

I want to close with a gallery of one of my favorite homes in San Diego. The architect successfully combined traditional beachy elements like white-painted trim, exposed rafters, steal cable railings, and sunshine-colored siding. But you’ll also find boxy contemporary details including concrete fencing, tall contemporary windows, and the boxy stuccoed structures that wraps the garage and continues along the side of the home. Although this homes leans towards contemporary, it is without a doubt a beach home.

We decided to show John how much we love him on Father’s Day with a big messy hug.

We just finished our first ever Couples Retreat here in San Diego. Take a look at the photos below…click to enlarge…look for a caption on the lower left.

First, some random photos from the last couple of months. After clicking on each photo, be sure to read caption on the lower left.

Over the past four weeks, I’ve been a speaker/presenter at three big events: summer camp for junior high kids at Covecrest, a Steubenville Conference for teenagers in Ohio, and the Life Teen Training Convention for adults in Carefree, Arizona. Each stop was a powerful experience of community–people taking time to care for other people. It is good for the soul.

We got back earlier this week from a nice long trip to Georgia. I’ll dig through my photos later and find some good ones to share. In the meantime, check out this photo of my brother-in-law Matt. My buddy Jeff snapped this photo after Matt dominated a surf competition in San Diego.

Matt, the King of San Diego

While other eighth graders are squandering their last summer before high school with mindless video games, Matt is in the ocean surfing like there’s no tomorrow. Matt’s the man!