Summer is here and for many of us that means more time spent relaxing at home (or playing in the garden!) If you are looking for summer home and garden inspiration then you have come to the right place. Today I am so excited to be joining 29 other fabulous bloggers for the Blogger’s Best Summer Home Tours hosted by my sweet friend Kelly of The Tattered Pew!
If you are coming over from or if you are just stopping by for a visit, I am so happy to have you here! Come right on in to the kitchen of our 100 year-old (Kentucky) yellow brick home!
Last week I welcomed everyone into my Cheerful Summer Kitchen (Vintage French with a Citrus Twist!) As always, my decor is inspired by what is going on outside my window along with my vintage thrifted finds.
From mid-June to July my old fashioned lilies and Annabelle hydrangeas are in full bloom in my backyard cottage garden, so I always use these FREE flowers in my summer decor.
I love that I can see the lilies in bloom while enjoying my morning coffee in the kitchen window nook.
This is the perfect example of bringing the outdoors in.
Fresh Flowers and colorful fruit are easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy decorative summer accents!
A small gathering of pretty summer flowers can have just as much of a style impact as a large floral centerpiece. This colorful willy-nilly bouquet of flowers and herbs from my garden looks so pretty under glass.
The colorful flowers pop against the white cabinetry filled with ironstone.
I am just loving the cheerful summer vibes in the kitchen right now. The summer kitchen refresh all started with the little bouquet in the green bottle. Just another reminder to enjoy the little things in life!
The sink and pantry area could use a summer pop of color, but the dishwasher just broke so I am trying to keep the area clutter free. My husband is also getting ready to build the island, so the next time you see this view it will be a bit different. Change is good!
Check out the full post for more photos of our kitchen and all the details of my Cheerful Summer Kitchen Refresh (French Vintage with a Citrus Twist!)
Simple Summer Decorating with Fresh Flowers
I like to arrange my bouquets outside on my vintage sink potting bench while listening to the birds and bees around the garden.
Anyone can put together a simple arrangement of hydrangeas and lemon slices in an old mason jar. So vintage!
A small mixed bouquet in a sweet vintage thrifted vase like the one shown here is perfect for a small table or nightstand.
A Simple Summer Bedside Bouquet
I love the romantic summer vibe of combining nautical elements with flowers. It makes me have sweet summer dreams of our future beach cottage where my free time will be spent either combing the beach for unusual shells or gardening to my heart’s content.
I especially love having fresh flowers in my music room for summer. The room has such a romantic Frenchy-Victorian vibe that it seems awkward not to have flowers on the little lyre table all summer long.
Even though I grow my own flowers, I still won’t pass up a pretty summer flowers on clearance at the grocery store. This arrangement is a mix of what could be salvaged from a “past it’s prime” grocery store bouquet supplemented with flowers from my cottage garden.
My 93 year-old grandmother is just as lovely (and musically talented) as she was here at age 16 standing among the hollyhocks at my great grandmother’s farm. I inherited my love of gardening and many of musical talents from her.
Here is the summer staircase area from a few years ago featuring a pretty French basket filled with flowers. It looks like a very expensive mix of flowers, but it is actually just a couple of bouquets I found on clearance for just a few dollars at the grocery store. I removed any wilting flowers and filled in the gaps with flowers from my garden.
One of the simplest summer decor ideas ever…flowers in a pretty basket! By the way, I arrange flowers informally and in “drifts” rather than trying to make them perfectly symmetrical and balanced. The informal arrangements are more realistic to me as they mimic cottage and naturalized gardens.
In the next two weeks the hydrangeas will continue to shine, while the butterfly bush, purple coneflowers, coreopsis, various herbs and colorful annuals will be readily available for use in arrangements. I just pruned back my tired salvias, so they should flush out some pretty new purple blooms for July bouquets too.
Summery cottage garden themed vignettes are so easy to put together using vintage dishes with floral patterns, gardening books, and fresh flowers of course!
Okay, maybe ferns aren’t flowers, but they are part of my daily flower watering routine …so they count! I LOVED the simplicity of a fern in a summery boho basket as a centerpiece on our farm table last year. I might repeat this look this year with some American flags in my upcoming patriotic decor tour!
Right now I am still enjoying my late spring-to-summer simple decor refresh in the dining room, especially my new area rug from Birch Lane. The garden elements on the farm table still work for early summer. Less is more in decor for me right now since I am spending more time outside in the garden and we are also in the middle of another mini-renovation (more about that in a bit.)
While I love decorating seasonally and for holidays, I have been working toward creating looks that have staying power from season to season so I am not wearing myself out trying to change out every little detail seasonally. I really like that the mix of traditional, cottage and French farmhouse decor I styled back in early spring still looks great for summer.
