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Summer Home Tour and Simple Summer Decorating Ideas

Get lots of pretty and simple summer decorating ideas and tour a transitional country chic home dressed in greens and whites for summer.

Every time summer rolls around, I love making my home a little lighter.

A little brighter.

I visually cool down my spaces, because it gets pretty hot and humid here in North Carolina…

We need all the cooling down we can get!

I can’t wait to share how I get that lighter and brighter feeling in my home with you today as part of a Summer Home Tour with 29 other amazing bloggers.

Two black rocking chairs with ticking-striped pillows on a front porch. A table with a basket filled with a fern sits between the rockers.

Thank you so much to our friend Kelly from The Tattered Pew for organizing this weeklong tour of summer homes!

If you’re visiting from our friend Cindy’s blog, Cloches and Lavender, or if you’re new around here, Welcome! Weren’t Cindy’s ideas for adding touches of summer decor in your home great?

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How to Style a Front Porch for Summer

The first thing you’ll see when you visit my home is my front porch that runs all the way across the front of my house.

This porch is one of the reasons we chose this elevation when we built our house in 2005!

There are a few weeks out of the year when we can’t enjoy it due to crazy pollen or cold temperatures, but we spend a lot of time rocking in these chairs.

We have a ceiling fan that keeps the space comfortable even when it’s really hot outside.

AnnMarie shared some great ideas for decorating a small front porch for summer too!

Large front porch with black rocking chairs and a black and white patterned rug decorated for summer with ferns and greenery.

When summer rolls around, I love to freshen up my tiered stand with lots of greenery with some cream and natural accents thrown in.

This stand is one of my favorite things to decorate each season. You can see how it looked last fall and at Christmas here.

Confession time: I have a horrible track record when it comes to keeping plants alive, so I use faux plants on my porch!

Maybe next year I’ll try to be a better plant mom since I’ll have an empty nest?

Black rocking chair on a porch with a bee patterned throw pillow. A tall tiered iron plant stand sits next to the rocker and is filled with greenery and ferns.

An easy and inexpensive way to give any space a fresh look is with throw pillows.

These bee pillow covers with a light gray ticking stripe are new for me this year, and I just love them! They have beautiful button detailing on the back.

I decided to stick to a very neutral black and white color scheme on my porch this year.

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The only color is from greenery which makes it feel so fresh to me.

I created a display of candle lanterns and ferns on either side of my front door.

Front entry with lanterns and black front door with a transom and full side light windows with a large succulent wreath.

Layering your door mat with a patterned rug is an easy way to freshen up your front entry!

I’m loving the look of this basket weave door mat for summer. It adds great texture to this space.

I wrapped a simple greenery garland around the candles in the larger lanterns.

Front porch decorated for summer with painted black orchard basket, white flowers, and candle lanterns.

The basket is from our local farmer’s market!

They sold it to me for just $2.

I painted it black last fall and love how it can hold several “plants” but the look is more simple since you only see one container.

Black front door with large green succulent wreath hanging on it opened up to show front porch

Usually I like adding a bow on my front door wreaths, but this simple wreath looked better without anything added to it.

During the summer, I tend to go with a less is more approach.

Keeping it Simple in the Front Entry and Game Room

As you come into my home, you’ll be greeted by two gallery walls that face each other.

AnnMarie and I both love decorating our homes with photos and shared all our secrets for making them easy to design and hang.

I found this pretty black table at our local antique mall. Would you believe it’s an old sewing machine table?

Front entry hallway with a small black chest on legs sitting next to a staircase. A small gallery wall with black frames is hung above the table. A family room with fireplace and coffered ceiling is in the background.

Once again, I’ve kept it very simple in this space and just added a little bit of greenery in a white pitcher.

I found these green and white patterned ceramic orbs this spring.

They’re the perfect small accent to complete a trio all through your home.

Did you know that our eyes tend to prefer items grouped in odd numbers?

I’m not sure why that is, but I do know anytime I put together a small vignette, adding a third item is what ties the look together.

Black painted credenza with a black and gold framed mirror hanging above. The top of the credenza hold a large white pitcher on one end and a large ceramic bucket filled with faux olive branches on the other.

See what I mean?

This credenza sits in the room to the left of my front entry hallway.

I have two groupings of three items on each end.

But as I look at that picture above, it reminds me about another decorating tip!

Sometimes you might arrange things one way, and then after looking at them a bit, you notice there’s something “off.”

That’s exactly what happened here.

I realized that all my green was on one side of the table.

Black painted credenza with a black and gold framed mirror hanging above. The top of the credenza hold a large white pitcher on one end and a large ceramic bucket filled with faux olive branches on the other.

So I moved the green container over next to the pitcher.

Then the brown orb was next to the brown Z which didn’t look right, so I swapped the orb and the candle too.

I feel like it looks much more balanced now!

Don’t be afraid to move things around, even if you’ve had them that way for a week or two!

Light and Bright Summer Family Room

My home is fairly open on the lower level so I try to keep the overall color scheme similar.

All the walls are painted with Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter, a great chameleon of a color that sometimes looks more gray and other times a little more brown, all depending on the time of day.

I actually painted the game room Revere Pewter at 50% intensity, which makes it a lighter color!

That room is one of the darkest in my house so it actually ends up looking the same as all the other rooms.

A few years ago, I gave the fireplace a facelift by painting the cream-colored marble surround with black chalk paint.

