Coastal Summer Vibes: The Complete Guide to Sunsum's Gypsum Coastal Collection

Coastal has never actually been about proximity to water, in my experience — it's about a quality of light and air that you can build almost anywhere, landlocked apartment or thirtieth-floor high-rise included. I've styled coastal rooms in cities nowhere near an ocean and watched them work exactly the same way. The materials carry it. The five pieces in this collection are the foundation.

The Starfish Catchall Tray is the everyday piece — rings, keys, the small things of a summer life that need somewhere to land near a sink or a door. It's the smallest object here, and the one that ends up doing the most daily work.

The Sea Turtle Tray is the anchor — nine inches, the largest and most detailed piece in the set, cast from a sculpted original with every line still sharp. This is the one that gets a comment from anyone seeing it for the first time.

The Conch Shell Bowl reads differently depending on what's inside it — beach glass from an actual trip, a few crystals, one large flower, or nothing at all. I've filled mine with sand and shells collected on three different coastlines over as many summers, and it's become less a bowl than a kind of travel log.

The Nautilus Shell Bowl is the golden-ratio piece — a perfect mathematical spiral rendered in gypsum white, for anyone who wants their coastal styling to lean a little more design-forward than sentimental. It's the piece I recommend most to people who say they want coastal without wanting it to look too on-the-nose.

The Mini Clam Shell Planter is the only vessel here built to hold something living — a small succulent or air plant, the piece that turns a collection of trays and bowls into an actual environment. It's the last piece I add to a room, and usually the one that makes it feel finished.

Build your summer vignette a piece at a time, the way I did mine — one trip's worth of shell or beach glass at a time, until the whole shelf reads like a season instead of a purchase.