Easy Summer Decorating (Summer Home Tour)

It’s hot and humid. On days like this I just want to head to the beach or dip my toes in the pool. It’s too hot for complicated decor. Sharing easy summer decorating and my summer home tour!

Live in the sunshine. Swim in the sea. Drink in the wild air.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Can you feel how HOT it is? We’re topping the 90s here in Scituate Harbor. It already feels like summer in New England! If this is your first time visiting my blog, welcome! I’m delighted to be joining a group of 23 bloggers in Krista’s Seasonal Simplicity Summer Home Tour. If you’re heading over from Cassie’s blog, welcome! Doesn’t Cassie have a wonderful style. I can’t wait to see how she’s decorated for summer. I’m excited to share some easy summer decorating ideas as part of our home tour.

We live in Scituate Harbor which is a small fishing town on Boston’s South Shore. Our home is a classic 1920s Dutch Colonial. I share this home with my husband, two sons, and two rescue dogs. August marks my 10th year of blogging and we’ve lived in our forever home for 8 years. I’m so excited to share a few rooms with you today (including a peek at our bedroom makeover). I know. I know. I’ve been working on it throughout the pandemic. Let’s start in the front hall…

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Easy Summer Decorating Ideas

Summer Front Hall

Things don’t really change that much in our front hall. We freshened up this space back in 2019. Click here to see that.

Add Faux Florals for a Pop of Summer Color

This tall vase and punchy florals in fushia and pale pinks says welcome to our home! They’re classic and because they’re faux will last all summer long. Don’t worry I like to mix real and faux in our home as you’ll see.

I mixed real pussy willows into this bunch.

A floor cloth is fun and durable with sandy feet

Just got back from the beach?!? No problem. Sandy feet welcome in our home because this wipeable floorcloth is so easy to clean. I love that it looks like inlay tile. I customized the size to fit our entryway.

Add texture

Fill a vintage basket with faux figs or real plants to add instant coziness to an entryway. Make your guests feel welcome!

Commission a Unique Work of Art

This portrait of our home was painted by Elaine Wright. My mom gave it to us for Christmas and had it framed. This is a new addition to our home and it’s the first time I’m sharing it on the blog. Isn’t it beautiful. Such a fun keepsake and so unique to us!

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Summer Sunroom

Let’s skip right through the kitchen (it’s a mess) and head to the sunroom (which leads to our back deck and pool). I’ll be sharing more about the pool and outdoor areas a few weeks from now, but I did share my favorite flowering plants over the weekend.

The sunroom is possibly my favorite room in our home! We’re actually turning this space into a four season room. We’re adding heat this summer and insulated under the floor and had a glass sliding door installed by Mahoney Brothers. This room was bright as it was but the sliding door made it so much brighter!

I maybe be changing the furniture up in here but for now we’re enjoying it “as is”. That window (over by the table) will become a 15 pane glass door and we’re thinking about maybe a loveseat where the table is.

We use this room to eat dinner or enjoy coffee and I LOVE painting watercolors at that table. 😉

Okay, here’s some summer ideas in this space:

Add a sliding door to merge inside and outside

The sliding glass door and screens makes it feel like we’re outside when we’re sheltered by the sunroom. Perfect for rainy days by the sea! The sliding doors also lets so much light in and I love hearing all the birds!

Clip some branches

Green branches (flowering or not) make a table feel so inviting! I’d planned to clip mock orange but they were covered in aphides so clipped some forsythia…

The sweet votive holders made of oyster shells are a nod to my love for the sea!

Paint the Floors White

White painted floors – say coastal casual to me. I painted these two years ago with outdoor porch paint and they still look great despite boys and dogs trying to wear them down. You can get my tutorial and tips here.

Add texture

This room has lots of texture from the mid century style chairs by the pedestal table…

Or the woven ikea arm chairs…

Fill a giant clam shell with vintage fishing floats

For some reason I’m attracted to blues and greens. I collect vintage fishing floats. You can read more about that here. The oars were a freecycle find from about 9 years ago. I painted them with chalk paint.

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It’s so tempting to just stay right here but I want to show you our bathroom and bedroom. So let’s head upstairs…

Summer Bathroom

We freshened up this bathroom back in 2019. Not much has really changed and it’s not very big when you consider we share it with two growing boys. Our 15 year old seems to spend many hours in here…

Anyway, here are some ideas for summer in the bathroom.

