How to Achieve a Coquette Aesthetic for Your Home Exterior
By: Hannah Warne
If you’re looking to refresh your home exterior with a totally on-trend style, look no further than the coquette aesthetic. This feminine style has taken social media by storm and can be found everywhere from fashion design to home exteriors. Filled with lace, bows, and feminine details, the coquette aesthetic might not be what you first think of when you imagine exterior design — but it’s more than possible to incorporate this distinctive look into your home’s exterior.
From adding small hints of pastels to completely overhauling your home, read on to learn about how you can use elements of this design style to create your dream home.
At brick&batten, our seasoned team can bring any exterior design style to life. If you love the bright and feminine coquette aesthetic, we’ll work with you to customize your home design, from choosing the perfect color palette to selecting feminine finishes. Learn more about our virtual exterior design services.
What is the coquette aesthetic?
Known for its feminine and romantic nature, the coquette aesthetic is an ultra-feminine style that has become recently popular, especially among Gen Z. Drawing inspiration from all over — from Victorian architecture to the slow-paced lifestyle of the English countryside — frilly lace, plentiful ribbons, florals, and bows, and a pastel color palette define the coquette aesthetic.
Use these methods to incorporate this distinctive style into your exterior.
Prioritize pink
There’s one thing that’s almost a requirement for a coquette look: a pop of pink. Though this design style is known in the fashion world for girly details like lace, bows, and ribbons, using a pink hue can help bring that same light and airy energy to your home’s exterior.
While hot pink may read more Barbie, a soft, pale pink hue like Romantic Pink by Benjamin Moore is the perfect coquette-inspired shade. Try mixing it with one of our favorite white hues like Creamy by Sherwin Williams to keep things bright and sweet.
Curate a feminine color palette
Even if you already know you’re including pink as the focal point in your palette, it’s important to curate your other hues carefully. This helps to create a cohesive and put-together final look. Consider matching the saturation of your pink shade with the other colors in your palette — for example, if you use a soft, ballet-inspired pink hue, opt for a creamy and welcoming white shade, like Ballet White by Benjamin Moore, to match.
On the other hand, if you choose a bright and vivid color like Vivacious Pink by Sherwin Williams, you need a bright white shade to match. In the example above, this vibrant pink is complemented by High Reflective White by Sherwin Williams on the column, trim, fascia, and soffit. Tricorn Black by Sherwin Williams and a white limewash on the brick round out the palette to create an eye-catching, can’t-miss exterior.
We always recommend sampling and testing paint colors before committing. Factors such as natural lighting, undertones, and your property’s fixed elements will have a significant impact on how a color will appear on your exterior. Our friends at Samplize offer extra-large 9 x 14.75 inch peel-and-stick paint samples of the colors we love for exteriors. Order your ‘Real Paint, No Mess’ samples from Samplize here.
Incorporate “cottagecore” as much as possible
Coquette and cottagecore are two adjacent and intertwined aesthetics. While coquette is grounded in fashion, cottagecore is more focused on romanticizing a slow, rural lifestyle. These two trends, however, have a lot of overlap so incorporating elements of cottagecore can help your exterior feel more coquette, too.
To create a cottagecore exterior, prioritize details you’d find (as the name suggests) in a quaint home in the English countryside. Organic stone siding and walls, trim detailing, and intentionally overgrown landscaping give exteriors the storybook quality required for both the cottagecore and coquette aesthetic.
Add Victorian design details
One of the hallmarks of the coquette design style is that it heavily draws inspiration from the Victorian era. So why not incorporate Victorian details into your home’s exterior to get an authentic look?
First popularized during the 19th century, Victorian style is whimsical and ornate. Design details like gingerbread trim, scalloped siding, turrets, columns, and copper gutters can all help amp up the old-world feel of a home (even if it isn’t constructed in a true Victorian style).
Avoid clean, modern elements
While the sleek, modern aesthetic is a beautiful option for home exteriors, it is the antithesis of the coquette aesthetic. Neutral color palettes, clean lines, and simple details blend to create a beautiful exterior like in the example above. It doesn’t, however, allow much space to incorporate the frills and accents required to infuse an exterior with the romantic elements that are coquette’s calling card.
Avoid vertical siding that creates clean lines, and unless used as a subtle accent, we also recommend avoiding dark colors like black. Black and wood accents like railings, trim, and doors should also be avoided in favor of light and bright details to help you bring your coquette vision to life.
Incorporate arches and curves
To give the exterior a softer, more feminine feel, incorporate curved lines wherever possible (instead of harsher, linear details). Adding a rounded shape to windows and doorways can instantly soften the look and feel of your exterior, giving it a coquette edge reminiscent of the style’s must-have bows and ribbons.
In the example above, rounded windows on the second floor not only elongate the exterior but also give it a timeless, almost Art Deco feel. Arches above the door frames echo the same shape, creating a cohesive, romantic finish.
Lean into “more is more”
While there are ways to incorporate small hints of coquette both in fashion and in home design, it tends to be an over-the-top, all-or-nothing aesthetic — so don’t shy away from incorporating multiple different elements all at once. While you can choose to incorporate more subtle details, don’t be afraid to go all out. Pink and feminine colors, Victorian details, and arched windows and doors all effortlessly come together to make an exterior feel authentically coquette.
Finish with lush landscaping
Nothing is quite as feminine as a yard filled with blooming flowers. When infusing your exterior with a coquette touch, don’t forget to factor in your landscaping, too. While much of landscaping comes down to personal preference, we recommend incorporating seasonal blooms that will fill your garden beds with vibrant colors come spring and summer. To really make the space feel as coquette-ish as possible, choose plants that bloom in feminine hues like pink, purple, and white. Cherry blossom trees, lavender, and tulips all fit the bill.
Adding the coquette aesthetic to your exterior
While certain home styles lend themselves to the coquette aesthetic more than others, it’s still possible to infuse this design style into any exterior. From adding subtle pops to completely overhauling your home, the limits to how you can achieve a coquette aesthetic are nearly endless. Pick one or two of your favorite elements, and watch the feminine transformation unfold!
Incorporating this trending design style into your exterior can be tricky — but luckily, our expert team can help! At brick&batten, our designers are well-versed in all design styles, so they can make your coquette vision for your home or business exterior a reality. Start your project today!
Subscribe for more content like this!
