Picture
me standing up in the middle of a group and solemnly saying, "Hi, my name
is Emily. And I decorate my home for every season. I am known to decorate more heavily
for some seasons, and I am not ashamed of it. But I struggle with decorating
for the summer months." And this is where all of you that belong to the
same support group that struggles with summer home decor say, "Hi
Emily." and we have punch and cookies while commiserating.
My
home is my playground, so I am always getting some harebrained idea and moving decor and furniture around. But after the cute spring decor goes into the bin I find
myself stumped. Don’t get me wrong I love the foundation of my home (furniture,
wall colors, neutral decor). But when you decorate seasonally, summer can seem
so bland ya know?
Our
home is what we call farmhouse chic. Lots of chippy and rusty goodness with a
touch of glitz. That makes sense, right? I thought I would try a subdued nautical
theme in my living room this summer but nothing seemed quite right. So after
having an empty mantle staring at me for weeks I decided that I didn't need a summer theme per say. I could just keep up my anchor items where they were in the house and add a touch of summer here and there. (By the way, my mom is amazing at seasonal decor... even summer! I need to take after her next year.)
What I did wasn't revolutionary and I wont be winning a Pulitzer for these tips I'm sharing, but I hope it will spark some creativity for you who are summer-decor-challenged like me.
Here
are 4 Easy Tips if you find yourself in a summer décor rut.
1. Add one summer element to an existing large piece of décor.
Meet Petunia the cow. There
is a funny story of how she came to reside at our home, but I’ll save that for
another day. We mounted her on this old chippy door that we stenciled and added
some awesome structural bolts with malleable dock washers for contrast. (It's held on the wall with drywall screws behind the bolts.)
The magnolia blossoms stay there year
round as they are a neutral color and I add in 5-6 décor picks or sprays
according to the season. For summer I have chosen 3 apple picks and 2 lemon
picks. It’s a fun nod to the summer
bounty of our garden.
Petunia also receives an update seasonally. This summer it’s
a checkered ribbon with a cowbell. Cuteness!
Don’t have a cow head of
your own? You can buy one here if you fancy. You could also add these fruit picks
to an existing bouquet, tuck them around larger items on your mantle, add them
to a wreath, the options are endless.
2. Switch out your pillow covers.
I’m
not taking about buying all new pillows. Just cute seasonal covers. This is
where you can have some fun. If you’re just switching out the covers it is a) less
expensive and b) requires much less storage. A while ago I purchased 2 pillow forms that are exactly
the same and these are the ones I change out seasonally when needed.
Sorry about the glare on the "Welcome Y'all." It was so sunny in there!
The others ( in the background of the pictures) are my anchor pillows. They get switched from room to room throughout the year,
but their covers stay the same.
3. Use unexpected items from other rooms in the house.
Mason jars are not just
for the kitchen.
Tiny one hundred year old books, like the black book pictured, are not just for the library.
Don’t hide the milk jar and enamel plate in the kitchen, it belongs in the
entryway.
Toy tractors are quite at home in the kitchen windowsill.
4. Bring the outdoors in.
Pick hydrangea blooms,
daisies, even the kid’s precious bouquet of dandelions and display them in a
row.
Hydrangeas are gorgeous fresh,
dried right in the jar to retain color or completely dried from the bush you
forgot to prune last year.
Isn't this rustic wash bin perfectly lovely with it's overflowing, blue hydrangeas? It looks like I have a small bush in there! The secret to getting the stems all close together in a bunch so that they look all bushy is to place three mason jars inside. This keeps them bunched together and looking fuller. It also makes it convenient when I need to change the water.
This is Annabel,
my chicken door stopper. She usually lives in the garden, but for the summer she’s
sittin’ pretty by my living room fireplace. What else could be brought in? How about a small orchard ladder for the family room? (hint hint hubby!)
Do
you decorate seasonally? How do you decorate for summer?
Please
comment below!
I’d
love to hear what you do to keep your summer décor fresh!
This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.
All photos taken by yours truly unless otherwise noted and are exclusive content of this blog.
