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Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

Welcome! I’m happy you stopped by! If it is your first time here, I am so glad you are here. Today I’m joining up with Gina from The Shabby Creek Cottage and her fun Summer Tour of Homes! You can find the entire line up of links at the end of the post. The sun has been out here and I’ve been LOVING life. That happens when the sun shines in Seattle :-). Actually, I feel like the NW is a hidden gem that people miss out on since they think it rains all the time. Shhhh, little do they know we have absolutely gorgeous usually mild weather and when it does rain, we are grateful because it is what makes everything so green and lush year around. So, enough small talk about the weather!! Let’s talk about summer decorating, shall we?

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

Ya’ll probably know if you’ve been here for awhile that I don’t decorate FOR the seasons much but rather I LOVE LOVE LOVE letting my home evolve WITH the seasons.

Evolving through the seasons is all a part of that slow process of decorating that I wrote about in my recent post!

I love each season for different reasons. But summer is one of my favorites because of the light that streams through the windows and the pretty plants and flowers inside and out! I’m going to be planting more vines, trees and flowers because I love using them in the house, too. Our yard started out pretty barren since it was a brand new house without much landscaping (you can see my dream of a Secret Garden post here), so adding plants is one of the projects I’ve started working on recently! My budget and time is limited, but each little bit I do makes me happy.

The vine on my dining room console in that awesome glass jug (new flea market find!) is a stem from my Wisteria from the deck, it grows like crazy so I never mind cutting a branch to bring inside! My little brass animal family is hanging out here in the dining room for awhile. If you are wondering about the plate wall, you can find the post about how it randomly came together here and here. The curtains were made from old fabric I’ve had for ages.

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

My dining room is one of my favorite spaces in my home in all the seasons. It has come such a long way from the humble beginnings of ghastly flesh colored walls, awful brown carpet and the standard builder lighting five years ago. Every year it looks different. Actually, every month it seems to look different. Heheh.

While it has evolved slowly, I love adding a little bit to it every year. We just got new chairs for the heads of the table, but I’ll show more and talk about that in another post. :-)

**Update: Many have asked about where I got the light fixture in my dining room! It’s an outdoor lantern that I purchased it from Pottery Barn, here is the link!

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

I just can’t help myself. Quirky random animals have taken over my house. They just make me smile. The bunny is from Anthropologie…who clearly understands my love for quirky animals.

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

The family room wall I’ve been working on for years (right?) is coming together and I’m SO happy with it! The gallery wall is filled with so many happy travel memories it is perfect for summer dreaming. I love how it is perfectly set off now by the new shallow cabinet and our new glass lamps from HomeGoods! The clamshell bowl is from Wisteria.

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

This whole wall works so well to complement the style of our kitchen and family room, without shouting at me or calling too much attention to itself.

I’ll tell you more about the lamps in another post too, they were a great find!

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

I found that adorable little stool at Serena and Lily on sale over the Memorial Day weekend. I love the texture of the rustic wood and the fun white dipped legs are very cute too. It’s a perfect little table for a cup or book next to the chair!

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

You can’t come to my house without enjoying a little trip to the coffee station. It is a party all by itself in any season. And, I have way too much fun changing up how it looks. Somewhere I saw a branch hanging from brackets like this as a towel bar so when I saw this stick outside I thought WHY NOT! I’ll try it! It’s just a fun summery touch and actually very practical here too!

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

One of my favorite things each season is the fun I have changing colors around to suit my mood. I am smitten by fresh greens and teal blues right now. The more I add, the more I love it. The pitcher came from TJ Maxx and the cream and sugar set is Fiestaware from Macy’s.

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

And of course, the cookbooks get rearranged too both for what types of cookbooks we might use but also the colors that make me happy. I know. It takes so little to keep me amused. You can find many of my favorite cookbooks and decorating books in my Amazon shop. The wood iPad stand is from Pottery Barn!

