Love the happy face of a sunflower!
Summertime, long, hot and lazy days, you want to throw open your windows and enjoy summer breezes. Bring the fresh look of summer into your home with some quick an easy changes.
It’s not necessary to change every room or throw out all the old furniture, but there are lots of ways to lighten up and freshen up your home for a wonderful summer seasonal change.
Why not try some of these simple, easy changes to “summerize” your home?
Choose a summer theme such as fruits, flowers, insects, or nautical, and decorate around it. It makes the transformation easier if you have a focal point.
Take out any dark accessories like velvet pillows, wool throws, and even your favorite-reading leather chair. Don’t worry! You can bring them back in when the weather changes. Replace them with crisp, white linen pillows, feather-light summer blankets, even a white wicker chair in your fave reading corner.
It won’t take long to put a fresh coat of summery paint on a hallway or on a wall of a drab room. Choose a fresh color scheme of lemon yellow, apple green, or sky blue. We recently painted one wall in our office an interesting shade “Cherokee rose” which invigorated the room; definitely uplifted our level of energy too!
Toss out brown plants that you’re been trying to revive. Bring in fresh, flowering new ones and welcome summer! No green thumb? No problem. Add fresh flowers in vases throughout the home. Enjoy colorful, cheery, summery new flowered bed linens or toss pillows.
Try sewing a simple slipcover for the back or seat of your kitchen or dining room side chairs. The look will soften an all-wood chair and freshen the look of an upholstered seat.
Nothing brightens up a room like white. Add it wherever you can. How about frothy, light curtains, fresh white trims, or a painted chair or table?
Lighten up drab bookshelves. Paint the back wall (and even the side walls) with a bright, summery color. The books will really “pop out” against the contrasting color. How about lime green in dark wood shelves or sky blue on yellow. Choose a color that complements your rooms decorating scheme.
Frame some simple botanical prints or landscapes and set them up on a bookshelf, bureau, or table top. Or hang a series of summery flower pictures down a dark hallway. Use simple plate holders to hold pretty floral plates. Set them on a table or buffet.
Nothng says summer like “casual.” Use wicker, rush, iron, or painted white garden furniture in place of heavy upholstered pieces. Add colorful pillows.
Remove the logs from your fireplace and replace them with a green plant or an impressive artificial fern or a gurggling fountain. Candles on a beautiful iron or wooden candle holder work well also; likewise with a whimsical garden ornament.
Layer sheer, frothy fabrics on tables, over a shower curtain, as a second layer on a bed skirts, and even make a sheer pillow cover for a dark pillow Add a touch of wimsey with embroidered sheer fabric.
Outside, stage a cozy corner under a shade tree with a small round cafe table and two chairs for a quick break when you are gardening. Add a (chipmunk-resistant) bird feeder to one of the branches. If you have an outside patio, add water features such as a fountain and colorful outdoor chairs to entice family members outdoors. Summer is here!
