Five instant ways to get a cool color scheme for summer

It’s finally happening summer is almost here and I for one couldn’t be happier. Spring is my favorite time of year for sure because I love all the newness of flowers and green. Living in the Northeast US, the winters are long, and I complain often about how brown everything is. So, when Spring finally comes and the birds sing and flowers bloom, I get excited! With summer being literally one week away, I thought it’s a great time to tweak some stuff around the house. It’s time to put away the extra blankets and slippers and bring in some different ways to make home feel ‘summer easy’. So, in that vein here are five Instant ways to get a cool color scheme for summer.

Switch Up Your Accent Pillows

The first super simple way to get a cool color scheme for Summer is to switch out your accent pillows. It’s literally the easiest way to give your space an instant lift. There are so many different patterns in so many different colors to choose from. You go with a cool beach tones if you like watery blues and greens. You can also bring in cool tones with popping in whites and pale grays with hints of yellow to freshen things up. Jewel tones, like emerald green and sapphire work well to energize a space. Give switching out your accent pillows a try as an option to cool down your summer palate. It’s a very inexpensive way to get an immediate impact.

Change Out Your Curtains

Another way to get an instant cool color scheme, is to change out your curtains. Sometimes, especially in the Northeast, will put heavier curtains on the wall to insulate our homes against the long cold winters. When you change out those heavy curtains for something lighter or softer, you immediately invoke a summer feeling. Take some inspiration from the accent pillows that you just switched out when thinking about your summer curtains. If there’s a color or hue that you love in the pillows, try to find curtains that have the same sort of color, texture or feeling you’re going for. This will give your summer switch up another layer.

Add Or Change Artwork

The third way you can instantly get a cool color summer scheme is to switch out your art. I’m not saying that you should go out to a dealer and buy a priceless piece of art every time we get a whim to change the look of our home. There are so many different options out there to add a bit of art to your space and change it up seasonally. You can DIY a piece of art. Look to the internet for inspiration or magazines, books. Go for a walk and take some pictures of things you find that remind you of summer, print them out and frame them up. I love tooling around in Thrift stores and antique shops and I often finds tons of inspiration to create my own art there. I snap pictures with my phone so I can keep a running file of stuff I find. You can purchase an inexpensive piece of art from one of the local department stores. I can’t tell you how many coupons and emails I get from stores each week and it seems like every time I go into the store I find new art and tons of inspiration. If you get a bit stuck, try looking again to the pillows and the curtains that you’ve just updated. Seeing a pattern here? It’s all about building in small updates one layer at a time.

Change Up Your Accessories

Another way to instantly bring in a cool color scheme for summer is to change up your accessories and other decorative pieces around your room. Switch out your darker colored accessories for lighter colored accessories. Change out your dark wood picture frames for some metal ones. Rose gold, satin nickel or a white painted frame works well too. They’ll instantly brighten up your space.

Add Some Green With Plants Or Flowers

One final way to really bring in a cool color summer scheme is to add in fresh flowers. If the flowers aren’t your thing and you just like greens, go to the backyard and just clip some greenery. You can arrange your flowers or greens in a very pretty vase maybe something that has some clarity to it or transparent color that has been reinforced in the room. If cut flowers are the way that to go, then clip some hydrangeas or peonies to freshen up your space. Perhaps you don’t even want to use live flowers. If you want an arrangement that will last until Fall, you can use silk flowers to bring in that summer feeling if you don’t have a green thumb. Terrariums are a good way to really bring in that live kind of summer feeling as well so maybe try your hand at designing a small clear terrarium where you can bring in live plants or silk plants to just to give your space A little bit of a lift.

There you have it, five instant ways to get a cool color scheme for summer. Share this with your friends if you enjoy this post. I’d love to hear from you in my comment section below.

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Michael is Principal designer and blogger at Michael Helwig Interiors in beautiful Buffalo, New York. Since 2011, he’s a space planning expert, offering online interior e-design services for folks living in small homes, or for those with awkward and tricky layouts. He’s a frequent expert contributor to many National media publications and news outlets on topics related to decorating, interior design, diy projects, and more. Michael happily shares his experience to help folks avoid expensive mistakes and decorating disappointments. You can follow him on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook @interiorsmh.