Paint the vanity navy blue

Our vanity is painted in Annie Sloan’s Oxford Navy. It’s held up really well. I added brass pulls and hinges to pop against the deep color. The shower curtain’s tassels tie in with this color.

Decorate with vintage and beach treasures

A pale blue bottle with a sea fan is whimsical and fitting for a bathroom by the sea. I scattered some shells near by. The larger shell could be used as a soap dish.

Light a candle

I LOVE candles. I’m obsessed with them and I’m loving the new collection from Oldfield Society. They are all so beautiful with lovely fragrances…

Add a houseplant

Another obsession. At last count I had 36. This one, a pothos, is very easy to care for. You can certainly forget to water it and it will still love you!!!

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Directly across the hall is our bedroom. The last stop on our home tour. I’m soooooooo excited for you to see it. Prior to taking these photos, I thoroughly cleaned the room and restyled the bookshelves and moved lots and lots of stuff. So I hope you enjoy it.

Summer Bedroom

If this is your first time visiting, it’s important for me to tell you that this was a bedroom our boys shared but with COVID and learning from home we felt the boys needed rooms of their one. You can see John’s Teen Bedroom Reveal and Conor’s Sea Inspired Room. I designed this room in the midst of a pandemic, in a time when we wanted comfort and also to feel like we were “away” in our own home. This is how it came out and a few summer decorating ideas you can steal for your own homes. I will be doing a full reveal post on this room soon but had to share a peek as part of the summer tour.

Add a cozy and comfy swivel chair for reading

This is probably the most comfortable chair I’ve ever sat in. It’s upholsterd in high performance fabric so coffee spills won’t be a worry… The artwork is from my California Collection and is available framed and unframed.

Add Plants

Our room is filled with real and faux plants to make it feel even more cozy! I did try all real palms but they didn’t do well in our bedroom as it’s north facing.

Decorate with Beach Treasures

We collect shells and sea glass with our boys. I’ve collected a few of my favorites on our dresser and placed them in a vintage ironstone dish.

I also love collecting shells. Our bookshelf has many shells, sea fans, driftwood, and even rocks…

The tiny seascape is one of my original watercolor paintings. I’m trying to decide if I should add some to my online shop. Let me know if you guys would be interested in buying original artwork…

Decorate with shells

You may have noticed but I have shells throughout our bedroom. Shell sconces flank our chippy dresser:

A capiz pendant hangs above our bed:

We have shell lights on either side of our bed (found at HomeGoods), but similar to these.

Add rattan for a coastal vibe

Our bed is made out of woven rattan and we fell in love with it the minute we saw it. I shared more about it here. It was an investment but this is our first real “grown up” bed.

The image above the bed is one I took of Big Sur on our last family trip (two years ago to California). It’s part of my California Collection.

Tropical Leaves give an island vibe

A simple leaf from the grocery store makes it feel like island-living when tucked into a rattan wrapped bottle.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of our bedroom I’ll be sharing more but you can see previous posts on different aspects of the room:

window treatments | swivel chair | bedroom lighting | rattan bed | coastal bedroom inspiration

Shop the Look

I hope this post gave you lots of easy summer decorating ideas! Next up on the tour is Leslie over at Deeply Southern Home. I LOVE how Leslie decorates and adore her home. Can’t wait to see how her spaces look for summer!

If you’d like to sign up for my newsletter you can do so here and if you’d like some extra help with interior design I offer eDesign and in-home services just send me an email!

Be sure to check out the rest of the tour below!

This week I’m joining some of my talented blogging friends for the Summer Seasonal Simplicity Home Tour Series! Each day from Monday through Thursday six bloggers are sharing part of their homes all ready for summer. Be sure to enjoy all of the beautiful inspiration for adding a little summer to your home by visiting the links under the images below.

Sharing with me today…

Tuesday

Cassie Bustamante // Finding Silver Pennies // Deeply Southern Home

Nina Hendrick // Maison de Cinq // Clean & Scentsible

And sharing the rest of this week…

Monday

The Happy Housie // Inspiration for Moms // She Gave it a Go

Home Made Lovely // A Pop of Pretty // Life is a Party

Wednesday

A Pretty Life // My Sweet Savannah // Fynes Designs

House by Hoff // Lemon Thistle // Dans le Lakehouse

Thursday

Life is Better at Home // Rambling Renovators // Hallstrom Home

Craftberry Bush // JoAnna Anastasia // Willow Street Interiors