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

Speaking of being amused and all the quirky animals that seem to find their way to our house, I found that whale plate at a shop I love over in Poulsbo called Modern Mercantile (near where I live). I was shopping with my daughter Courtney and we were discussing how the plate needed to be in our house and that even if we didn’t have room we would make room (because we can’t pass up any whales). We loved it because he was a serious classy whale, not a silly cartoon whale. Those are the kinds of random things we talk about when we shop. After we carried on for awhile about summer decorating and changing  our home for the seasons (without mentioning blogging at all — just being our regular strange selves haha), the lady working at the counter did a double take realized she was a reader of my blog! Well, she knew she was a reader but didn’t know the blog was mine. That always takes me by surprise, to find anyone who reads my blog out in the real world!

I’m sure she will be happy to see where the whale plate ended up!

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

I still love my little chalkboard on the fridge. Sometimes we’ll put an inspiring little saying there. It is a great reminder that finding joy in every season and every day is a choice!

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

This is The Inspired Room headquarters, the tiny office where I spend a lot of time talking to you all :-). And where I spend a lot of time gazing out the window at the summer sun.

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

I’ve had these little anchor hooks sitting around my house for awhile and when I found the brass “captain” plaque a couple of weeks ago, I decided that they would be the perfect nautical touch for under our map wall in the hallway just outside my office. These little hooks are so fun for getting shopping bags or the dog leashes and harnesses up off the floor, or just for looking cute all by themselves! I found a similar captain plaque online and put one in my shop here, and also a set of cute gold nautical hooks here!

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

I still have the flea market dresser here in the entry! The blue glass water jug lamp I made is now sitting on it and I LOVE it here!

I found the cute frames at TJ Maxx the other day and the basket was from TJ Maxx a couple of years back.

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

The watercolor print in the blue frame is a free printable from Gina, our summer house tour host! It says ’embrace the adventure.’ I love that! You can get your own free download of it here. And you can read about my little air plant and elephant here.

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

If you missed my weekend post, I shared a quick bathroom makeover project! You can see all the details and more pics of the recent room refresh here. You’ll also notice that the awesome DIY faux tin ceiling tile backsplash is still up years later!

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

This is our daughter’s room, all dressed up in a summery coral. We just finished the room and added the freestanding bookcases about six months ago. It doubles as a guest room and my little reading escape, so it is a room we are very happy to have! 

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

Since summer is ideally about being outside (especially since our weather is so lovely and not usually too hot like in many parts of the country), I spend a lot of time working in my yard or hanging out here on my front porch.

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

It’s a great place to hang out and take the laptop for a change of scenery. You can read about our new outdoor wingbacks here and the fun faceted hanging terrarium here.

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

Soon I’ll show you some updates to our back porch and patio area in back!

I’m getting so excited to see how each new thing helps transform our outdoor spaces, as well as the indoor ones!

If you made it all the way to the end of this post, thank you. It was picture overload and I didn’t even get around to the entire house!

But I promise I’ll have LOTS more to show you this summer :) so I hope you’ll hang out here with me! I even have big news coming up!

**UPDATE: See my 2015 summer house tour here!

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

Decorating for Summer {Summer Tour of Homes}

Jump-start your style and refresh your home with budget-friendly and practical ideas from my book Simple DecoratingYou’ll learn to embrace your style, reimagine your spaces, and transform hard-to-love areas into favorite destinations.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure and visit the rest of the tours, all the links for each day are posted below. 

Here’s the complete line up for each day this week’s Summer Tour of Homes! Enjoy!

Monday, June 2nd

The Shabby Creek Cottage
The Nester
At The Picket Fence (Vanessa)
Thistlewood Farms
The Inspired Room

Tuesday, June 3rd

The Handmade Home
My Fabuless Life
Finding Home
In My Own Style
The Hunted Interior

Wednesday, June 4th

Inspired By Charm
Jennifer Rizzo
Madigan Made
Makely School for Girls
Funky Junk Interiors

Thursday, June 5th

Jones Design Company
Beneath My Heart
The Pennington Point
White Buffalo Styling Co.
Southern Hospitality

Friday, June 6th

At the Picket Fence (Heather)
Desert Domicile
Tatertots & Jello
Home Stories A to Z
Live Laugh Rowe

56 Comments

  1. Nicki

    Your home looks so fresh and breezy. There are so many touches I love- the white plate wall, the “captain” plate and hooks, all the drapery, the fact that you can change out your pops of color and have your home feel different with the seasons…etc., etc. Fun tour!

