Summer Home Tour

After a long, cold winter, spring offers us a new beginning. Brown grass turns green, trees begin to bud and the first flowers of the year start to bloom. It’s not only the beginning of new life for plants, but so many birds and animals. I love waking to hear baby birds chirping in the morning.

I like to infuse that feeling into our home as well, giving it new life with a little refresh.

Those that have been following along the last 10+ years know that I take a minimalist approach to decorating integrating a few hints of spring in each room with a touch of color.

A refresh doesn’t always include new purchases unless they fit as part of a larger project or serve another purpose, with the exception of flowers.

I treat myself to flowers almost weekly. They bring me so much joy and bring our home to life. You can learn how to arrange flowers here!

I hope you enjoy a glimpse into our home, decorated for spring! There’s so much more to share with you, so please do come back! You can sign up for my newsletter so you don’t miss a post here.

Last spring, we started our kitchen remodel. Sadly, it’s not complete, but we spend a lot of time here. This is where I develop recipes, arrange flowers and most importantly, chat with the girls in the morning. You can see and read more about our kitchen here.

Just before Christmas, we updated our living room. Okay, a week before Christmas. The mantel felt dated and I was tired of a big black box hanging over it. It’s much more fun to decorate now and the addition of a few mascari stems and a simple tulip arrangement make it feel fresh for spring.

I don’t often share photos of our dining room, though it’s one of my favorites. I am still looking for just the right rug for it, but I love how seamlessly my grandmother’s/mother/s dining room set pairs with my slipcovered chairs and the brass chandelier to blend old with new. A few blooms and chinoiserie jars have welcomed it to spring.

When I purchase a large bunch or two of flowers, I can often make several arrangements to disperse throughout our home. A single bloom brings the mudroom bath into spring and a bud vase of muscari for the powder room.

The girls’ rooms each receive little hints of spring {more to come} as well. Isla’s room received a sweet little update last week and she’s actually making her bed now. Why didn’t I do this sooner?

One of my favorite things about spring is how inspiring it is. I feel a new sense of motivation that is often lost during the winter months. A few sunny days and your encouragement on Instagram inspired me to finish our master bedroom.

I’m still hoping for mild weather, but that hasn’t stopped me from adding spring colors to our home. Earlier this week I shared my spring home tour with tips to bring spring into your home {even if it’s still cold and snowy outside}. One tip is to infuse your home with spring colors. Colors evoke emotion and can make a space feel more calm, cheerful, romantic, etc. Now that you have taken a little of our home tour, I’m going to share how I am using colors this spring.

A few of my favorite colors for spring are lavender, porcelain blue, and blush pink. Okay, they’re always my favorite colors. I’ve even found ways to incorporate them for fall and winter.

Lavender is associated with luxury, elegance and romance. It reminds me of our trips to Napa Valley. I incorporated it into our powder room drawing from subtle colors in our turkish rug, the addition of oil and a pretty linen towel.

Blue is known to be serene and inviting, which is exactly how I want our home to feel. This is the most frequently used color in our home. Currently I’m using various shades of blue in our master bedroom, family room, dining room and mudroom.

In my office I’ve opted for a navy blue credenza.

Pink is also associated with romance. It’s known to make you feel happy, passionate and evoke excitement. Guess what? I’m excited for spring! I’ve added simple touches of blush pink in our living room through both fresh and dried flowers and a simple throw and in our breakfast room with a fresh flower arrangement.

In our family room, I used a painting to bring the color palette together.

In full disclosure, some of our spring home tour includes new photographs, but some includes existing photos because let’s be honest…sometimes not much changes at all! I wanted to invite you over to our home, decorated with glimpses of spring. I love that spring feels like a new beginning and want that to reflect in our home. Even if little changes, a few updates can make it feel fresh once again and wash away the winter blues.

Last year, our landscapers took out the majority of our lilac bushes, which left little to bloom this year. Then, as I was pulling into our driveway the other day, I noticed a branch was down. I immediately rescued it and placed it into the brass bucket in our entryway filled with water and swapped out the subtle peach pillow for an ivory one. It’s what I call making lemonade, because it’s in my view while in the living room, but the first thing you see when you enter our home.

Simple spring living room decor ideas.

As soon as the snow melts and the sun shines, I start decorating for spring.

In our home, seasonal decor often means eliminating a few things, updating the pillow covers and adding a few flowers.

It’s almost effortless, but yet makes our home feel fresh.

Fresh flowers like this simple tulip arrangement bring our living room to life.

The blue and white block print pillow covers work well for both spring and summer!

While the baskets have been a staple on the bookcases for a couple years now {and keep us organized}, the brass planter migrated from the office. I filled it with 3 standard glasses filled with water to arrange muscari for a hint of spring color!

You can see how the blue and white china transitioned effortlessly from Christmas!

And because I can’t live without a tv in our living room, I made it part of our spring living room decor! I updated the picture to a piece of art with hints of pink to welcome spring. You can read more about it here!

Our living room is filled with garden roses and month old thistles {learn how to make the arrangement here} and my shamrock from St. Patricks Day. The girls love watching it go to sleep and wake in the morning. I have yet to commit to pillow covers for the living room for spring, but feel guilty purchasing new since I have an abundance in our linen cabinet. Speaking of cabinets, I stocked our bar cabinet in anticipation of our friends visiting this weekend! Cheers!

