The Busy Girl’s Guide to Summer Decorating: The Breakfast Nook

Today, I’m excited to share easy tips that will help make your breakfast nook feel warm and inviting for summer as part of our continuing series, The Busy Girl’s Guide to Summer Decorating.  If you’ve missed any part of this series you can catch up here…

Summer Inspired Front Porch

The Busy Girl’s Guide to Summer Decorating: The Entry

Our breakfast nook is just off the kitchen and is one of those rooms that open up to several other spaces. For example, if you’re standing in the living room you can see the kitchen, dining room, entry, breakfast nook and a few other spaces virtually at the same time. This is one of the reasons, sticking to a signature color palette and style is so important if you’re living in a home with an open floor plan.

Once the rest of the spaces in your home are settled, summer decorating in the breakfast nook should be fairly easy. The reason it will be so simple is because you’re merely repeating decorative elements from other rooms in your home to create a cohesive signature style throughout. Exciting, right?

If you’ve had a chance to check out the rest of this series, you already know we’re totally obsessed with lavender and gingham this year. Naturally, it influenced how we decorated our summer breakfast nook too. Here are a few things to consider when decorating your breakfast nook for summer…

Use a predetermined color palette to avoid visual clutter – This means, deciding what your home’s color palette will be in advance before decorating with seasonal essentials.

I was shopping with my Mom for Loblolly Manor about a month ago when we found these sweet vintage plates for – $.10 each. I know, that never happens anymore! Given our home is draped in neutrals, I knew immediately I could use them in the breakfast nook for summer.

Make seasonal summer decorating easy by using the existing colors in your home to enhance your spaces (neutrals in our case) with summer accents not by undermining the home you’ve worked so hard to create with visual clutter that competes for your attention.

Use texture as an accent – These natural chargers and nubby linen tablecloth are a great foundation for building multiple layers of a place setting without competing with the other elements on the table.

Chargers and linens are also a great way to add pops of color to your tablescape. Most of the time they can be bought, painted or sewn to match your color palette without having to spend a lot of extra money.

Use containers of flowers or plants and foliage from the yard for an easy centerpiece – I found these lavender plants at in the garden center at Walmart and I’ve been using them all over the house and on all the porches.

The clippings are from our Texas Sage bushes that grow on the property. You might also want to consider using herbs that are inexpensive and readily available year-round. It doesn’t take a lot of extra money to get the look you want by using budget friendly plants to help welcome guests to your home.

Likewise, using plants or flowers in unconventional containers will also act as a conversation starter and give you a chance to share your favorite shopping haunts or vacation memories with family, friends or neighbors. I recently received this footed ironstone bowl as a gift, I was totally blown away. I’ve seen them in magazines but never really thought I would have one of my own.

Repeat your favorite elements from one tablescape or room to the next – Obviously, you don’t want your breakfast nook table to look exactly the same as your dining room table or your living room but you do want them to complement each other. Take the elements you’re most excited and mix them up in a fresh but familiar way. I’ll share other ways we’ve used bees in our summer decorating later this week.

Keep it simple – If the breakfast nook is open to other rooms in your home the other spaces are likely to get seen before the breakfast nook. Keeping it simple in the breakfast nook means the eye can view all the spaces as a whole. That being said, it also means you have a chance to carve out a cozy spot just off the larger rooms which is a good thing.

You know when you’re walking down a busy street and its store after store, after store, after store? And then you come across a sweet little bistro that is so quaint you want to stop immediately for lunch? That’s how your breakfast nook can feel too.

I hope these summer decorating tips for the breakfast nook have helped. Summer is a great time to try out new ideas in your home even if you’re a busy girl!

I’ll see you guys back here tomorrow. Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,

CoCo