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After a busy spring, are you ready for the long, relaxed days of June, July and August?
Here at FrenchGardenHouse, the garden is in full bloom, and the little school across the street from our house is almost out for summer.
As days get warmer I’m ready for a long Sunday afternoon reading a great book on our back garden deck, iced tea at hand. Or for summer fun as guests start to arrive to our home. with evenings filled with family and friends, gathered around our fire bowl after a delicious meal.
Are you looking for a few ways to embrace the bliss of summer?
HERE ARE FIVE TIPS TO HELP YOU STYLE YOUR HOME FOR SUMMER.
Bringing the garden indoors always amps up the impact of your decorating! Soothing green plants bring in summer’s energy.
Just a few touches of green liven up this table setting. The green antique French glass jars each hold a few stems of hydrangea clipped from the garden. What bring this table to real life though, is the French ironstone tureen filled with ferns.
One of my all time favorites, a maidenhair fern has such fresh, beautiful color. For this display, above, I didn’t even add moss…I just placed a potted Maidenhair in the tureen, and layered the bottom with a few fern fronds cut from my garden to hide the small area of plastic pot that stuck out a little!
Decorating with houseplants is an easy way to bring the freshness of summer inside. Green plants refresh each room, and bring in new energy.
Vintage Green Tray | Blue Opaline Vase | Opal Carnelian Necklace | Antique French Mother-of-Pearl Opera Glasses
You only have to look outdoors to find some pieces with just the right texture and feeling to create an interesting display.
Antique Rare Mannequin | Architectural Salvage Baluster
This section of an old baluster, from a circular outdoor stairway, has all the French scrolls, roses and details we love! Propped next to an antique French mannequin and a vase of pink summer flowers, it has just the chic character needed and brings light and airiness to this commode top in the living room.
Adding just one of these antique, shabby, chippy painted salvage capital makes any corner speak volumes of garden parties, mint juleps, and a veranda, don’t you think? Imagine two, one on each side flanking the mirror over your mantel.
The season to slow down and take time to d r e a m is summer! Create a quiet, beautiful spot somewhere in your home or garden where you can dream big. Summer has a slower pace, so enjoy those days when time seems to stand still to dream up new plans.
All you need is a place to sit, a garden bench, a chair. Sooth your senses with beauty, and add a plump pillow to your seat to create a little oasis. This will be the perfect spot to drink a cup of morning coffee, and to relax in the evening and watch the starts if outdoors!
I’m sure that this will become one of your favorite special places at home.
I added this {new!} Linen BEE PILLOW to our little seating area just outside our kitchen door. It’s my favorite spot for a little reading break!
It’s so easy to add a few fresh touches to your regular decor. Here, a French painted garden tool tote serves drinks during gatherings.
These old totes are so handy, often they come with a handle, and divisions, so that you can stack a few glasses, straws, a bottle of your drink of choice, straws and garnishes all inside.
Drinks are served! With a decorative nod to the outdoors.
Echo the riot of color just outside your doors by infusing your decor with flowers. Fresh flowers are a given! But floral patterns are abundant and breathtaking on antique porcelains, and capture the essence of summer.
These antique figures, dressed in French Blue with hand painted summer flowers strewn all over their clothing embody a carefree summer, don’t they?
Made in the 1800’s, can’t you just imagine the meadows and gardens they walked by before they sat down, to savor a little sun and rest before going back home?
Of course, setting your summer tables with antique dishes in floral patterns is a sure fire way to bring the garden to your table. These spectacular bloom covered bowls are from 1891, and portray summer just as beautifully as they did over one hundred years ago.
Display a beautiful French country ironstone platter behind a stack of antique French plates, topped with an ironstone compote. They brighten up a corner with the beauty of a summer garden, butterflies, birds and garden flowers included!
There are so many ways to style your home for summer. Gather a few pieces from different rooms, and splurge on the things you love this season to liven up your home and help you savor the beauty of summer! I’ve got just the right pieces to introduce a bit of whimsy and summer to your home. Pieces that you will love, and keep forever.
Create rooms filled with all the things you find beautiful in life. Surrounding yourself with the things that are meaningful to you is the best way to live a beautiful life, and to express yourself.
coming next….. lots of summer entertaining, summer recipes, a collaboration with Brian Hoffman from Hoffman Media’s gorgeous Baking One Layer Cakes issue, and of course, all the latest antiques.
Shop for the best in French Antiques, furniture with the patina of age, vintage accessories to delight you and your family & friends, and French Country utilitarian pieces. Treasures that make your home fresh, beautiful, inspirational and uniquely yours. Visit our shop FrenchGardenHouse.com.
WHAT DO YOU CHANGE TO LIGHTEN UP YOUR HOME FOR SUMMER?
What an absolutely LOVELY post, Lidy!!! Every vignette looks so fresh….and SUMMERY!!!
I think I’m going to go find a maidenhair fern, put it in one of my mini urns and create a fresh
vignette for my kitchen island! As always, you’ve inspired me to create something fresh & beautiful!
Blessings, Beauty & Love to you dear Lidy!
xoxo Kathleen
Thank you Kathleen! I am sure that anything you put together will be beautiful. Blessings, beauty and love (so sweet!) to you too, friend.
I adore maidenhair ferns. It’s been ages since I had one in the house, though. Thanks for the reminder! Beautiful photos!