Because the look is simpler, I have not gotten tired of it as fast either!
This summer I wanted to use more blue in the living room for summer to tie in with all the blue in the rug in the dining room since the rooms are adjacent. In this photo you can see how two cotton velvet blue pillow covers and the colorful orange tree tapestry pillow on the sofa worked harmoniously with the dining room rug.
Since I am currently using the orange tapestry pillow in the kitchen nook, I added ivory macrame pillows to lighten things up and add extra texture in the living room. This pillow color combo also coordinates with the neutral and Chinosierie vignettes on the antique sideboard behind the sofa.
I have been loving the vintage cottage garden vignettes on the antique sideboard since I styled them for the spring Pinterest challenge. For summer I simply switched out a few of the spring birds, paperwhites and other springy accents for chinoiserie pottery and moss spheres. A large basket of hydrangeas is the centerpiece for today’s tour.
While on the subject of summer flowers and gardens, I had to share this amazing book with you! I fell in love with the William Morris design cover artwork, but the book itself is a must-have for lovers of pretty vintage graphics, and anything garden related!
The book deserves a post of it’s own, so I will open it up and share some of it with you in an upcoming post.
Summer Makeover Messes…it’s an annual thing around here!
Well, when I signed up for this tour I had big plans for a full summer home tour with every room perfectly styled, but here we are again in the middle of a makeover mess! Since my brother is doing most of the work and he is only available certain days, it just so happened that he started the renovation right when I was getting ready for the tour. It is what it is!
Here is a sneak peek of the side door/mud entry makeover…for now, imagine if you will, that what you are seeing through the doorway is a charming old-world wall treatment rather than a mess of ripped off faux shiplap, peeling wallpaper, cracked plaster, and power tools everywhere! Hopefully this will be a fast mini- makeover and everything will be looking great for the Fourth of July! Since it has been to crazy and messy to take photos of our full summer living room this year, here’s a few patriotic living room photos form last year:
Once again, hydrangeas add simple beauty to a summer vignette.
For more festive vintage Fourth of July decorating ideas, don’t miss the July 2021 issue of Country Sampler Magazine 🙂
Well friends, I hope you have enjoying seeing how I use fresh flowers as simple summer decor and that you are inspired to try a new bouquet or two! Now it’s time to continue on with the tours over at My Thrift Store Addiction I know you will love what Cecilia shares! Don’t forget to visit all the other beautiful home tours via the links below.
Thanks for visiting today! Happy summer!
Amber
Blogger’s Best Summer Home Tour
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
10 Comments
You did it again sweet Amber, I love this tour. All your flowers are stunning especially the hydrangeas. They are my favorite summer flowers. They look beautiful around your home.
Love the flowers on your front porch too with the lemon slices. Steals my summer heart.
Pinned of course. Great touring with you.
June 18, 2021 at 10:14 amYou know I love everything about your home, right?! But girl, your flowers and garden are seriously amazing too. I can’t even with the amount of watering you must do. Is it a chore or do you just love it because you are surrounded by such beauty? Hope you enjoy your summer and y’all have a wonderful Father’s Day!
June 18, 2021 at 11:39 amYour summer flowers are so beautiful Amber and so inspiring. I am so going to start putting lemons in my water vases for summer. What a great idea! Always love everything you do Amber. Happy Summer!
June 18, 2021 at 7:18 pmAmber I loved all of your summer decor and beautiful flowers! But I have to say that your hydrangeas and lilies combined were my absolute favorite combo! I have both of these flowers and can’t wait to try it in our kitchen too. Thanks for the inspiration and for joining me this week!!
June 19, 2021 at 12:54 amAll the pops of orange, yellow, and green look so pretty in your home Amber! Lovely!
June 19, 2021 at 1:24 amAs always, it is a pleasure to see how you’ve decorated your home for the season. The floral arrangements that you created are stunning.
June 19, 2021 at 6:38 amAmber,
June 19, 2021 at 7:29 amThis is such a stunning post. I loved every arrangement. Such a beautiful way to decorate for summer.
Amber your gardens are so pretty! And your kitchen…gah!!!! I love all the green and orange – its such a pretty color combo for summer! xoxo
June 24, 2021 at 3:34 pmAmber, your pretty flower arrangements and gardens just speak to my plant lady soul. So much gorgeousness all around! I’m loving your kitchen renovation and can’t wait to see the island. Also, if you have tips on maintaining ferns, please e-mail me! I feel like I really struggle with mine for some reason.
June 26, 2021 at 6:42 pmOne more quick note: I wasn’t able to pin this post because the image seemed broken. Thought I would let you know. Hugs!
June 26, 2021 at 6:43 pm