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Keeping your home feeling fresh and updated year-round can be expensive and time consuming. Over the years, I've found several simple and affordable ways to update our home decor each season. In this post, I'll share seven quick and easy home decor ideas for the Spring and Summer.
Our Summer-ready couch, freshened up with mud cloth pillows from one of my favourite online pillow shops, Thilsandlils.
I love this time of year.
In Toronto, it's that narrow window of time during which it's just warm enough to turn off the heat, and not so hot that you need to start the AC. (Unfortunately, this seems to last all of two weeks here)!
Our windows are open during the day to let in the fresh air and the sounds of birds chirping and children playing in the street.
But, there's another reason I love this change of season so much: I get to change up my home decor!
Along with Spring cleaning and purging my closet, part of my Springtime ritual is updating our home for the warmer weather.
Here are some quick and easy Spring and Summer home decor ideas:
1. Pillows & Throws
One of the simplest and most economical ways to update your decor each season is to switch out your throw blankets and pillows (or just the pillow covers). As if I need any further justification for my pillow addiction...I honestly could have written a post solely on this topic!
For Spring and Summer, think lighter colours and fabrics.
Lightweight materials like linen and cactus silk give off a warm weather vibe. But, consider hanging on to some heavier textiles, such as velvet and sheepskin, to maintain texture and coziness.
Our couch: when transitioning from Winter to Spring, I switched out the dark navy, velvet pillow, wool cable knit pillow, and dark faux fur throw for a mud cloth pillow, a cream-coloured fringe pillow, and a light grey throw.
Here are some pillows I think are perfect for that Spring/Summer vibe:
Thilsandlils Mud Cloth Grey Triangles Pillow. This pillow's currently sitting on my couch! Thilsandlils is a Canadian throw pillow shop full of beautiful mud cloth pillows.
I've had my eye on this vibrant Shibori Indigo Blue Mud Cloth Pillow Cover from MackenzieBryantCo. That bright blue and playful pattern just scream 'Summer!'
This beautiful vintage cactus silk pillow is on her way to me from LovelyMessShop, another Canadian Etsy shop full of unique pillows.(Will update this post when she arrives on the couch!).
2. Baskets
Baskets are the often under-appreciated workhorse of home decor. I like to incorporate them year-round to add texture and, more importantly, storage, which is at a premium when you have kids!
An unassuming wicker basket sits humbly in our living room.
Our baskets typically house magazines and a select few of my
son's toys and books permitted in the living room. See this post for more on my system of containing and organizing kids' stuff. I also have a whole post on how to make your living room look like you don't have kids, if you're interested in more clever toy storage ideas for the living room!
When transitioning into the warm weather months, I like to swap out chunky, large-weave baskets for lighter ones, made of wicker or seagrass.
A-tisket, A-tasket...I'm obsessed with baskets! Our Conway basket (West Elm) gets swapped out with this seagrass belly basket (Amazon) in the Spring.
If you don't feel like switching the basket, you can change its contents to suit the season, instead. In the winter, we keep throw blankets in a basket; when it's warmer, we put away the throws, freeing up the basket for other uses.
For instance, a large belly basket makes a great home for a potted plant, and gives off a warm weather, boho vibe.
This belly basket makes the perfect home for our spider plant. (The print is from Minted.com).
Here are some baskets perfect for the Spring and Summer:
3. Artwork
Spring is the perfect time to put some light, bright colours up on the walls. Think of swapping out some darker prints for lighter coloured or summer-themed prints.
Of course, owning a different set of artwork for each season is not realistic for most of us! One of my favourite money-saving hacks from my post on how to build a gallery wall on a budget is to frame pages from art books.
Some of my favourite gallery wall sources for summer prints include:
Beaches by Gray Malin (Amazon). This coffee table book has some incredible aerial shots of various beaches and coastlines around the world.
Peter Doig is one of my favourite artists. His beautiful landscapes range from dark and moody to lighthearted pinks and pastels. I've framed at least a dozen pages from this book over the years.
The second print on the top shelf and the third print on the bottom shelf are both taken from the Peter Doig book. (The other 'prints' are cut from a design magazine and Anthropologie shopping bags. For more on ideas for artwork on a budget, check out this post!)
Other summery prints I'm currently feeling from Minted.com (my other go-to for affordable art):
4. Plants
--More of Them!
My plant babies just hanging out in the living room. Macrame plant hanger from CB2.
What says 'Spring' better than greenery?
Where we live, winter months can be deadly for some houseplants (admittedly, so can any time of year, if you have a black thumb, like I do). One of these days, I'm going to have to write about the houseplants I haven't killed yet...I'll call it 'Houseplants that are Impossible to Kill!' Between the darker days and the dry air, due to the heat being on 24/7, only the strong survive in the winter in our house.
Because it's so much easier to keep houseplants happy in the warmer months (for me, at least), I try to take advantage of this and get a few new indoor plants each Spring.
If you're looking for some planters or plant hangers to house your new green friends, these are on my current wish list:
5. Other Accessories
Adding a little sparkle with a touch of glass or shiny metal is a great way to freshen up any room. This hammered brass wall hanging from Vida and Luz is my new, favourite 'something sparkly!' These beautiful pieces are handmade in Seattle. What's more, a portion of their proceeds goes towards ending sex trafficking in the Philippines.
Looking for more shiny stuff?
6. Rearrange Your Furniture
Don't have room in the budget to accessorize your home this season? That's cool!
Consider rearranging your furniture. A new layout is a great (and free) way to give your space a fresh feel! It also makes for a half-decent workout! I'll confess, this is something I enjoy doing all year round. It's common for my husband to come home and look around wondering what's different about living room.
When rearranging, think about how you may use your space differently during the warmer months. If you find yourself entertaining more often in the Summer, consider moving your seating around to accommodate more guests or to facilitate the flow of traffic from space to space.
Don't just limit yourself to layout changes. You can rearrange accessories and wall art, too. I do this so often that our poor drywall has been nailed, drilled, spackled and respackled so many times it's probably starting to lose its structural integrity!
7. Minimize
There's something about the winter months, especially here in Canada ('the Great White North'), that just makes you want to Hygge-it--up with heavy throws and lots of candles (as with pillows and baskets, I *may* have an addiction to these, as well...).
In the Summer, you can shed some of the layers and cool things down. If you've been toying with the idea of minimalism, Spring's the perfect time to try it out!
Along with storing away most of our candles and throw blankets, I like to pare down the amount of decorative items on our shelves and the tchotchkes on the credenza and side tables.
Clearing space allows for an airier, more Spring-like feel.
There you have it! Seven quick and easy Spring and Summer home decor ideas to freshen up your space!
What do you do to change things up each season? Let me know in the comments below!
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