SUMMER LIVING ROOM WITH A CALMING, NEUTRAL PALETTE
This season, I decided to go back to somewhat of a neutral palette in our summer living room. Similar to last year, I’ve brought in fresh cut greens to bring in the outdoors, but this year, I wanted to keep my pillows and textiles throughout the room more neutral. Since adding our blue vintage-inspired rug last fall, our living room has a different feel, and the rug is very dominant. With that in mind, I wanted the rest of the space to feel serene and calm, with a relaxed and airy vibe – much like the rest of our home this summer. Of course, my favorite blue and white pieces are sprinkled around as well, to pick up on the rug, and of course, as you know, they’re always my favorite, go-to accessories. Even though I’ve gone a little more toned-down with the colors, I’ve layered on the pattern and texture to add a lot of visual interest. Come on in, I’d love to show you around our calming, neutral summer living room! I’d also love to hear what you think – you can leave me a comment at the bottom of this post, I always love to hear from you, please don’t shy!
*Affiliate links are provided throughout, or at the bottom of this post for your shopping convenience – see my full disclosure policy here. A very BIG thank you to my partner, Tonic Living, for providing product for this post!
I’ve been saying it for a few weeks now, and I’ll say it again – I’ve recently found myself obsessing over woven materials, mostly baskets and lanterns, so you’ll see a lot of these touches in all of my posts this season. If you missed my summer posts so far this year, you can catch them all right here : Relaxing summer Bedroom | Creating a Warm Outdoor Space | Summer tablescape. You can see how I’ve incorporated woven items throughout all of these spaces, some of which are also shown here in our living room.
Speaking of woven materials – do you remember these rattan chairs that I found for our dining room last year? I’d been on the hunt for so long for a pair of Chinese Chippendale chairs, and when I found these side chairs, they were the perfect compromise. In the spirit of moving things around our home as I always do, I brought them in here for extra seating this summer. We don’t use the fireplace in the summer very often, so this is the perfect spot for an added perch for guests.
Keeping things calm and neutral, I added new pillows from Tonic Living, my go-to resource for pillows each season, and beautiful, soft, fringed throws. Layer, layer, layer! I’m all about adding them throughout our home for a warm and welcoming look and feel.
I love the subtle tone, and diagonal detail of the stripe on these Shandy pillows, and the soft, shades bring a casual elegance to our space. The throw is a pretty added layer on the chair, and I’m all over the subtle herringbone pattern and fringe.
You can find the pillows here and the throw here.
On our shelving you’ll find most of the lanterns and baskets I’ve brought into our summer living room. I love having these shelves to decorate, but they can be tricky to pull off sometimes. I don’t like to fill them with too many accessories, because they can start to look junky. I’ll typically decide on a seasonal theme and go from there.
This past spring, I kept them all decked out with my blue and white collection, which I always love – you can see it here – but for this look, I wanted just a few hints of my favorite blue and white pieces with the natural tones and textures mixed in.
It’s a really beautiful mix. You know how much I love my blue and white chinoiserie pieces, and I am smitten with how they feel on the shelves with all of the natural elements mixed in. I haven’t gotten any candles for these lanterns yet either, mostly because I’ve been so busy, but I can’t wait to fill them up and light them on warm summer evenings.
Keeping things simple on our ottoman, my gold tray (which is in need of a little TLC, btw), is adorned with more of my favorite pieces that you’ll see me use around our house. I always love to bring out my starfish, coral and agate accessories, which are staples in my summer decor.
This vase is a new piece I recently found, along with two other coordinating ones, and I just love how beautifully they work into our neutral summer living room decor. The basketweave detail is super chic and it echoes the lanterns on the shelves perfectly.
I can never have enough blue and white touches around our home, even adding a simple little bowl can do the trick sometimes.
I’m loving the light, airy look of the overall space, and how well it all works with our rug. I’m still loving this rug choice we made last year, it’s a great compliment to all of my blue and white pieces that I keep scattered throughout our home, year-round.
Last but most definitely not least, let’s talk about my pillow assortment and striped throws on the sofas. My goal was to lighten and brighten to be able to create a neutral summer living room look, so I used my striped fringed throws – more fringe! – for a couple of reasons.
I wanted it to feel casual and chic, light and airy, with a relaxed yet still elegant vibe. I also wanted the sofas to feel lighter, and provide a softer background for my new pillows. As for the layers and layers of stripes, well, I love it. I love to mix pattern on pattern, and honestly, I wasn’t sure how this would all come together the way I had envisioned it in my head. I can truly tell you, I’m more pleased than I thought I’d be, with so many stripes working off of each other. All of my beautiful new pillows are from Tonic Living – keep scrolling further down to shop them all, or click here to visit my SHOP page.
I am so loving this mix and how they are the perfect addition to my neutral summer living room theme.
SHOP MY PILLOWS BELOW BY CLICKING THE NAMES BELOW IMAGES, OR, CLICK HERE TO VISIT MY SHOP PAGE!
BOHO STRIPE | SIMPLE STRIPE | LIDO | CAMINO | SHANDY
Last summer was all about mixing layers of blue pattern – which, by the way, is still one of my favorite looks to date – you can see the full tour here, to check out the difference. Tell me what you think in the comments below, I love hearing from you! I hope you like this year’s summer look and I hope this brings you inspiration for your decorating this season. All shopping sources are linked below. Thank you, as always, for reading with me, just your time means so much! xoxo
I’ve linked all sources once again so you can find everything easily!
SHOP MY PILLOWS BELOW BY CLICKING THE NAME BELOW, OR, CLICK HERE TO VISIT MY SHOP PAGE!BOHO STRIPE | SIMPLE STRIPE | LIDO | CAMINO | SHANDY
PIN THIS IMAGE FOR LATER!
Thank you so much! I’ve had it for a number of years not, here’s a direct affiliate link if you’d like: https://rstyle.me/+JBFIpvCxsP-3DCN1T3CsOA
I hope that helps!
Love your beautiful rug. Can you tell me where it is from?
Hi Melanie, oh boy these are soooo old! About 10 years to be exact! I can’t link them for you, but I have very similar ones linked here in my blog post (click the small thumbnails to shop), or you can head to the SHOP tab, and search for SHOP MY LIVING ROOOM. Thanks so much stopping by!
I LOVE this couch!! Could you please share where you bought it?
Hi Dana! Thank you so much for taking the time to stop over to say hello! I store all of my unused accessories and pillows downstairs in our basement storage room, which I FINALLY just organized (well, a little!). It really helps me keep everything in check. Our basement was a gigantic mess before, and while it’s still not perfect, it’s at least a little more presentable now that I installed some shelving to hold all of my ‘props’! I hope that helps! Thanks again for visiting!
hi Adie, Thank you so much! This color is Collingwood by Benjamin Moore :)
Hi Erin, thank you! This color is Collingwood by Benjamin Moore :)
Beautiful! What color paint do you use on your walls!
Hi! Loving it! Please tell me your summer living room wall color- it’s perfect!!
I love the look and I too am always moving accessories around. We are in the process of moving and the new house is very close in square footage and floor plan are very similar I am concerned about storage. Any tips you have on where you store what you aren’t using when you switch things around?