The beige-coloured brick used to construct this impressive house in Hastings is a near-perfect match with the pebble shoreline beyond its rear terrace. A distinctively coastal palette has been adopted inside too, with white-washed walls and engineered oak floors mimicking the scenic shades captured by its wrapping windows. Green in principle rather than colour, the house also has an air source heat pump and solar panels that harness its south-east-facing aspect.

Island Wall – the name of the street that this tactile, mid-century house sits on – has a tropical ring to it, one that its well-planted rear garden (home to impressive giant dracaenas) and seaside proximity lives up to. It was designed by a local architect in 1960 and has been finished in a palette befitting its period: think birch ply, terracotta and white-washed walls. A cut-through from the street leads to directly to Whitstable’s beach and its much-celebrated oyster offerings. If braving the waters, make sure you book a space on the bench at the Sea Scrub Sauna.

Perfectly placed between the sable shores of Camber Sands and the delightful cobbled streets of Rye, this house has got outdoor-indoor living down to a tee. Big glass doors divide the living spaces (arranged in an open plan to let light ripple through) from the garden, with its seating areas, hot tub and resident palm trees. It even has an outdoor shower for washing off sandy feet (or over-excited dogs) after a seaside stroll.

This brace of bolthole barns have it all going for them: not only do they lie within a National Landscape (once known as an AONB) and a Site of Special Scientific Interest, but they are within easy reach of some of England’s best-loved coastal towns, including Walberswick, Southwold and Aldeburgh. The River Blyth lies just beyond the house and provides a fluid backdrop. Both barns (cleverly interlinked or kept separate, as desired) have been immaculately finished, with their own kitchens, entrances and bedrooms – fun (and space) for all the family.

The Gower Peninsula – among the first places in the UK to be designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – is minutes away from this ingeniously reimagined house in Sketty, near Swansea. Its gentle and tactile interiors are the brainchild of The Sit Still Studio, who used their trademark curves and contours to sensitively reshape the Edwardian bones of this building. Among its newer additions is a creative studio with a mezzanine and a log-burning fire, its timber-clad exterior camouflaged well among the garden trees and shrubs.

Embedded within a cluster of holiday homes (communal pool, sauna and gym included), this immaculate nook lies close to the more easygoing, less rugged part of the Cornish coast, where you’re more likely to spot paddleboarders bobbing along the water than surfers riding the crashing waves. It takes an inverted layout, where the upper storey is occupied by a spacious open-plan living room with a balcony that takes in views of the setting sun.

The coast is never far from in this former fisherman’s cottage on the North Norfolk shoreline: elongated picture windows capture panoramas over the surrounding landscape, which is at once uniquely rugged and arrestingly beautiful. Its transformation from a flint-walled cottage into a spacious and dynamic family home is a spectacular one, making use of a range of hard-wearing and hardworking materials inside and out.

It doesn’t get much more nautical than Marine Court, which was designed to imitate the curved lines of the transatlantic cruise ship, The Queen Mary, in 1938. The eastern restaurant and ballroom was even conceived to look like the upper deck; in its hey-day, it hosted performers such as Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie. We currently have two apartments in the building for sale: one with one bedroom, the other with two – both with a breathtaking backdrop.

There is something supremely soothing about the undulating landscape that surrounds this timber-clad Hebridean house. Its interiors – pared-back yet comfortable – are perfectly attuned to the rhythmic rising and falls of the topography, which stretches out towards the sea. Whether enjoyed from inside or out, writer or not, we imagine it would be hard for inspiration to not strike here.