Hello Summer! The hot weather is final here and we’re looking at our first summer heat wave this weekend, so I’m putting the pedal to the metal (I really had to restrain myself from saying “petal to the metal”) and quickly getting our home in order.
I do the bulk of our cool-weather-to-warm-weather-changeover in the spring, but there’s still a few lingering things that I like to refresh come summer…
1. Swap out the curtains, especially the ones in our bedroom – I have a heavy set of curtains that we use all winter, but come summer I like to switch to these lighter ones from Ikea that still let the air flow but give us a bit of privacy in the evenings.
2. Rotate our art – Winter trees and other black and white prints come down, and happy, colourful beaches and abstracts go up. It’s such a quick way to breathe summertime energy into our home, particularly the bathrooms and our living room. If you’re looking for some happy and inspiring art, check out my beaches, abstracts, and flower photographs.
3. Tuck away books and blankets – I keep a light blanket within reach of the sofa for those days that I get a bit too much sun and I feel a little chilly come evening. Otherwise blankets and books get put away, and I fill our home with magazines and drag out our hammock for lazy summer reading.
4. Summer bedding – In the winter I’m all about duvets and blankets and flannel sheets, but as the weather starts to warm in April I slowly start to switch the layers over to summer fabrics. I trade the flannel sheets for linen and I reconfigure the layers.
During the winter months I like my bed as so, from bottom to top:
- a fitted flannel sheet
- a flat flannel sheet
- a winter duvet
- a blanket folded at the foot of the bed for those extra chilly nights
But in the summer I like:
- a linen fitted sheet
- a linen flat sheet
- a medium weight blanket
- a summer duvet folded and at the ready at the bottom of the bed
5. Flowers – In the winter we try to buy a bouquet every month, but once the garden starts blooming I like to make little clusters every week and spread them throughout our house
Is your home ready for summer? What do you do to get it there? I fantasize about having a retro teal fan by our bed, but I just don’t think I’ll be able to sleep with it blowing on me…