    Reply
  2. Lucy

    I love the collection of white serving plates you have on the dining room wall. It reminds me if my Grandmother’s style -white soft furnishings and accessories with dark wood everywhere! I also love your map wall -I have plans for something like that in my own dining room!

    Reply
    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Thanks Lucy! I’ve been collecting those platters forever. I love that mix of old vintage. Have fun with your maps in the dining room!

      :-) Thanks for stopping in!

      Reply
  3. Louise

    Melissa, I love how everything looks! My favorite, the whale platter, a touch of Nantucket for me. Love the clear lamps, especially your DIY jug lamp. Love the white and soft blues around, especially in the kitchen. Love the creamer and sugar set and pitcher. Especially special, the stick hanging from the corbels, that’s brilliant. I’m hoping it’s a bamboo stick because bamboo tries every year to take over our back yard, and now here’s something positive it can do! Your office is a dream. The house looks totally summery–so much to do with the plants and flowers you have inside, and the added amount of white, if I’m correct. The light coming in from outside–that gray, rainy outside–well, what a nice house to let it in!

    Reply
    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Well, thank you so much Louise for all your kind words!!!

      PS. Yes. That is indeed a bamboo stick! :-)

      Reply
  4. Alana in Canada

    Everything is just lovely! I am loving fresh greens and blues for summer, too. FIY, I tried going to Shabby Creek Cottages via your link and it didn’t work. Thanks for inviting us over!

    Reply
    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Oh, hmmm, not sure what went wrong but I fixed it :-) thanks for letting me know!!! And thanks for coming by today!

      Reply
  5. Cheryl @ The Creative Me and My McG

    As always your home is just lovely! I am a follower of all the participants on today’s tours – but it so great to see their homes all together – thanks for the inspiration – I love your coffee station!

    Reply
  6. Vanessa

    I’m sighing and swooning over here! Your home is so stunning! It has so many beautiful elements and yet is so relaxed and welcoming at the same time which to me is the perfect combination. Speaking from a fellow Pacific NW gal I have to agree with you that we live in the best kept secret, right? ;-) I’m so thrilled and honored to be part of Gina’s tour with you today!

    Vanessa

    Reply
  7. Marty@A Stroll Thru Life

    Oh I love your gorgeous area, I lived in the NW for years. Your home looks so bright and cheery and I love you added touches of color here and there. The porch is fabulous and would be where I would be all the time enjoying your fabulous weather.

    Reply
  8. Lindsay

    I love your summer home, Melissa! My favorite thing to do year round, but especially in the summer is bringing in fresh cuttings of greenery, just like your wisteria vine! We’re hoping to plant one of those soon. They’re gorgeous :)

    Reply
  9. Faith

    LOVE! You are an inspiration to me. I just started a decorating blog a couple weeks ago and you are one of my main inspirations. I love your house. Everything is bright and fresh and fun! Love following you!

    Reply
    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Aw, thank you Faith! And congratulations on your blog! Very exciting :-) I’m happy that my blog has inspired yours, welcome to blogland! xo

      Reply
  10. Lynn Richards

    Love this. Your home is gorgeous, your style is breezy and beautiful-just right for summertime relaxing. It truly invites people to sit and relax.
    xo

    Reply
  11. Funky Junk Interiors

    Light, bright, white, and wonderful! Melissa! So gorgeous! Every square inch is like living a dream. I love how you’ve utilized every square inch… thanks for the eye candy!

    Reply
  12. Mida

    What did you use to mount the chalkboard frame to the fridge?….it looks so cute!

    Reply
  13. Carly Fromm

    Hi! Where can I get the blue pillow on the beige and white armchair next to the Serena and Lilly stool?

    Reply
  14. Kathy@The Daily Nest

    Hi Melissa! Your summer tour is absolutely gorgeous and fun!! Love all your little attention to details! The branch across your coffee station is so simple but that’s what I love about your styling! Great job! Take care Kathy@The Daily Nest

    Reply
  15. Kathy @ In Quiet Places

    You are so creative and talented, your home looks wonderful.

    The tour of homes sounds fun, I have only followed blog home tours at Christmas but I am definitely checking this summer tour out. About the only decorating I do in the summer is setting fruit and veggies in the kitchen windows for the sunlight or to bring in a bouquet of wildflowers or cut my flowers to put in a vase or jar.

