Modern Farmhouse Summer Living Room Decorating Ideas

Join in this summer home tour for beautiful and simple summer living room decorating ideas.  Easy ways to incorporate some summer decor in your home without spending a lot of time or money.

Summer Decorating

There’s just a little over a week left until summer officially arrives and I’ve been working on adding a few summer touches in our home.  I don’t make a lot of changes between spring and summer {other than working on our backyard patio!}, but it’s always nice to add a pops of summer.  For me, summer decor is all about simplifying things and bringing a little of the outdoor beauty in.  It doesn’t have to take much time or effort – just a few simple touches to celebrate the season!

This week I’m going to be joining in a couple of summer home tours {check back tomorrow for our summer kitchen!} to share our summer home with you. Up first, is our summer living room as part of Krista’s Seasonal Simplicity Summer Series. You can find a new collection of summer home tours every day this week over at The Happy Housie, so be sure to stop by for a ton of beautiful summer decor inspiration!  I hope you enjoy it!

Our Living Room

Our living room/family room is right off of our open kitchen and one of the main rooms that we hang out in. Despite it being one of our most used rooms, it’s probably the room that’s actually had the least amount of updates too.  I started a little mini-makeover about five years ago and updated the fireplace and mantel.  I also took down our drapes and put in some nice chunky molding around the windows.  And that’s pretty much where the big updates end.

We’ve had all of the furniture since we moved in almost 18 years ago.  That GIANT television was an exciting purchase way back in the day, but I’ve been begging my husband to let me get rid of it for years now. It’s actually the main reason that we can’t come to any decisions about a new layout and furniture choices.  It’s really hard to design a room around that thing!  I’d also love to close in the two alcoves just above the fireplace – maybe some shiplap going right across, and place a flat screen up there.  Unfortunately, that’s also been nixed by my hubby.

Anyways, if you have any ideas of what furniture and layouts you think would work best, I’d love to hear them!  I think I’ve just been staring at the space for so long that I can’t make any kind of decision.  Hopefully, we’lll have some budget and inspiration to move forward on a little makeover within the next year or two, but for now, I’m just trying to keep things looking modern with some simple decor touches.

Simple Summer Living Room Decorating Ideas

I like to give our main rooms a little refresh each season and switch around a few of the decor items.  I’ll usually give the room a deep cleaning while I’m doing it, so it really doesn’t really take a lot of extra time.  Even if you don’t necessarily decorate for summer, you can still incorporate a few of these ideas for a little mini room makeover.  So here are my favorite tips for simple summer living room decorating…

Switch up the throw cushions

Changing your throw pillows is one of the easiest and quickest ways to change things up in a room.  If you can, stick with just purchasing new pillow covers {and not the whole pillow} to make storage easier and cut down on costs.  In the summer, look for lighter fabrics and your favorite colors to really add some of your personality to the room. You don’t even need a lot of pillows – just a few can really make an impact!

Add some fresh flowers

Unfortunately, it might not always be possible to have fresh flowers around, but summer is the best time of year to either “shop your yard” or get some great flower deals at the grocery store.  We just finished our lilac season and I was spoiled for a couple of weeks with fresh blooms to pick from the yard.  I was sad to see them go, but thankfully, lilac season is followed with another one of my favorite flowers – peonies!  Even some fresh greenery in a small jar or vase can add some life to the room.

Use faux greenery or stems

When fresh flowers and greenery aren’t available, there are some beautiful faux items that look almost as good. {too bad they didn’t smell the same!}  I especially like to tuck in little sprigs of faux greenery into vignettes or baskets for just a little pop of color. {P.S. Can you spot one of our dogs in the photo below?  She’s in one of her favorite spots.}

If you want to keep things simple, faux stems are perfect for that with no watering or maintenance required. And since my watering can doesn’t need to be used for watering, it can be dressed up too!

Have Fun with Chalkboards

I’m definitely not the best artist around, but I love playing around with chalkboards and have quite a few of them around the house.  If you like changing things up each season, they’re a great way to do that without having extra items to store or move around.  Just wipe them clear and start fresh with a new seasonal image or saying. You can find all of my chalkboard tips and tricks HERE {including the best way to clean them!}

Change up the area rug.

This one is obviously not something you’d do every season, but if your room needs a boost, a new area can really transform the space.  Our dog actually chewed a couple of great big holes in our last area rug, so we did need to get a new one.  I was a little smarter with this one and chose a low pile option that she can’t really chew. It also has a lot of color variations that is awesome for covering up any little stains, spills, or discolorations that occur with kids and pets.  I would have liked to have purchased a slightly bigger rug, but the next size up was out of the budget.  It’s a lot better than a rug with holes in it though!

Decorate a tray

Using a tray for a simple summer vignette is a pretty way to add some seasonal decor without needing a lot of items. Having a small, contained space keeps everything looking neat and tidy and it can easily be moved if needed.

I hope you enjoyed the tour and find the tips helpful. If you’re just joining me for the first time on the blog hop, I’m so glad you were able to drop in.  I’d love for you to follow along. Hopefully, we’ll meet again!

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More Summer Home Tours

I hope you can join us all week long for some beautiful summer home tours! Grab a cup of coffee and tour around as we all open up a little bit of our homes to you. I hope they inspire you to do a little summer decorating of your own around your home.  🙂

Monday

The Happy Housie // Maison de Pax // Shabbyfufu // Just a Girl and Her Blog

Inspiration for Moms // Clean & Scentsible // House of Wood // Summer Adams

And sharing the rest of this week…

Tuesday

Sincerely Marie Designs // House by Hoff // Rambling Renovators
Town and Country Living // Newly Woodwards

Craftberry Bush // On Sutton Place // Designthusiasm // Zevy Joy

Wednesday

Bless’er House // Finding Silver Pennies // Rooms for Rent// Amber Tysl

Deeply Southern Home // Two Twenty One// A Burst of Beautiful // Making it in the Mountains

Thursday

The DIY Mommy // The Turquoise Home // Nina Hendrick // Home Made Lovely

So Much Better with Age // Maison de Cinq // Paint Me Pink
Southern State of Mind // Jenna Kate at Home