Summer Home Decor Inspiration

We are just getting started into May and I’m already here thinking about summer! Moms of school age children can, I am sure, relate to the fact that May is absolutely nuts! Between teacher appreciation week, end of school year programs and celebrations and extra curricular activities it’s just a crazy time! The kids and I always tend to slip up a bit on remembering to pack lunches (let alone make sure they are healthy), turn in necessary forms and overall just stay on top of our game! Anyway, the point of me saying all this is that you might think I’m a little nutty to be thinking about updating the house with some summer decor in the midst of all that is going on! But I have found that these little changes take me very little time and also provide me with a bit of stress relief in the eye of the May storm! So, I wanted to share some easy and inexpensive summer decor ideas with you!

Focus on Updating Small Vignettes

I’ve mentioned this before, but I stick to certain areas of the home for making seasonal updates. Most of these areas are in my kitchen, but I also sometimes update our mantles, dining room table and bookcase. I find that if I just stick to a couple of areas, I’m not overwhelmed with seasonal “stuff” and I can swap out these areas in minutes!

This year, in my kitchen, I got inspiration from some inexpensive finds at Target. I picked up a few flamingo themed items at the dollar bins. While I didn’t have a plan on how to use them, I knew these items would be cute somewhere! You probably know by now that I love my tiered trays! I rounded up a few items from around the house and then added in the flamingo things to set up my galvanized tiered tray!

There are SO MANY fun summer “theme” ideas especially for a tiered tray. I will probably swap this out later in the summer so I can use some of my other ideas.

Additional Tiered Tray Summer Theme Ideas

Patriotic/4th of July –all things red, white and blue

Ice Cream – Ice cream bowls, spoons, sprinkles and other toppings! This would be great for an end of the school year celebration!

Lemonade-Mason jars, straws, lemons and all things yellow!

Strawberry Patch-Red and Green theme, gingham pattern, ceramic fruit basket

 

Change Your “Words” Lightbox, Letterboard, Chalkboard

I certainly have a “thing” for words around our house. We’ve got our Lightbox, Letterboard and Chalkboard just to name a few! I even change out my Rae Dunn collection to match the season/occasion. Swapping out words and expressions is quick and easy! The kids always notice when I’ve made a change to one of these signs. It is an simple thing to do for a festive and cheerful impact!

Our most viewed spot of the kitchen all summer long is our SUMMER FUN Chalkboard! We’ve been doing this list even before we had a chalkboard and I’ve kept all of our paper lists as keepsakes. It is so fun to see what we accomplish all summer.

This summer fun list gets us excited for all of our traditions! Plus, we are also trying to come up with some new activities as the kids have gotten older.

We don’t always get to everything on the list, but we get pretty close! Here is our list at the end of last summer.

Add Flowers (fresh or faux)

Flowers and greenery always add warmth to the home. In summer, it’s fun to bring bright colors in the home with fresh flowers. I love greenery in the home all year long, but in the spring and summer, I love bright, fresh flowers! I just picked up some sunflowers the other day and they seriously make me happy every time I see them!

For a long lasting update, add in some summer faux stems/branches to vases around the house.  If you have flowers in your own yard, don’t forget to cut a few blooms to bring indoors!

My dining room mantle includes some faux stems for a subtle update.

Add in Pops of Color

The first thing I do before I go out and buy any new decor, is to look around my house. I look through my cabinets and decor storage to see what mugs, dishes and miscellaneous items I have that might fit into the new season. It’s fun to get creative and be challenged in finding an odd vase or dish that would work well for the new season.

I keep a pretty neutral house so that when I want to add a little color, it will stand out. It’s nice to be able to add one or two things with color and it really is noticeable!

Swap Out Textiles

Finally, I look to change out any pillows, blankets and towels that work for the new season. In the summer, I put away all of our heavy couch blankets and replace with lighter options. Because in the summer, I still reach for a blanket! #freezebaby

I usually purchase a new pillow cover or two for the new season. Amazon has so MANY cheap options. I purchased an inexpensive pineapple pillow cover for my kitchen bench. I always look to find a new pillow cover versus a whole entire pillow so save on storage space!! It’s much easier to store a bunch of folded pillow covers.

Sometimes I don’t even buy new pillow covers but instead just move my pillows around to different spots. Just putting things in new places brings new life to the space!

In the summer, I usually look for some fresh and bright towels for the kitchen. I haven’t picked up any towels yet but there are so many cute ones out there!

***************************************************

I’ve been busy pinning more summer decor ideas over on Pinterest if you’d like more inspiration!

https://www.pinterest.com/coffeepancakesdreams/summer-decor-ideas/

***************************************************

It doesn’t take much to make the home bright and cheerful for summer! I spent less than $20 total on items from Target and Amazon to change things up. Tell me, what kind of home decor updates do you make for summer?