Just as wool suits and sweaters make way for cottons and linens, your home’s dark and heavy accents can be transformed to reflect the warm weather season.
Interior design trends take their cues from the fashion world, and summer decorating is no different. The season calls for brighter colors and lighter materials. By incorporating them into your existing decor, you can get a fresh look that celebrates the season we seem to wait for all year long.
One of the simplest ways of doing this in a room is to change throw pillows on sofas or beds. Many people who alter their home decor according to the season even plan for this by creating warm and cold weather color schemes. For example, one of my clients ordered a chocolate-brown sofa for an all-season vacation home and had coordinating pillows made in an Indian blanket patterned wool for fall and winter. The client then made additional zippered covers in a lively cotton espadrille stripe for spring and summer. Both fabrics carried a hint of the sofa’s chocolate-brown, allowing the fabrics to blend with the color scheme, yet create two different accents.
When setting a table, remember your summer wardrobe here, too.
Save the dark green and burgundy tablecloths for winter and replace them with white linen, lace, or brightly-colored ones. For centerpieces, try a series of potted plants, decorative grasses, and of course flowers from your garden. Tuck individual flowers into napkin rings or repeat a series of flowers in a collection of vases. No vase collection? How about a set of juice or shot glasses to hold individual stems? No flowers? Try sand in a glass bowl with shells or rocks, and light-colored candles. Think beach, think garden, or anything that conjures up images of summer for you. What counts is your creativity, not your budget.
Transform outdoor living spaces into additional living and dining rooms that deserve just as much thought as the ones inside. Double-wide chaise lounges are especially popular, and almost look like outdoor beds. Patio furniture in teak, wrought iron, or “outdoor wicker,” can be enhanced with cushions made in all-weather fabric. Fabric manufacturer Sunbrella creates beautiful ones in a fabulous variety of colors and patterns that hold up well in the sun and the rain. Fire pits make great outdoor focal points and beckon guests to gather round, whether the pits are simple or elaborate pieces with granite ledges and gas logs. The warm glow of a campfire is hard to resist on a summer night!
Outdoor lighting creates another kind of glow, making these spaces inviting and encouraging enjoyment of warm evenings. You can use lanterns, candles, string lights, or even umbrella lights that affix to the top of poles, casting light downward.
Our summer season is short. It seems that once it’s here we’re already aware of its impending end. Make the most of these days with furnishings that allow you to enjoy them.
Lori Matzke Ehrig is an interior designer and can be reached at 271-5550 or by e-mail at dlehrig@msn.com.
