Our house is currently undergoing some construction, but I still wanted to find space to bring in some Summer decorating. Let’s do it together!

Our porch has been needing repairs for quite some time, and this summer we are getting them done! As we took apart the old porch, we started seeing that the issues ran even a bit deeper than we were guessing. (Yes, the foundation itself needed repairs!) So for the foreseeable future, the living room is in disarray as we moved everything away from the exterior wall to pull up 2′ of flooring for the work that was required.

That being said, I still wanted to decorate for summer, so I found two spots that weren’t affected by the on-going work and made them the highlights for the season.

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Seasonal Decorating Fundamentals

Every time I get ready to decorate for a holiday or a season, the first step is the same – I head out to our storage shed and grab the tote bins that carry the decor for that specific day or season. I’ve been organizing my seasonal decor the same way for years, and it makes for such a fun time choosing which items to use for the current year.

For summer, I have just 2 tote bins. (Come back later this year and maybe I’ll spill how many bins I have for Christmas…) They contain all sorts of things, but the majority of them fit into my personal favorite summer decorating categories:

• Beach/Seashells
• Patriotic / Red, White & Blue
• Summer Vacation / Sports & Games

These themes are quintessential summer for me, so most years I use at least one, if not all of these elements in my house in one way or another.

First, our bedroom!

Making our bed festive is a fun way to start off!

For general use, I prefer to use only white sheets, but seasonal decorations are one of the only times I’ll step away from that to add in some pops of color. For summer this year, I decided to keep my sheets white and let my beautiful striped duvet cover from Brooklinen be the statement piece. I just love the classic saturated red and blue and based the rest of my color choices off of those as inspiration.

At the foot of the bed I draped my toile Laura Ashley quilt. Not only do I love the color and the pattern, but it’s lightweight and really low maintenance. I’ve even used it outside for picnics and found that it’s much more user-friendly than my wool blankets.

I get asked this all the time, so I’ll share that our black iron bedframe is from Wayfair! I love that the open back allows the bed to be in front of the window without blocking any of our natural light.

For our Nightstands…

I decorated my nightstand with a thrifted champagne bucket filled with baseballs that I’ve found at yard sales and thrift stores. I don’t have quite enough to fill the entire bucket, so I added a layer of crumpled tissue paper at the bottom of the bucket to bring the balls up closer to the top.

I have just one with blue lacing, and it’s my favorite, so I always make sure it’s close to the top.

I found this glass jewelry box while thrifting and love the look of it filled with seashells.

The gold-leaf oyster shell near my lamp was a project I did with the gals at my Bespoke Design Retreat in 2023!

On the wall nearby I hung my favorite patriotic art piece called “Our Flag” by Fred Tripp.

For my husband’s side, I used one of my stashed French Lemonade bottles from World Market (see 14 classic World Market Finds – HERE), and then a few red and blue books in the same saturated shades as the duvet.

Decorating the Mantle for Summer

Next I moved across the room to decorate our mantle. We don’t use the fireplace during the summer, so I did something I wouldn’t normally do and placed our wicker trunk and suitcases (that I find while thrifting at Brimfield) in front of the fireplace for our seating area.

I have a post HERE about how I added the straps to this wicker basket to give it a more antique feel.

The tennis racket on the wall is another throw back to a classic summer game. The metal piece above it is another Brimfield find – a neat old water meter cover from New York.

For the mantle itself, I used my white & red throw blanket from IKEA as a bunting for the base layer.

Then I added some red & blue vintage linen books.

And a sea-gull picture I thrifted from the John Audubon Society. I love how it ties in with the beach theme and the shells throughout the room.

Lastly I topped the look off with some sprigs of very realistic looking blackberries from Magnolia. Blackberries grow wild everywhere through the Pacific Northwest – so the sight of them, and their smell is such a reminder of summer.

Near my Desk…

Back on the other side of the room, near my office desk, I have a dress form manakin wearing my Mother’s wedding dress. I found this navy uniform while thrifting and thought they looked sweet side by side.

My husband was in the army, and I sensed a tiny bit of rivalry stir up in him when he saw it, but he humored me and my love of the patriotic sailor ideal.

The last area I decorated in our room is my small green card catalog dresser that is near our door.

I like to keep one of my knock–off Ballard designs bulletin boards on the wall here for pinning up seasonal decor and this summer was no different! I added a charming crab print I had found, a DIY handkerchief sailboat, a vintage hand-written postcard, and a gold locket.

I love how the crab print draws back to beach vacations, and the postcard can feel nostalgic like it’s from someone vacationing far from home, or from a navy sailor away from family – and can’t you just imagine there being a picture of him inside the locket?

I kept with the more neutral tones of the picture and added some vintage books in those same colors. In another thrifted bucket I added some collected sea-shells, and topped it off with a vintage black and white picture of a group of friends in bathing suits from the early 1900s.

Downstairs Summer Decorating

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the downstairs is in a bit of upheaval as we work through all of the necessary repairs. I found that the sweet shelf in our fireside room might be the one and only place that I could decorate without worrying about it being potentially disrupted.

So I used my white soup tureens, some blue and white ironstone, and another cute vintage tennis racket and made it festive for the season.

The final detail across the front is these vintage blue and white envelopes that I strung together with red and white bakers twine and paperclips!

Thank you for being here, I hope you have a lovely summer!

Related Blog Posts:

• Summer Bedroom Design | 2023
• Finding Elegant Summer Decorations at the Dollar Tree
• How to Style Thrifted Decorations for Summer
• Easy, Festive & Patriotic Summer Living Room Decor
• Ways to Decorate for Summer with Thrifted Finds

And on Pinterest:

• Vintage Summer Inspiration
• Vintage Fourth of July
• Thrifting Tips & Tricks
• DIY Projects

Pin these Summer Decorating Tips for Later: