With warmer, sunny days comes the craving for brighter summer decorating. Simple updates can brighten your living space and make it more functional. From adding flowers to lighter window treatments, there are easy ways to transform your home from cold-weather decor to summer fun.
All it takes is a few minutes, some effort, and a dash of creativity. Consider ten ways to brighten your space and make it more inviting for long, warm-weather days ahead.
Summer Decorating With Fresh Flowers
Add fresh flowers from the garden or a local shop to bring a touch of the outdoors inside. Include seasonal blooms in bright colors to lighten up any space. Tables, shelves, and edges come alive with flowers placed in vases, wine bottles, and mason jars.
Windows – Let the Sunshine In
Summer decorating means removing heavy window curtains and treatments. Take a few minutes to clean the windows and add lighter, sheer curtains to allow the sunshine and fresh air to refresh your home and make it feel ready for warm-weather relaxation.
Windowsill Decor
Once the windows are clean and redressed for summertime, consider adding a few plants to the windowsills. An indoor herb garden is ideal in the kitchen, while fragrant flowers work well in the living room and bedrooms. Repurpose current planters or recycle by creating unique planters from old coffee mugs, tin cans, and coffee cans.
Healthy Eating from Container Gardens
While planting herbs in the kitchen, add light to indoor/outdoor spaces like decks, balconies, and enclosed porches with container gardens. Depending on the space, old paint buckets and baskets can be cleaned and repurposed to grow anything from tomatoes and raspberries to smaller trees and sunflowers. While you clean out, start composting old vegetables, flowers, and grasses to create rich soil for future planting.
Neutral and Nautical
Darker colors are often used in decorating during the fall and winter. Summer decorating should include neutral hues like white, cream, and beige, accented with nautical colors and designs. Add sea green, bright blue, and natural seashells for a beach feel. Eliminate heavy accents and colors like rust, brown, and dark green for an instant boost.
Cool Bedding
If the bedrooms are still full of heavy blankets and comforters, consider putting them in narrow storage containers that fit under the bed. Add light sheets, comforters, and bedspreads more suitable for the warm days ahead. Consider a cooling bed pad underneath to stay comfortable on steamy summer nights.
Refresh the Mats
Look around at the throw rugs in the kitchen, laundry room, living areas, and inside and outside entry doors. Remove worn mats and those with holiday references and replace them with lighter rugs that match your summer decorating theme.
Add Life to the Bathroom
Add life to the bathroom with a few succulents in the window or on shelving. These low-maintenance plants require little attention to stay green and beautiful. However, they need ventilation, so keep the windows open to let in the fresh air.
Wonderful Wicker Furniture
For a few years, wicker furniture went out of style for more modern items. Now, people are rediscovering the beauty of wicker furniture indoors and outside, especially to complement the summer months. Head to the shed, basement, or garage to repurpose old wicker pieces by wiping off the dust with a damp cloth and painting them in neutral or nautical colors. Garage sales are a great way to score old wicker and make it look new.
Celebrate Red, White, and Blue
Summer is the season of patriotic holidays, a time to celebrate being American with red, white, and blue accents. Place flags in slender glasses or wine bottles. Add red, white, and blue pillows, rugs, and other accessories from Memorial Day to Labor Day for summer decorating.
The Wrapup
Summer decorating is fun, easy, and affordable when you do most of it yourself. Repurpose old items, forage at garage sales and thrift shops, and refurbish these treasures with cleaning materials and paint.
Get rid of dark colors, heavy drapes, and thick blankets. Swap them out with lighter materials and hues for a fast boost throughout the year’s warmest months. Summer decorating is an excellent opportunity to eliminate unwanted items and lighten your load!
