How to Create a Summertime Feel Throughout Your Home
It’s never too early to prepare for summer. And one of the best ways to enjoy summer for as long as possible is through your home’s atmosphere and decor.
Need expert styling tips on how to recreate the feeling of summer throughout your living spaces? Read on for the best of the bunch.
1. Go blue.
A dash of blue here and there brings to mind the seaside, lakes, and endless blue skies. There are few other colors that so clearly recalls seaside and summer imagery than the color blue.
Decorating with blue can take many different turns. You could paint an accent wall blue. Or mix and match various shades of blue throughout a room. A blue floor is different enough to appeal to those who want to do something slightly unusual.
Whatever your choice, blue is the color of summer. So let it come out to play as you do your summertime redecorating.
2. Feature summer bounty from your garden.
Welcome visitors into your house with a summertime wreath on your front door or in your foyer. Summer is when the fruits of your garden are at a high yield. A basket of fruits on your kitchen counter serve both a beautiful design element as well as being a better alternative to junk snacks. Flowers, too, are in abundance during this time. So both flowers and fruits make for perfect decorative elements.
Freshly cut wildflowers in jars and vases throughout your home will bring the beautiful outdoors into your indoor spaces. Hosting a dinner party? Flowers are a great conversation starter. And your favorite flower can say a lot about your personality type or about the character of the person you love. Aside from that, they are an earth-friendly decoration and much preferred over decorations that head to the bin after one use.
3. Spruce up your porch.
Summer evenings are best enjoyed outdoors. But if the state of your porch has hampered your enjoyment of summer evenings in years past, then change things up this year.
Put a fresh coat of paint on your porch. Do it now before it gets too hot to endeavor this undertaking. Repaint your porch swing, or reupholster it, if it has begun to look a bit natty. Purchase linens and new cushion covers. Set up a side table for drinks and other items.
Research ways to keep mosquitoes away from your house. Stagnant water is a breeding spot for mosquitoes, so make sure that anything that can collect rainwater is covered and drained. Plant natural repellents, such as citronella. And invest in candles and other bug-shooing devices for a pest-free summer evening outdoors.
4. Memorialize past summer memories.
Create a wall for commemorating past well-loved summer memories. Don’t only stick to photographs. To create visual interest, use other mediums, too. For example, frame ticket stubs or other knickknacks from that perfect vacation with the whole family.
You could frame a map of a favorite vacation spot. Or a map of the world, with pins on each spot you have visited. If you collected seashells during the trip, find a way to feature that on your memory wall.
Increase your enjoyment of your living room, or some other open space by making it a celebration of a well-loved summer from years ago. Celebrating past summers will help you realize the treasure that each summer brings with it.
5. Rethink your window hangings.
Your windows are how the sun comes in and how you view the world outside. During the winter, your drapes pull double duty in being window dressing plus warding off the chill. But during the summer, drapes become more of an obstruction than a dressing.
Instead of drapes, opt for colorful blinds that can be fully lifted up and out of the way to allow for the maximum enjoyment of the outdoors. Blinds can be drawn down when the sun’s rays are trying to break in. Go for blinds that are splashy and bright! Or use flowy, light, gauzy lace curtains that float on the breeze and give the impression of being hardly there (remember the art of Lagom). Or, use nautical rope as window dressing to give your living room the impression of being at sea, or at least along the coast.
Your enjoyment of those summer days will be improved with the right framework from which to enjoy them. It might be spring outdoors, but indoors, your home is ready to welcome summer and summertime guests with open arms.
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