Simple summer home decor with varying shades of pink, white and blue. Subtle touches of summer without a lot of effort or clutter.
In Virginia, Memorial Day has always seemed like the unofficial start to summer. It’s usually warm, and humid, outside, people are grilling and having cookouts, plus the pools are open. Since it feels like Summer, I went ahead and put together my summer home decor. I kept my decor super simple this year. Like super, super simple. I know that I probably won’t be touching my home decor again until at least September (#newbornlife), so I didn’t want anything that would be difficult to keep up with. Or that would bother me after a few weeks.
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Summer Mantle Decor
I started with my summer home decor in the living room one evening while Jesse was out with friends. I gathered all of my vases and “summery” decor and laid them out on the coffee table. Then I just tried different groupings on the mantle until I put together a vignette that I liked. It was completely unintentional that I ended up with all vases and bottles (minus one candle) but it works.
As I was putting my mantle together, I found myself being drawn to blue pieces in particular. Since I was decorating for summer, I immediately thought to pair the blue with red and go for an Americana theme. However, I don’t actually own a lot of red pieces. It’s not usually a color I’m drawn to for decor, unless it’s Christmas. So I decided to improvise and do blue and pink. Pink is in the red family after all. I’m not sure if those colors look Americana or baby gender party-esque, but I like the way it came together for my summer home decor.
Everything about the mantle is super simple and practical. I even made sure there was a candle or two involved because even when the house is a mess, something about a lit candle makes everything feel a little more put together and clean.
Living Room
I kept all of the pillows on the couch pretty much the same. I love my fun floral pillows (similar) and I had to keep them out for the summer! Just one season of these pillows isn’t enough! I did swap out the owl for a geometric patterned one (similar) and put away the throw blankets. With the huge windows this room gets SO warm in Summer, so we barely use them.
Behind the couch didn’t really change either, other than adding a ceramic birdhouse to the vignette. I also have our family photo albums on the sofa shelf. Something about getting ready to have a new baby has made me all sentimental, so Mara and I go through the albums together a few times a week. Her favorite is her baby book. Toddlers are vain little creatures. And, in the spirit of keeping it real, there is always a box of tissues in the living room right now. Jesse and I’s allergies are awful this time of year, so tissues are a necessity (pretty or not).
Dining Room
I kept the summer home decor super simple in the dining room as well, just to keep maintenance at a minimum. I had one blue bottle leftover in my decor stash, so I decided to pair it with some glass Coke bottles in keeping with the slight “Americana” theme. Plus, glass Coke bottles always make me think of summer. Jesse and I used to roadtrip a lot in the summer months and we would always stop at little gas stations and buy Cokes in glass bottles. Something about the glass bottle also makes them taste better too!
I corralled all of the bottles together in this little blue and white serving dish. These blue and white dishes remind me of summer too. My mom, her sisters and my Nana all had these dishes, so all of the side dishes at family cookouts growing up were served in them. Nothing says Summer more to me than cookouts with family and friends.
I made sure to use fake flowers in the dining room. Faux flowers just cut way down on the amount of maintenance that decor requires. I definitely prefer real flowers, but they aren’t going to be anywhere close to a priority once we bring the new baby home. These simple vignettes keep spaces open and clean, but also nice to look at. I feel like this is key when your life is chaos haha.
This is going to be a crazy exciting Summer for our family and I’m so glad that I got decorating out of the way! While it’s not a high priority, I think having the house a little decorated and put together will help me relax these last two weeks. We spent some time this weekend working on Baby Girl’s nursery, and adding a few “big girl” things to Mara’s room. The house is finally starting to feel less chaotic and more ready, which in turn makes me feel ready.
