When the summer heat starts to roll in, it makes us all want to be in the sun all the time. This makes summer the perfect time to refresh your interior design and create a space that reflects the outdoors, along with the general vibrancy of the season.
Whether you're looking to update your living room, bedroom or dining area, there are so many different ways to bring the outside inside. In this pots, we'll cover general methods to implement summer into your interior style, along with decor ideas/products that these methods work best with:
Add Light and Airy Fabrics
One of the best ways to catch the essence of summer in your home is to maximise the use of light, airy fabrics. For example, fabrics like cotton, linen and other sheer fabrics can do wonders curtains, as for one they create a sense of space through the flowing nature, and secondly maximise the amount sunlight that can enter the room.
As well as curtains, these fabrics can be implemented in decor pieces like pillows and blankets, layering them throughout your space. Looking into adding patterns on these pieces can add a ton of minimal visual interest, whilst keeping it light and cozy with the materials themselves.
Bring the Outside Inside
As you'll always want to be outside to enjoy all the warm beauty of summer, why not recreate that feeling when you're at home? There's a few ways that you can do this, most effectively by incorporating natural materials and elements like wood, plants/flowers, and stone. Scattering these materials throughout your space can add freshness like nothing else.
Some other materials include things like rattan, wicker and bamboo are perfect options to us win your furniture and decor. These materials effectively capture the warm, natural feeling of summer but in a super minimal why, allowing you to get creative in more areas of your interior design style.
Feature Bold Colours Throughout
Another key element that makes summer so good is the bright, bold colours everywhere you look. The vibrancy of the yellows, blues and pinks of the sunset can add so much visual interest to your space when applied to different elements of your space. It's easy to go overboard with the colours, but if that's your taste, don't be afraid to go all in!
A super effective way to use these colours is through mixing and matching to avoid random blocks of colour in your space. Adding some coastal themed or floral pattern pillows with a solid colour sofa can help split elements of your space, making it much more lively and interesting to be in.
Embrace the Coastal Design Style
If you're a beach lover, the coastal interior design style is the perfect option for you to embrace summer to it's fullest. The staple points of this design are the use of elements like seashells, driftwood and nautical accessories in your decor. Displaying some shells in a glass jar or hanging a driftwood art piece on your wall can so wonders for a summer inspired space.
The other main element of the coastal style is the colour palette, focusing on soft shades like beiges, light blues/greens and overall neutral colours. These shades promote the beach feeling, making your space feel like the sand, sea and sky all in one.
Simplify Your Space
Summer is all about relaxation and simplicity, therefore making sure your space isn't full of clutter can help you keep that peace of mind the sunshine is giving you. Focusing on the essentials for the space you're designing in the most minimal way is the best way to keep things feeling light.
By keeping it minimal and functional with your main furniture pieces, it allows you do get creative with the decor, feeding whichever elements of the outdoors into your space. This could be through plants or natural textures to name a couple. Be sure to not overfill your minimal space to maintain the airy, free-moving vibe you've created.
Finding ways to implement these ideas into your space might be a little tricky, as there's different ways to use each of them within different interior design styles. This next section will cover our favourite pieces/methods to truly capture the warmth of summer inside your home:
Scatter Seashells Throughout Your Space
Image Credit: Dunelm
One of the most classic ways to bring the feel of summer inside is through seashell decor, that can be used in a variety of ways. With endless shells for you to choose from, their different shapes, sizes, colours and textures all create a different feel whilst all retaining the beach vibe.
An effective way to display your seashells is in a glass vase or bottle and be displayed on a shelf or bookcase can add the perfect touch of summer texture to your space. You can also use larger shells by themselves on your tables, becoming a focal piece of decor.
Add a Pop of Yellow
Image Credit: Shelterness
When you think if summer colours, yellow is the first that springs to most peoples mind. It's the perfect way to bring the sunshine into your space, especially when used to create focal points on your space. The most effective way you can do this is through a yellow painted feature wall, instantly setting the summer tone for whichever room you choose.
You can also add a pop of yellow through your decor pieces, such as throw blankets, pillows/cushions or a vase of sunflowers. Smaller pieces of furniture like a side table or lamp also work perfectly with the colour yellow.
Soften Your Space with Light-Coloured Foliage
Image Credit: M&S
During summer, you'll get all kinds of bright colours through flourishing plants and flowers, whether it be vibrant tones or softer, pastel colours. Whichever route you decided to take in regards to the vibrancy or softness of the colours, including a range of these colours is a super effective way to bring that summer brightness into your space.
There's a few different ways to display foliage in your space. Having flowers in larger vases throughout your home can create a consistent flower with your decor, all of them becoming key elements in the overall feel of your space. Smaller flowers can add a more subtle touch to your space, allowing other elements to shine whilst keeping the colours and textures.
Create a Chilled Atmosphere with Cintronella Candles
Image Credit: Dunelm
Having candles in your space not only makes your space smell great, they're perfect to repel a lot of bugs and insects that try to get inside. Most places get tonnes of bugs flying around in summer, so a candle can be perfect for this whilst providing so many extra benefits.
As well as the smell, the soft lighting creates a soft, dim atmosphere, perfect for a summer night. Using soft, light colours for the candle holder can also allow an extra piece of decor in your home to incapsulate the season's unbeatable vibe.
Include a Natural Fibre Rug
Image Credit: La Redoute
In summer, the light, airy feel the outdoors has is what makes it so good. Keeping that feel inside your home is another way to constantly be connected with the season. Using a natural fibre rug is a perfect way to use your decor to create this feel, through their airy texture and neutral colours.
Materials such as jute and sisal are two perfect options for your rug, both of which create visual interest through texture whilst blending in to the rest of your space seamlessly. These tugs are super durable, making them ideal for areas like your living room or hallway.
Keep Things Flowing with Linen Curtains
Image Credit: Secrect Linen Store
Linen curtains are a great choice for a summer inspired home for a few different reasons. They're super lightweight and breathable, making them ideal to create a calm, chilled, light space. The materials also allows air to flow much more freely, allowing air to cool down your space on those super hot days.
Using light colours and soft patterns for these curtains will work best, especially in summer. The keeps your space feeling more open, making it much more inviting when it's warm out. These curtains work best in living spaces, bedrooms and even dining areas, as that's where you'll be doing a lot of relaxing/unwinding.
Add Summer Textures through a Rattan Mirror
Image Credit: Dunelm
Livening up your functional, must-have decor pieces in your space can do wonders with capturing whichever design you want. This is especially the case with a summer-inspired space, where a rattan mirror can capture the feel of summer like no other.
Similar to natural fibre rugs, rattan mirrors adding outdoor elements through natural textures, and becomes a focal point in your space through the patterns and designs that are available in many different places. Whether you want a super simple design or a complex weave, there's a piece waiting for you.
Let the Natural Light Shine Through
Another super effective way to bring the summer sunshine into your home, is to literally let it inside. Optimising the amount of natural light into your space can add an unbeatable amount of life and brightness, especially in summer when it's the brightest.
The natural light also assists with creating a minimal, chilled space, which is what to aim for in a summer inspired space. The light will also bounce of the summer colours already in your space, making them as effective as possible in capturing the seasons vibrancy.
In conclusion, you have so many different options for you to create your dream summer-inspired home. Whether it's through your main pieces of furniture or small decorative accents, creating a perfect blend of the ideas covered in this post will never fail to give you that dream space.
Putting your focus on keeping it light and airy is the staple of a summer-inspired home, so keeping it general minimal will make your space much more inviting, enjoyable and comfortable to be in when it starts to warm up outside. We hope you found all the inspiration you need to either start or finish your next interior design project!