Thank you Jill! I especially love the maidenhair ferns in the summer. Sometimes, I’m lucky and they live long. Sometimes they don’t. But if you cut them way back (almost to the soil) and keep watering once a week, they come back.
Ah, so much beauty. The opaline vase is the prettiest thing ever and to include maidenhair ferns is so smart. They are lacy and so pretty.
I agree, Stacey, those lacey ferns make everything look beautiful! And the color….such a rich, bright green!
You make me want to go outside!
That necklace is gorgeous. The raw shapes of the stones is so unique.
What an inspiring post, Lidy. I love lightening up our home for summer. Replace the pewter on our hutch for blue & white china and bring out our carved shore birds. I love your maidenhair fern and think I’ll find one to put in the urn on our porch. Fresh flowers for the piano and, of course, freshening up our guest room for the inevitable onslaught of summer visitors. Everyone wants to come to Cape Cod in the summer! Thanks for all the ideas.
This is such a beautiful post, Lidy. Everything looks just lovely! You have shared some great decorating tips for Summer. I hope that you enjoy your day!!!
Thank you so much, Shannon! I hope you are enjoying a beautiful first week of June, too!
I’m ashamed to say I’ve managed to kill every maidenhair fern I’ve had. Maidenhair & Texas & me = certain death. It’s a crying shame, because I LOVE them! Yours is beautiful surrounded by all those treasures,Lidy. Enjoy that beautiful spot in your garden. ?
Oh, so many wonderful ideas! I’m going to shop my house today. Thanks, Lidy, you always inspire
Have fun, Janet! It’s always a joy to re-arrange our treasures for a seasonal look, isn’t it?
Love using architectural pieces to add interest and depth to a room or the garden. The best part is we never have to throw away any terra cotta planters that are broken. They are always repurposed to add a touch of antiquity.
Lidy, I cannot see from the picture, but is the candle from your own line of candles????
Lisa, I love the idea of adding broken pot pieces to the garden, I am sure that in your beautiful Italian garden, it looks amazing! Yes, the candles are from our FrenchGardenHouse candles, right now we have Lavande Provencale and Currant Verte in stock for the summer. They always remind me of trips to France!
Tell me how you take care of your maidenhair fern…Have not been successful with one in the house. Love all of your beautiful summer touches and of course your amazing collections. Happy Summer Lidy! xoxoxo’s
Shirley, they are kind of picky about where they want to be. They need more light (not sun) than anything else. I water 1x a week. I’ve had some forever, and my daughter’s mother-in-law had some huge ones that grew in the soil in her garden, no less! But they are quite delicate….sometimes you have to treat beautiful plants like (long lived) fresh flowers, I just buy another one if one dies.
I just love your posts. They inspire me and make me dream. Thank you. So glad I found your blog.
Thank you so very much, Cindy! That is so sweet of you to say. I’m so happy you are joining us here.
Just can’t say enough … I just love yours posts . Inspiring , beautiful passionate
Thank you thank you Chrissy
Lidy, I love everything in this post. I think Maidenhair ferns are so pretty, but unfortunately, I can’t seem to keep one alive more than a few weeks. Love the green in the glossy white ironstone. I also love the garden totes. The vintage wood just looks so good with ironstone, vintage silver and pretty French linens. Thanks for some more useful ideas. Happy Summer! Diana
Wonderful tips, Lidy! I love ferns inside, I just usually hang them too high to be climbing up and down to water them. Using a pedestal or table is a much better idea. The blue tray with compartments is so cute. Takes half the work out of serving drinks.
Thanks! Happy Summer!
Jane x
Hi Lidy,
So enjoyed all the photo’s and I to love the A. ferns, I don’t seam to have to good of luck with them but where I live it gets hot in the summer and even inside the air seems to bother them buttttttttttt every year I cut them back and they come back great so it must be the love I give it, lol. You have such great skills, thank you for always sharing~Happy summer~~~~~~~~~
I love maidenhair fern too. All your vignettes are beautiful.
I immediately relax when I read your posts. You seem to do things effortlessly.
Making your granola recipe tomorrow to take on our family beach vacation.
Have a nice week.
Lidy, I wish I could say that the pace slows for me in the summertime, but I still love this time of year. Cutting fresh blooms from the garden to enjoy inside is my favorite. Your sweet porcelain courting couple figurines look precious sitting beneath the lacy fronds of your beautiful fern. My track record with the maidenhair has not been good, but seeing yours makes me want to try again.
Thanks for all the wonderful ideas, and as usual, the delicious eye candy!
Thank you for the inspirational photos. I love using bottles as bud vases in my home. I haven’t changed much in my home this season to get ready for summer. I gravitate towards a light color palette throughout my home already. I do love to bring fresh flowers inside during the summer. I have a collection of vintage milk glass vases that look wonderful with fresh flowers.
Lisa, I don’t really change all that much, either! Just lighten up and maybe move some things into closets for a while to lighten the whole look. I love the way those milk glass vases look, one of my all time favorite displays are of milk glass with shells for summer.
What beautiful options! I especially love the tool tote for serving drinks! Pinning! -Marci @ Stone Cottage Adventures
It seems summer should be one of the easier times to decorate inside. I find it to be the hardest.
You have shared some really beautiful options.
Lisa
I just love your posts! They are so European and I always feel like I am in another country such as France…such gorgeous photos! Love the tablesetting!
Maria