For the 2022 REAL SIMPLE Home, we're taking over a house in Rosemary Beach, Fla., a relaxed beach community in Northwest Florida. Designer Gina Gutierrez, based in Sebastopol, Calif., is making over the kitchen to give it a low-key beach house look. A color palette that references nautical style (without going overboard) mixes with modern materials to create a kitchen everyone will want to hang out in. Here's how to get the look in your own home.

Gina began designing in 2012, after 15 years as a trainer and gym business partner. Her style is traditional with a twist: She mixes sleek contemporary decor with vintage pieces and gravitates toward bright colors.

The challenge, Gina says, is to embrace the home's beach vibes—it's a few minutes' walk from the stove to the sand—without creating a coastal cliché. So she's going with subtle references and a calm palette of mint and navy, evoking the ocean.

No Nancy Meyers-inspired kitchen set would be complete without some elegant stools tucked next to the spacious island. A wooden seat warms up the white metal base of these counter-height stools. 

A Carrara marble top above, tempered glass cabinets below, this kitchen island combines style with storage. 

Valspar's Pitch Cobalt, a deep, moody blue reminiscent of a stormy sea, will serve as an accent color in the kitchen. 

Gina would like the kitchen's white subway tile replaced with handmade clay pieces. "The tile reminds me of a crane. It nods to the beach but isn't too on the nose," says Gutierrez. 

A customizable workstation sink will simplify meal prep—chop veggies on the board, then swoosh stems, peels, and pits into the sink.

Gina plans to add nautical-inspired brass fixtures over the island and swing-arm sconces by the stove.