Keeping It Simple Summer Decorating Ideas And Tour

Easy ideas for decorating your home for the summer in a modern cottage style. It’s all about keeping things uncomplicated and bright.

When I think of summer decorating, there are two words that come to mind – easy and lightweight.

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The air outside is already heavy with heat and humidity, so the last thing that I want to do is bring that same heavy feeling indoors! This time of year, it’s all about keeping things uncomplicated and bright.

I pretty much have things down to a summer decorating formula of sorts – color that brings the outdoors in + summer pillows + easy, non-fussy vignettes that are placed in strategic spots around the house, all added together to equal a welcoming summer home without a lot of effort.

Today, I’m participating in a Summer Home Tour bloghop hosted by Marty from A Stroll Thru Life. Marty has lined up a phenomenal list of 30 bloggers to share their summer homes with you every day this week!

If you’re coming over from A Stroll Thru Life, welcome! Marty is the queen of updated traditional style and I love getting so much inspiration from her.

Let’s start in the foyer, where I’ve kept things especially simple for the summer. Come on in! By the way, you can see my full summer porch tour (including closeups of this summer hanging door basket) HERE.

I’ve made a few changes to the overall look of the area over the last few months. I’ve found myself moving away from pure farmhouse style and gravitating more toward updated/modern cottage style. I honestly think this style actually suits our traditional/Cape Cod’ish style brick home much better.

I won’t give you a full tour of all the changes that we made in the foyer today, but we basically added board and batten moulding to more of the walls, replaced all of the hooks on the wall with a couple of art pieces, replaced the sconces above the two benches. changed the hardware on the chest, switched out the area rug and added a round mirror above the chest. If you’d like to see what the foyer looked like before these changes, click HERE.

For summer accents, I simply added a navy blue lamp (to pull out more of the blues in the rug and artwork), placed a few long stemmed faux florals in a wooden vase and added a couple of stacking wicker baskets (for texture) on the top of the chest.

I still want to change the upholstery on my diy benches, but I haven’t had a chance to go looking for fabric yet. I’m not crazy about this mix of buffalo checked fabric and the pattern in the summer pillows that I put on display, but it will do for now.

My fireplace is the focal point of the living room and is the first thing you see as you enter the room from the foyer.

If you saw my spring tour this year, you’ll notice that I really didn’t change very much from what was on the mantel before.

A few long stemmed faux greenery branches (these are awesome, btw) nestled into a glass vase/hurricane filled with “rocks” covered with artificial moss makes a super simple, yet eye catching arrangement!

The other side of the mantel is even more simple, with a candle, a faux topiary (can you tell I’m about about faux?!?) and one of the lidded wicker baskets from the set that I have in the foyer.

A plant in a wicker basket, a new lantern and a cute, squatty lidded wicker basket on the floor add interest to the hearth area.

On the upholstered coffee table, which is opposite the fireplace, I created a couple of simple vignettes, mostly using what I already had on hand. The only new item is the wicker bowl that I filled with faux greenery stems.

Some of these items were already here during the spring too – I just switched them up for a whole new look.

As you can see, our living room opens up into our breakfast room, so these shelves always get decorated for the seasons and holidays.

I’ve created a main base for the decor on my shelves using mostly white dishes and accessories, which allows me to only to change a few elements to go with whatever season or holiday I’m decorating for. SO much easier and faster than completely redecorating them from scratch the several times a year that I change them up!

The centerpiece on my kitchen table is another super simple vignette. I recently received this set of faux artichokes as a gift and fell madly in love with them, so I knew I wanted them to be a part of my centerpiece.

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you’ve found some inspiration for your own home.

Next up, you’ll want to visit Jo-Anna at A Pretty Life.  Her blog is filled with great decorating ideas and yummy recipes.

Monday June 7th Lineup

A Stroll Thru Life – Worthing Court – A Pretty Life – Pink Peppermint Design – StoneGable – Hymns & Verses

Tuesday June 8th Lineup

Southern State of Mind – This Is Our Bliss – Up To Date Interiors – It All Started With Paint – Decor To Adore – Cuckoo4Design

Wednesday June 9th Lineup

Remodelando la Casa – Whispering Pines Homestead – Cassie Bustamante – Inspiration For Moms – Making It In The Mountains – White Arrows Home

Thursday June 10th Lineup

Our Southern Home – CitrineLiving – The Wood Grain Cottage – Grace In My Space – Thrifty and Chic – Designing Vibes

Friday June 11th Lineup

Casa Watkins Living – Follow The Yellow Brick Home – Chalking Up Success – Bloom in the Black – Quarters One – Clean and Scentsible