What is Nantucket Red?
At Laughing Gull Hill, we believe the most memorable coastal homes aren't perfectly decorated—they're collected over time. Their floors bear the marks of generations, brass develops a soft patina, and colors mellow over years of sunshine and salt air. Nantucket Red has always captured that feeling.
It isn't simply a color. It's a reminder that the most beautiful coastal interiors aren't created overnight. Like driftwood washed smooth by the tide or linen that softens with every season, Nantucket Red becomes more beautiful because of time.
Whether it appears on a weathered harbor buoy, the side of an old skiff, a garden gate, or a favorite canvas chair left outside all summer, this unmistakable faded red feels right at home along the New England coast. It brings warmth to natural wood, pairs effortlessly with crisp whites, flax-colored linen, deep navy, and aged brass, and adds character without overwhelming a room.
Perhaps that's why Nantucket Red has endured for generations. Long before it became associated with well-loved pants and summer traditions, it embodied a way of coastal living—unpretentious, lived in, and quietly confident.
Its story begins in Northern France, where the faded "Breton Reds" inspired a distinctive style of trousers worn by fishermen and sailors. Those sun-softened reds eventually made their way across the Atlantic, finding a home at Murray's Toggery on Nantucket, where they became the now-iconic Nantucket Reds Collection™ and an enduring symbol of East Coast coastal style.
Bringing Nantucket Red Home
For us, Nantucket Red has never been just a fashion statement. It's a color that feels completely at home in a coastal interior.
When it came time to restore the living room at Laughing Gull Hill, our late-1700s Sea Captain's home on Cape Cod, we wanted walls that felt as though they had quietly weathered over generations. We began with Benjamin Moore's Drop Dead Gorgeous, then layered a hand-applied pumpkin glaze over the paint to soften the finish into the sun-faded, timeworn character we associate with Nantucket Red.
Over the years, it's become something of a tradition for us to include a "red room" in every home we've lived in. A weathered red has a remarkable way of making a room feel welcoming, especially when it's softened by natural light and balanced with aging wood ceiling beams, leather accents, Belgian linen draperies and pillows all offset by a family collection of artwork.
To highlight the richness of the color, we painted the window trim in the Benjamin Moore Drop Dead Gorgeous as well—but without the glaze. The subtle contrast between the weathered red walls and the crisper trim adds depth while celebrating the many personalities of this enduring coastal classic.
How to Bring Nantucket Red into Your Coastal Home
Not ready to paint your walls Nantucket Red? Neither are we always. Sometimes the magic is in knowing where to introduce color—and where to let it rest. When we're working on a room, there are four things we consider first:
1. Function of the room - Our cocktail room with a built-in bar conjures up fun and casual living. It's nothing fussy—totally comfortable and inviting. A room where everyone is welcome—even in bare feet! To keep the room feeling fun and casual, we embrace indoor/outdoor living and use our durable 100% Belgian linen fabric on our chairs and pillows.
Image from Styleathome
Image from Cristen & Co.
2. Build Your Coastal Color Palette - Start with the colors you love—and don't be afraid to go beyond blue and white. We often begin with a familiar coastal combination, then soften it with weathered whites, flax, sandy browns or a faded red. Nantucket Red works beautifully because it feels like a color that has already lived a life.
3. Sight Lines - Sight lines are simply what you see from one room as you look into another—and they can make a home feel beautifully connected. For example, the sight line from the cocktail room to the “red room” reflects the Nantucket Red in each room for a beautiful flow. You'll even see that we like to continue Nantucket Red in our sight lines all the way out to the patio where we'll often feature our Painterly Stripe fabric in Nantucket Red as a lovely table cloth.
4. Focal Point - Once you've figured out how a room needs to function, what you'll see from one space to the next, and where you want to bring in coastal color, it's time to decide what gets to be the star.
Our cocktail room at Laughing Gull Hill was a bit of a design puzzle. Five doors, an off-center fireplace, a closet and a new patio made this little pass-through room work very hard. Rather than add one more thing competing for attention, we created a quiet backdrop with custom-milled 8-inch beadboard installed horizontally, with 4-inch beadboard on the ceiling.
The white beadboard gave the room texture without competing with everything else—and became the thread that tied everything together. Then we let Nantucket Red have its moment: a reupholstered chair in our Mermaid's Purse linen and a painted primitive pine cocktail table.
The lesson? A focal point doesn't always have to shout. Sometimes it's the quiet element that lets everything else sing.
Nantucket Red doesn't need to dominate a room. A little bit can be enough to make everything around it feel warmer, more collected and a little more like home.
Simple Touches Go A Long Way! Have Fun Weaving Nantucket Red into Your Home's Color Palette.
A few more ways to bring in touches of red can be seen in our kitchen at Laughing Gull Hill. With the coastal palette of ebony cabinets with a hint of deep navy, clean white, nautical brass, and warm wooden tones, our red stools pop beautifully against their backdrop. Small accents can be found throughout the kitchen on our Wolf range knobs, tea towel accents, and whenever we can, through the natural red hues of whatever fruits, vegetables, or flowers are in season.
Don't be afraid to mix and match your color accents. We have a wide range of 100% Belgian linen pillows to suit your coastal design needs. Experiment with mixing patterns and playing with scale like we did with this reupholstered vintage chair with tiny stripes, contrasted with our Nantucket Red Mermaid's Purse pillow. Whatever you do, have fun with it!
The Author : Beth Odence
Beth Odence is the Founder and Creative Director behind Laughing Gull Hill. With a background in interior design and home staging, she is no stranger to finding strikingly beautiful ways to incorporate colors and patterns into cohesive spaces. Her home and studio at Laughing Gull Hill are a testament to her keen eye for design.
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