Ever since making that update, the fireplace has been my favorite place to add seasonal decorating.

Family room with coffered ceiling and a gas fireplace. A large round mirror with panes of glass hangs above the fireplace. Drop cloth curtains on the windows flanking both sides of the fireplace.

This room has a lot of straight lines in it between the large coffers in the ceiling, the fireplace, the windows, and the builtin shelves.

Adding a large round mirror over the fireplace helps to soften the lines in the room.

I’ve added a variety of florals and greenery to the fireplace to give it a summery feel.

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Once my hydrangeas begin blooming I may swap out some of these faux florals for a look like this one I created last summer.

AnnMarie decorated her fireplace for summer with fun patriotic colors and it looks amazing!

The throw pillow on the wingback chair continues my color scheme of greens and whites.

I also recently swapped out my floral curtains for these simple, no-sew drop cloth curtains.

The only wall in the room features a large built-in shelving unit.

Family room with coffered ceilings and a large builtin entertainment until decorated for summer. A wing back leather chair sits in front of the shelves with a green floral patterned throw pillow.

It’s another one of my favorite spaces to update with the seasons.

I kept the same color scheme going here and brought in greenery in a variety of shades.

Baskets and vintage wood containers add texture.

A large wicker bee skop decorated with a garland of airy greenery sits next to a white lantern on top of a shelf.

Some vintage milk glass vases combine with pewter pieces to add a little shine.

I really like using pewter during the warm months!

When I was a kid, my parents loved to go antiquing and my little sister and I got to go with them.

My mom’s favorite finds were often pewter… but since I didn’t enjoy those antique shopping trips, I always referred to it as pee-you-ter!

I still think of it that way and it always makes me laugh and reminds me of my parents.

I’ve used another one of those green and white orbs to add a little difference in heights on a shelf.

Did you notice that the white painted tray features a bee stencil which connects this space to my front porch pillows?

Also, don’t be afraid to use your decorating pieces in different ways.

These pewter pillar candle holders look great holding the little topiary balls!

Shelves of a white builtin bookcase decorated with vintage wood, greenery, baskets, and painted white tray.

I decorated a tiered tray using some vintage items paired with a variety of succulents for my coffee table.

If you’ve ever wanted help with styling tiered trays be sure to check out all our tips!

I love containing decor items with a tray, dough bowl, or tiered stand on the coffee table. It makes it easy to move everything out of the way when we want to have a game night.

Three tiered wire tray filled with succulents and distressed terra cotta pots

Here’s the view back to my front entry hallway.

As you can see, I wasn’t kidding when I said I loved decorating with photos!

Here’s how I created that large gallery wall using a combination of canvases and frames.

You can really see how Revere Pewter looks different depending on the lighting in this picture!

Family room with leather couch and builtin shelves. In the background there are two gallery walls using a variety of black picture frames.

Adding Summer Details in the Kitchen

I don’t do a lot in the way of seasonal decorating in my kitchen.

The summery decor in the family room is visible from the kitchen through the cut out in the wall..

I generally keep things very simple in this room with just a tray on the kitchen table holding a pitcher of flowers.

Whenever possible, I love to add fresh cut flowers to the pitcher!

French country iron chandelier hanging over a wood table with a view of a family room with a large builtin entertainment unit.

It’s also fun to pull out my fern-patterned plates to set a summery table for a dinner party.

Wood kitchen table with windsor back chairs set for a summer dinner party with green napkins and a floral centerpiece.

This time the centerpiece is a mix of faux and real hydrangeas!

Tucking fresh greenery in when you combine real and faux florals makes the arrangement look more natural and organic.

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White vintage china hutch with glass doors and spindle legs painted white and filled with black and white pottery.

I added a green antique box on top of my vintage china hutch to add a little pop of green to this corner of the kitchen.

Having a fairly neutral colored home allows me to easily change my color scheme throughout the seasons.

Be sure to visit again soon to see how I warm things up for the fall!

I hope you’ve enjoyed taking a look around.

Next up on our Summer Home tour is our friend Aliyah from Open Doors Open Hearts. She has a beautiful home and always shares some great ideas!

You can check out all the amazing homes in this week’s tour by clicking on the links below. You’ll find ideas for gardening, outdoor living, adding coastal decor, and so much more!

This week I’m joining some of my blogging friends for the Bloggers Best Summer Home Tours! All week long we are welcoming you into our homes. You can visit each summer home tour by clicking the links below.

Monday’s Tours

The Tattered Pew / Stonegable / My Wee Abode

White Arrows Home / Fiddle Leaf Blog / Dabbling and Decorating

Tuesday’s Tours

The Flowering Farmhouse / Sanddollar Lane / Cottage In The Mitten

Up To Date Interiors / Bricks ‘n Blooms / Cottage On Bunker Hill

Wednesday’s Tours

Open Doors Open Hearts/ Pasha Is Home / Shiplap and Shells

A Blue Nest / Cloches and Lavender / Simply 2 Moms

Thursday’s Tours

Cassie Bustamante / First Day of Home / Midwest Life and Style

County Road 407 / She Gave It A Go / Robyn’s French Nest

Friday’s Tours

The Ponds Farmhouse / DIY Beautify / Follow The Yellow Brick Home

My Thrift Store Addiction / Tatertots and Jello / Sweet Pea

If you have any questions or suggestions, contact me or leave a comment!

Don’t miss any of our tips, tricks, or stories! We’d love for you to follow us on social media! You can find us on TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

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