5 Summertime Decorating Trends

Just as temperatures are heating up, so, too, are summer trends in home décor.

Whether you’re planning to entertain guests poolside, relax on your patio, or spending time at a beach house, remember these five trends to upgrade your environments

1. Beach Colors: Even if you can’t go to the beach, you can still bring the beach to you. Peruse home décor stores for an abundance of beach colors—sea foam greens, coastal blues—in such accessories as vases, decorative jars, throw pillows, and more. Add these small touches to your home décor, or go big by picking a coastal-inspired paint color to transform a sunroom or recreation room.

2. Neutral Backdrops:Beach colors provide the pop, but neutral colors serve as a backdrop for primary living spaces. Major paint manufacturers have named gray-inspired colors as one of the big trends of 2017. Those colors continue to reign as we hit the year’s halfway point. In some cases, they come with a purple influence, such as Benjamin Moore’s color of the year, Shadow, or PPG Paints’ hottest 2017 color, Violet Verbena. Benjamin Moore reports that its darker gray hues are being balanced with lighter or more neutral hues, and PPG points to “millennial pink” (a soft orange-tinted “grownup” version of pink) as adding punch to the sophisticated palette.

3.Airy Spaces: Spring and summer are the ideal time to ditch clutter. Winnow down the number of accessories you display on coffee and end tables. Trade out darker, heavier objects for items that are lighter and more ethereal. Even consider removing some furniture entirely to give your home an airy, spacious feel.

4.Outdoor Living: Now’s the time to upgrade decks and patios. Consider using the latest gray-inspired colors when upgrading patio furniture, outdoor fabrics, planters, and accessories. These colors will contrast well with live plants. Imagine, for instance, how pink or purple blooms would pop against a dark-gray planter. Gray is often used for decks, but cedars remain popular as well. The look of natural wood has enduring appeal, which is why semi-transparent stains that highlight the grain and texture of wood continue to be so popular.

5. Let in the Light: One of the most delightful things about summer is the extended daylight. Bringing that light into your home has become much easier and more convenient with the advent of automated window coverings, part of a broader “smart home” trend. For instance, window-covering leader Hunter Douglas offers PowerView Motorization, an advanced wireless control system that allows consumers to adjust blinds and shades as they desire. There’s even an app that allows you to control window coverings remotely and a program that lets you operate them at preset times.