Lake House Summer Home Tour 2021

I’m so excited to share my lake house summer home tour 2021 – along with other summer home tours from so many of my favorite bloggers!  This week is PACKED with summer home decor inspiration and beautiful home tours.  If you’re stopping by Dans le Lakehouse from Lemon Thistle, welcome to the lakehouse!

My own summer decorating is pretty minimal:

Step 1: Pack away all of the winter woolly things.

Step 2: Buy some flowers or plants.

Step 3: Add a couple of summery decor pieces.

Step 4: Forget about decorating and get outside because summer here is short, and winter is coming, lol.

In the kitchen, I mostly de-cluttered.  I wipe down my cubbies once a season (find the tutorial to build them here).  I take everything down, wipe down the shelves, and sometimes re-asses and de-clutter a little.  I did that in the spring so I had a clean canvas for summer decorating.  My favorite seasonal decor for the kitchen is simple: I love festive tea towels.  I bought a set of four of these beachy ones a couple of years ago and look forward to using them (this is sort of similar).  I also packed away the lamp I usually keep in the kitchen because with these long days, I no longer need the extra light!

I  made this driftwood wall art last fall, but it (finally) looks appropriately seasonal for summer, haha.

Does FINALLY caulking, patching, and painting the living room window trim and wall count as summer decor?  We left this project for so long because we had issues with the windows after they were installed – and even once they were fixed, I was hesitant to paint.  We finally did it and it looks SO FRESH!  I swear the room is so much brighter now.  The trim was such a dirty color and, it might have been difficult to see in photos, but this wall looked so shabby and unfinished.  Now I’m finally framing the beautiful summer lake views with a freshly painted, crisp white walls.

I also added a cute basket I thrifted last year to the dining room table for a beachy touch (here’s a similar one).  Oh yes – and I moved the blue rug from the living room to the dining room and stored the dining room rug for the season (here’s the link for this rug).  With the doggos tracking in sand and goose poop all summer, one rug is just easier for me when trying to keep the house clean (even if they are both machine washable).  Although I do love the beachy vibes of my neutral Ruggable rug.

In the living room, I switched my Frame TV art for something flowerier because nothing is really blooming here yet.  My Mom picked me some Lily of the Valley from her yard for me, but they haven’t really flowered here – I hope they made it through the winter.  Everyone says they’re invasive but they’re my favorite.  I wish they’d take over! I don’t store much summer decor, but I do love this Live Love Lake pillow.  I know, it’s corny, but I love it (here’s a similar one).

I bought myself a beautiful potted plant that’s flowering right now.  The sign said mums, are these mums?  You know me and plants…  It was cheaper than a bouquet and they’ll last longer.  And this isn’t technically summer decor, but I did recently-ish treat myself to two pieces of pottery from a local potter.  After not spending money at home decor stores of thrift stores for pretty much most of 2020 and 2021, I decided to splash out.  One of the pieces is the pottery bowl, below.  I love the organic shape and the speckles, which remind me of sand:

See here, here, and here for similar pottery bowls.  The planter is vintage thrifted West German pottery (similar).

I also love the vintage wicker magazine holder I’ve had for a few years.  My Mom thrifted that for me (see here and here for similar) and I moved it from my office to the living room, for a touch of summery vibes.

Overall my coastal palette, shades of turquoise paired with natural textures and creamy whites and neutrals, suits summer so well that my house doesn’t need much decorating this time of year.  Here’s a closer look at the second pottery piece I bought, which reminds me of ripples of sand under water (see here, here, and here for similar-ish).

The house is feeling so light and airy.  These seasonal changes were small, but helped to create an easy, breezy, summery vibe.  I hope you enjoyed my very minimal lake house summer home tour 2021.  I love putting away all of those heavy winter blankets and just lightening things up.  I’m also working outside – hopefully I can stain the deck soon (you can see how we got started on that here).  I already bought some outdoor plants, including some cute ones for the chicken coop window box.

This week I’m joining some of my talented blogging friends for the Summer Seasonal Simplicity Home Tour Series!  Be sure to visit A Pretty Life next!  Each day from Monday through Thursday six bloggers are sharing part of their homes all ready for summer.  I hope you enjoy all of the beautiful inspiration for adding summer vibes to your home by visiting the links under the images below.

Sharing with me today…

Wednesday

A Pretty Life // My Sweet Savannah // Fynes Designs

House by Hoff // Lemon Thistle // Dans le Lakehouse

And sharing the rest of this week…

Monday

The Happy Housie // Inspiration for Moms // She Gave it a Go

Home Made Lovely // A Pop of Pretty // Life is a Party

Tuesday

Cassie Bustamante // Finding Silver Pennies // Deeply Southern Home

Nina Hendrick // Maison de Cinq // Clean & Scentsible

Thursday

Life is Better at Home // Rambling Renovators // Hallstrom Home

Craftberry Bush // JoAnna Anastasia // Willow Street Interiors

P.S. Don’t Forget to Pin for Later!