The Busy Girl’s Guide to Summer Decorating: The Living Room

Today, I’m excited to share simple tips for summer decorating in the living room including how to create a summer inspired mantel as we continue our 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 Decorating: The Entry 
The Busy Girl’s Guide to Decorating: The Breakfast Nook

Whenever I think about adding summer accents to our living room, I’m without a doubt reminded of our ever-changing Florida weather. Most of the time we wake up to cloudless skies full of expectation only to end the day dodging raindrops and afternoon thunderstorms.

While summer showers force us to slow down a bit and enjoy much needed quiet time in our living room which acts as a reading room our dogs see the rain as some sort of adventure.

They run around the yard with gusto when we first let them out and walk as slow as molasses (all but dragging their paws) to the door when they’re called back inside. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen but it also brings to me to what inspired our summer decorating ideas in the living room – keeping it relaxed and cozy. Here’s are a few other tips to consider…

Make sure your couches and chairs are protected from heavy summer use – The summer season is usually filled with extra houseguests, visiting littles and in our case adventurous pups. We keep pet wipes and towels in the entry but after several weeks of rain in a row, I decided to slipcover our living room furniture with thrifted bedspreads. That way, if I miss a dirt spot or two, the slipcovers can just be thrown in the wash instead of having to worry about cleaning the couches and chairs all season long. If slipcovers aren’t your jam, no worries, consider using a fabric protection product like Scotchgard. Just make sure you’ve read the directions in advance before applying.

Let your summer inspired mantel be the star of the show – Mantels can sometimes be tricky to decorate so my best tip is to mentally divide the mantel in thirds. Start with the center portion and have it as your focal point. I hung a few thrifted plates and borrowed this old window from my mom (thanks, Mom!) which you can usually find for around $30 or less depending on what area of the country you live in.

The bee skep art is an engineer print created from this graphic I found at The Graphics Fairy. If you’re new to engineer prints you can check out a step by step of how to create your own here. 

After you have the focal point good to go, you can address the other two third portions of the mantel. You’ll need a bit of symmetry to offset the focal point and to make sure it has varied height as well. We’re using these aged pots and a mix of faux lavender and lilac blooms we picked up on sale at Michaels for a quick pop of color this summer. The sage bush is from IKEA.

Stack coffee table items on a tray so they can be easily moved – Family game nights seem to be a lot more frequent during the summer season so having your coffee table items collected on a tray like this will make everything easier to move no matter if you’re hosting game night or movie night.

Add seasonal color with throw pillows – We’ve been totally obsessed with lavender and gingham for summer this year, using it throughout the house and on the porches too. I picked up several yards of fabric at Hobby Lobby in order to make enough pillows for several spaces inside and out. Changing out the throw pillows in your living room is such an easy way to add seasonal color. It’s also fairly inexpensive especially if you know how to sew.

You guys, summer decorating doesn’t have to be complicated or take a long time! Just be true to your signature style, find easy simple ways to celebrate the season and make your home cozy.

Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,
CoCo