Get your home ready for summer with these simple decorating tips. Learn how to decorate for summer for a refreshing update.
Ah, summer — the season of sandy toes, ice-clinking drinks, and glorious blue skies. Whether you are heading out to a beach house or looking forward to a staycation, you’ll want to evoke a summer feeling in your home. Let’s look at how to decorate your home for the summer season.
You can decorate for summer with a welcoming entryway. Store away winter linens, drapes, and throws and replace them with lightweight versions. Add a splash of summery color, or introduce a coastal or floral aesthetic. Be inspired by nature, bringing plants and flowers indoors, and enjoying an outdoor table.
7 Simple Summer Decorating Tips
Summer always brings back happy childhood memories. Looking back, I remember lying on a blanket in the garden, reading, the sky eternally blue, the grass freshly mown, and iced tea waiting on the porch.
These are the scents and colors I want to fill my house with, in summer. What inspires your summer decor plans? Here are my top tips for decorating for summer.
#1. Create a Summery Entrance
The lazy, hazy days of summer lend themselves to cookouts in the garden or casual drinks on the patio. Get your home ready to welcome visitors and make them feel at home.
Update your front door with a cheerful, welcoming color like sky blue, coral pink, or sunny yellow. Add some planters with vibrant flowers to bring summer right to your doorstep.
Refresh your entryway or hall to create an immediate impression of summer brightness. Store away winter coats, bulky jackets, and outdoor boots, and make space for straw hats, caps, and beach towels. Accessorize with natural textures of wicker and rattan to add lightness.
An inexpensive fix for an inviting entryway is to paint a piece of furniture in a bright summery blue or minty green to welcome your guests into staycation central.
#2. Make Seasonal Changes
Your next step in preparing your home for summer is packing away your cold-weather decor. I’m not talking about holiday decorations that may still be hanging around. Introduce summer through soft furnishings like linen and summer drapes.
Store your heavier bedding, snuggly throws, and cozy blankets. It’s time for crisp cotton or linen sheets and pillowcases. I keep a summer set of linen in white and neutral tones to refresh my guest room.
Replace your heavy winter drapes with light, gauzy curtains. Open the windows and let a summer breeze billow through the curtains, filling the house with summer freshness and the sound of children playing.
Reorganize your living areas so that they are orientated towards the windows and garden, rather than the television or the hearth.
Clear out your fireplace and fill it with summer blooms, a chunk of coral, or a selection of candles. You won’t need to worry about wood and flames for a while — except on the barbeque.
#3. Make a Color Splash
Infuse your home with summer delight through the colors inspired by nature. One option is serene whites and tranquil neutrals, enhancing natural sunshine. Softer shades are ideal for a light-starved room that needs some sparkle.
Add pops of color for summer lusciousness. Be inspired by fruit and flowers — citrus yellows and greens are deliciously inviting and refreshing.
Have fun with a tropical vibe, introducing vibrant coral pink, leafy green, and watery turquoise to your interiors.
Use on-trend earth tones for a warm, Mediterranean, or desert feel. Pinky terracotta, muted sage, and natural fibers create an inviting, relaxing summer home.
#4. Get a Beach Vibe
A gorgeous coastal color scheme is always perfect for a summer interior. A classic beach home scheme includes sandy beige, warm creams, and ocean blues.
For deck chair chic, include striped and checked patterns. Add red piping and beach motifs for nautical fun, even if you’re not at the coast.
#5. Surround Yourself with Flowers
Flowers make summer for me, and I love to fill my home with flowers of all kinds. I go for a riot of blooms, pastel, playful, or punchy. If you’re not recovering your sofa in a floral fantasy, pile up delightful new scatter cushions.
Another way to add flower power to your home is to change out your prints or paintings. Add elegance with botanical prints, gentle pastel watercolors, or vibrant oils.
Consider temporary wallpaper. There are peel-and-stick varieties available that will quickly update a dull bathroom, especially if you’ve got house guests coming for summer.
Create a charming homemade bouquet with blooms from your garden. These don’t have to be elaborate arrangements. A single hydrangea or sunflower is stunning. Spread small vases of flowers throughout your home: this is a fantastic activity for your kids.
#6. Outdoor-Indoor Inspiration
I don’t do an entire makeover every summer — it’s just too pricey. But I do like to reinvigorate tired accessories; this year, my inspiration comes from the outdoors.
Indulge in some new throw pillows and rugs to refresh your living room and bedrooms. Choose gorgeous natural materials like raw cotton or nubbly linen. These fabrics are breathable, making lazing on the sofa more comfortable in warm weather.
Replace heavy wooden storage with wicker baskets, or update your rug with rattan or bamboo. These lightweight natural fibers add charm to any airy space and are perfect if you’re going for a Boho look.
Instead of buying new decor, see what’s in the kitchen. A bowl of oranges or a jug of freshly cut herbs immediately catches the eye, adding summer abundance.
Bring the outdoors in with flourishing green houseplants. Indoor greenery boosts your mood, reduces stress, and purifies the air, a perfect prescription for vacation vibes. I love decorating with ferns, pothos, spider, and jade plants. They are great if your home doesn’t have much of a garden — or you have a rainy summer.
#7. Set Out an Al Fresco Feast
I have an enduring fantasy of setting a long wooden table on the patio of a Tuscan villa, with fairy lights strung through the trees. And the table laden with summer fruit, bread, wine, and heaps of olives.
You can create this vibe on your patio, with a gorgeous, colorful cloth, wicker chargers, painted ceramics, and baskets of bread.
Park a small table or trolley nearby as an impromptu bar, with the makings of Tiki mocktails, complete with fun swizzle sticks, sliced fruit, and tiny umbrellas.
Another fabulous option is to seat your guests on comfortable pillows at low tables. With twinkling lights, spicy colors, and golden crockery and cutlery, you can create an Arabian Nights vibe.
Ensure your guests have plenty of shade. Set up under a tree, a large umbrella, or drape billowing white shades for an island feel.
Final Thoughts
Decorating for summer means filling your home with nature’s serene light, vibrant colors, and airy textures. Create an inviting entryway, continuing into other rooms where you can make seasonal changes. These include storing away winter linen, arranging flowers, updating throw pillows, and setting a gorgeous summer table.
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