Jerome’s Blog

1. Use color to feel the season. Use refreshing, upbeat colors to brighten up the room. This means voiding out all the dark autumn and winter colors. We all don’t have the money or the time to change the paint color of a room each time the season changes, but changing out the décor items and throw pillows for either lighter colors or brighter colors will make the room feel more like summer.

2. Move the furniture around to accommodate for entertaining. The best part of summer is the time we spend with our friends and family. So arrange the sofas and chairs to face each other instead of facing the fireplace. And replace all those warm and cozy throw blankets for chic serving trays that are great for décor and practical for entertaining.

3. Go sheer. Take down all the heavy draperies and replace them with softer sheer fabric panels in summer inspired colors. Doing this will not only make the room feel more summer inspired, but it will also keep the room cooler in those hot months because the softer fabrics will let the air breeze through.

4. Slip a cover over it. Covering your furniture—such as your sofa and dinning room chairs—with softer or brighter summer colors is the easiest way to give the room a major summer facelift without spending big bucks on new furniture. You can also use small swatches of fresh colored fabrics as runners for coffee tables and side tables in order to lighten up the color of dark wood furniture.

5. Set the table for summer. Changing out the dinning room table setting is a very simple way to throw in inspirations for each season. A great summer inspired table setting can include some of the refreshing citrus fruits we all love during the summer, such as lemons, limes, and oranges. You can find a faux centerpiece that is already arranged and most home décor stores, or you can be creative and make your own.

6. Create a beach cottage. Nothing feels more like summer than a day at the beach and during the summer, it is very easy to find a ton of beach cottage décor to bring that feeling into the home. You can do a beach cottage on a small or large scale. On a small scale, you can incorporate some simple sea shells as décor throughout the house or in just one room. And on a large scale, you can add white washed furniture and seascape artwork. White wicker furniture also can be used to help create a beach cottage feel.

7. Pick up the heavy rugs. Put all those heavy accent rugs away for the season. Not only do they make the room look warmer, they really do make the room feel warmer. This is true especially if you have hardwood floors; leaving the floors bare can cool down a hot room.

8. Make the bed for summer. Take off all those heavy comforters and thick flannel sheets, and replace with lighter cotton sheets and a simple throw blanket. You don’t need those heavy fabrics on those hot nights anyway. You can also add light or bright colored pillows and floral fabrics to make the look more summer inspired.

9. Frame your summer adventures. Take all those pictures of you and your family on your summer vacations out of those boxes and off of your hard drive and frame them. Seeing pictures of summer fun makes the room feel more like summer.

10. Flower up the room. The easiest way to add a little summer to your home is to bring home some fresh flowers. And with all the summer farmers markets, finding fresh flowers is easy and will get you out of the house to enjoy that nice summer weather.

Traditional

The traditional styled room is very calm, classic and predictable with a collection of bedroom and living room furniture pieces that are all consistent in their design and color, often times matching. Furniture is very organized and is staged in a conventional way. This is the look you will find on many showroom floors. The overall feel from a traditional room is homey and comfortable with soft colors, floral fabrics, and dark wood.

Contemporary

The contemporary style room is very modern with the focus being on the space of the room not the things filling the room. The bare space on the walls and on the floor is strategic in that it means just as much as the furniture placed in the room. This design keeps things simple by using neutrals, black and white as main colors and sleek, modern furniture and then accents with bright, bold colored pieces. The furniture and décor you find in a contemporary room are meant to make statements and the basic idea behind this design style is the idea that less is more.

Rustic

The rustic room brings the outside in by bringing in a variety of lavishly creative woods, such as logs and twigs, to create a natural outdoorsy feel. The look of the room is what you would find in an old log cabin. The ambiance is very dark with dark furniture, fabrics, and wall colors. Often times, there are large leather furniture pieces or furniture made from log materials and a warm cozy fireplace with a comfy throw blanket.

Shabby Chic

The shabby chic room has a French cottage feel with the overall look being vintage antique. You will find white distressed furniture that is either bought new with the look of being old and worn or is actually antique, painted white, and sanded gently to show the undercoats and/or wood underneath. Romantic décor such as roses, soft colors such as pastels, and fancy fabrics such as linens are used to create a very a soft feminine look.

Tuscan

The Tuscan room is inspired by the country villa living of central Italy where you are meant to feel like you are on the hillside enjoying your leisure away from the city. The look is very comforting and warm with very rustic, natural materials. Tuscan homes are built of sandstone or limestone so this look is often mimicked with faux painting. Marble is another material often found in a Tuscan home; therefore, it is often a material used when designing in this style. Other components often found in Tuscan styles are wrought iron accessories, pillars, and arches. A Tuscan style design is meant to feel sturdy, but yet relaxing.

Retro

The retro style is the epitome of trendy. If it happened and it was trendy in the past, it belongs in a retro designed room. With that said, however, a retro style room will often times draw from the 50s, 60s, and 70s with funky being the word of choice. This room really does have an anything-goes kind of way to it and often times the person pulling off a design in this style has a very retro style of their own. You will often find many unique accent pieces and in a retro style room creating a very fun, upbeat atmosphere. The colors and textures can be mixed-matched; it is almost like the more mixed-matched the room is, the more matched it becomes for the retro style design.