Want not need not…this basket has been a staple on our coffee table for over 5 years. While it’s still available, I can’t see replacing something that’s perfectly functional.

I’ve decided to postpone kitchen renovations until fall so that I can enjoy spring and summer focused on my family, so absolutely nothing has changed there.

The breakfast room, however, is really coming together! We added Bessie, which is a giclee print I’ve been seeking since I saw it in a casual dining room in a magazine a few years ago, my sweet Meyer lemon tree, and a pretty little bar cart. Next week, we’ll place the rug and the contractor will finish the shadow box detailing on the walls so that I can paint the room in a rich cream.

Yet another disclosure: I snapped the remainder of these photos last minute with toddlers hanging onto my legs.

To the left you can see a sliver of our kitchen – while the breakfast room is among my favorites, it’s positioning in our home is slightly awkward.

What I love most about this room is our view in the spring – our backyard is filled with flower trees and just behind us there’s a small pond.

The mudroom is ready for spring and I’m anxious to move the winter boots downstairs that are blended in with flip flops and sandals. Only in Missouri {and every other Midwestern state!}

In the family room, I finally found the artwork I wanted to hang over my great grandmother’s piano and replaced my potted paper whites with lavender, which I also pressed into art for our half bath.

I wish I could say that I’ve made progress in my office or have repainted my credenza, but it hasn’t even crossed my mind, but at least it’s organized?

and finally, the half bath in the foyer. I’m so excited to have finally finished this pretty little space and would love for you to come see. Get all of the details here.

Hopefully I’ll find some time to take you upstairs next week to stop by our bedrooms, the laundry room and the girls’ bathroom. If you see something you love, you can shop accessible items from our home here. How do you decorate for spring?

If you’ve been following along the last 8 1/2 years, you know my philosophy; entertaining and design that celebrates everyday life. I’ve designed our home to thoughtfully integrate function into design, so there is very little stand alone decor. Our home, like us, is always evolving and I am happy to have you join me for a tour today!

Since you’re here, why don’t you come on in? The newest and most exciting addition to our home for summer isn’t pillow covers or peonies, it’s the birth of 4 darling little baby birds we’ve been watching. When mama built her nest we anxiously waited for them to hatch and went on a hunt for eggshells. Finally, we saw 4 little heads peep!

Our living room is small, but it’s where we spend most of our time.

I’ve added coral and shells to compliment the baskets filled with games and dvd’s. You’ll also find my dried wedding bouquet, the sheet music to our wedding song, pottery from our anniversary and a painting I fell in love with on vacation.

What lies beneath? Our bar cabinet.

We’re just going to pass through the kitchen, where you’ll find this antique table I repurposed as a desk. Just to the side of it you’ll see our –

mudroom which boasts brick floors.

and let’s just pretend that Emily Henderson was inspired by our little powder room, okay?

Onto the breakfast room…meet Bessie, or Bennie.

The first spring we spent in our home, we stained the deck to extend our living space and define it as an outdoor room. We spend quite a bit of time there relaxing, reading a magazine and enjoying a glass of wine.

I love our screened in porch more than I ever knew I could. We spend our evenings dining al fresco. I’ve added a flag and a few hydrangea to kick off Memorial Day weekend. We’ve created an outdoor dining room from what was originally a dark and dismal undefined space by making custom curtain rods {during nap time, of course}, stain and this little light trick.

The family room has french doors that lead into our screened in porch. The highlight of our family room is that I have kept my fiddle fig alive for well over a year now!

I have filled my grandmother’s armoire with excess linens, pillows and candles for convenient storage.

I love my office, but for some reason I can’t sit still long enough to enjoy it.

Nestled just beside it is another powder room.

The last stop on the main level is definitely a work in progress. It’s not my favorite, but I love a room with history and our dining room is full of it. The table, buffet and china cabinet were passed down from my maternal grandmother to my mother, then to me. I softened them with my linen slipcovered chairs and paired them with a brass chandelier, my paternal grandmother’s paintings and a mirror I purchased from an estate sale.

Let’s go upstairs, shall we? I’m taking our home one small project at a time, which means our home is always a work in progress, but I still have my sanity. I love celebrating little feats, like our hallway. It’s not much, but it makes me happy.

Nestled in our hall is a little linen closet I’m pretty proud of as well.

One of my favorite features of our home is that we have a second floor laundry room – conveniently located between our bedrooms.

Sometimes I have so many plans and so little time. I’m really looking forward to updating our master bedroom {you can see my plans here}, but for now, I’m enjoying our little reading nook. Sometimes I kick back and work in this little corner of our bedroom in the afternoon when then girls are napping peacefully, but you’ll often find all 5 of us piled in and around it for story time at night.

Want a sneak peek of our basement?

It’s been so fun having you! I hope you’ll keep in touch via my newsletter or follow along on Instagram. Let’s go over and visit my friend Courtney from French Country Cottage who is always inspiring! 

Did you have a favorite moment? I’d love to connect! Let’s keep in touch.