    Reply
  16. Cynthia @ her lovely nest

    it’s all so lovely Melissa, thanks for the ‘picture overload’…you know we love it! what a treat to see so many rooms in one post, you can really get an idea of the flow [which looks effortless, but I know you work super-hard on it always!]. great post!

    Reply
  17. Ellen

    I love the shallow cabinet and the gallery wall. Can you post the paint color for the cabinet? Doesn’t look exactly the same as the walls.

    Reply
    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      The cabinet actually came that color! It’s from RH, and the color we chose is called antique taupe. Hope that helps!

      Reply
  18. Julia@Cuckoo4Design

    Love the touch of summer in your home and what would summer be without turquoise. Your porch is gorgeous too.

    Reply
  19. Paige @ Little Nostalgia

    Your kitchen!! I seriously think the clouds just parted and now I’m hearing angels sing in my ear. It’s just gorgeous. Your whole house is, but I’m especially enamored with the kitchen. Beautiful job!

    Reply
  20. Marnie

    Hi Melissa… I especially like your coffee station. Would you be able to share where you got the storage jars with the turquoise lids that hold your coffee and sugar. They are so cute. Many thanks.

    Reply
    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Hi Marnie! I got them at World Market awhile back, they may still be in stores but I don’t see them online!

      Reply
  21. Sheila S

    What a great tour post – of course your home is gorgeous and the photos lovely but you also crafted the post so I feel like I just had a fun visit with you!
    Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  22. Ashley Urke | Domestic Fashionista

    Everything is so beautiful Melissa! I have been very much inspired by your kitchen shelve styling as well as your porch! Adding little elements of your inspiration into my own space!

    Reply
  23. Angela

    Your home is beautiful! You inspire me and make me so excited to turn my house into a home. :) I always look forward to seeing your posts!

    Reply
  24. tonya

    Hi Melissa, thanks again for sharing your home. Your use of unique things you love throughout your home is always inspiring.Your home and porch are so inviting that I feel like a close friend who could stop by with my empty coffee cup and we could sit and chat. Thank you!

    Reply
  25. Richella Parham

    Your home looks so lovely, Melissa, and it just looks so HAPPY in the summertime! I’m thinking that summer must be the most wonderful time to be in the Pacific Northwest. Southeast? Not so much. But we’re enjoying our early summer days!

    Reply
  26. Shaunna

    Lady, your home is GORGEOUS. Seriously, such effortless and bright style. It is lovely, but still looks like a home meant to be lived in…love it always. I shouted out your tour today on the blog–happy weekend!
    :-)
    shaunna

    Reply
  27. Jennifer Rizzo

    I always love how you put everything together, you have such a great eye. Thanks for sharing your home with us!

    Reply
  28. Meghann

    Love love love your use of color in your decor! Curious, where do you find your cute kitchen towels?

    Reply
  29. Anne

    Can you tell me the dark gray/blue paint color used on the kitchen cabinets?

    Reply
  30. Jacquie

    Hi Melissa – my first time visiting and I love your home tour! I always like to look for new ideas as I too am big on seasonal changes at home (especially since a few of our rooms are so awkward that it’s impossible to move the furniture).

    I’d love a tip — how do you store items when you change out seasonal decor? By color? By type of item? I just don’t have a good system for that and would love to hear what others do.

    Thanks!

    Reply
  31. Jo

    Could you share the colour of the grout in your kitchen backsplash? Thank you!

    Reply
  32. Sara Gue

    Your home is beautiful!!! I have gotten so much inspiration from looking through your pictures. So many ideas I am now ready to execute. I’m excited! :) I have one question… Where did you find your table runners? I looked through multiple posts and read the comments to see if the source was listed but I was unsuccessful. Thank you for sharing your home with us!!! I look forward to seeing more :)

    Reply
  33. Justine

    where did your fireplace stone come from?

    Reply
  34. Donna Roberts

    The drapes in your office are perfect! What is the name of that fabric?
    I really enjoy your home tours.

    Reply
  35. Seema

    Your house is so beautiful & eclectic! I love it!! I love all of the blue and white plant pots you have……where did you find them?

    Reply

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