Summer brings a certain energy and warmth (literally) that no other season seems to bring. Beach days, beautiful nights, fireworks, pool parties – it’s all exclusive to summer. Since this season tends to bring along an increase of traffic to your house–parties, kids being home from school–people often want to give their home a little summer refresh too. Let’s explore some inspiring ideas to update your home this summer and make it a true reflection of your lifestyle.
We’re so here for that, and want to help you do just that. It’s important for you to know that you don’t need to spend a whole lot of time, effort, or money to give your home a little summer update. Sometimes, small changes can make a big difference in how your home looks and feels for the season. In this article, we’ll share our favorite, easy ways to update your home for this summer.
How to Update Your Home This Summer
It is refreshing to update your house during the summer which can boost its value and make it more comfortable. Thus, here are some of the ways you can do this that will help you.
A Fresh Coat of Paint
Never underestimate what a new coat of paint can do for your home. It’s super forgiving of mistakes, relatively cheap, and only takes about a day or two to paint and dry. Paint can absolutely transform any room, whether it’s a bold new color for an accent wall or a more neutral color to help let that summer sunlight warm your house up. You can get more bang for your buck by painting higher traffic areas of the home, like the foyer, kitchen, and hallways. You can also paint the exterior of your home too, if the material permits! Fresh paint on the front door and window trims can add a splash of color to your home’s curb appeal.
When selecting paint colors, consider the mood you want to create. Soft blues and greens will create a calming atmosphere, while yellows and oranges will energize the space and really bring in the summer vibes. Definitely don’t skip on the primer before applying the paint, and make sure that you invest in a quality brush–the last thing you’ll want to do is delay your project because you don’t have the proper tools!
Update Light Fixtures
Sure, the summer sun will give your home more natural light, but that’s no excuse for keeping a dated light fixture! Swapping out an old, dated, shoddy fixture for a new chic one is a quick and easy way to update your home and elevate the atmosphere. Consider adding a new modern chandelier to the dining room, which not only projects ample light but also makes a statement and creates a focal point in the room. Stylish sconces in the hallway, on the other hand, provides a clean modern look, while also providing good ambient light from a recessed fixture.
Like with painting, you can also update the lighting of your home’s exterior—add new exterior lamps around walkways or landscape lighting, which not only elevates your home’s exterior but also serves a practical purpose and helps light guests’ way around your home. Wherever the lights are, we recommend investing in quality LED bulbs: consume less energy, last longer than traditional bulbs, and can offer the convenience of being controlled by your smartphone. Most of these can be installed by the homeowner, but make sure you understand the process and technicalities before starting your home project.
Revamp Those Kitchen Cabinets
Kitchen cabinets take up a lot of your kitchen’s visual space, so if you update them you can really change the tone of your kitchen. New cabinets are always ideal, but not always easy on the wallet. You can easily upgrade them, though, with a nice new coat of paint, or even by switching out the hardware like the knobs and handles. You might even consider removing some cabinets in favor of open shelving, making your kitchen feel more spacious. Preparation is crucial here.
Remove the doors and hardware carefully, sand them to create an even surface for painting, and don’t skip on the primer (be sure to use the kind for cabinets and wood painting). Guests walking into your home will think they’re entering a brand new kitchen, even though these are some cheap and quick changes.
Update the Outdoor Spaces
Summer is the season of the great outdoors, without a doubt. It’s the perfect time to update outdoor spaces. Create a cozy seating area on your patio or deck with comfortable furniture, colorful pillows and cushions, and an outdoor rug to bring it all together. You can go a step further with elegant potted plants native to the area, string lights, and a fire pit, if your budget and space allows for it. Again, even small touches like string lights, a tabletop water fountain, or a hidden speaker can go a long way to enhancing the ambience of the space.
Whatever you do, make sure that the furniture can withstand the elements of summer–high heat, direct sunlight, humidity, and summer rainstorms. Invest in furniture made of weather-resistant materials like aluminum, teak, and wicker. You might also want to purchase a cover to throw over them, so they don’t get damaged by the rain or bleached by the sunlight. Anything electronic should also be water-proof or have a designated storage area.
Don’t Neglect the Bathroom
Bathrooms are often overlooked, with kitchens, living rooms, and foyers receiving all the attention. Still, small updates in the loo can make all the difference, too. You can touch up the paint here, add in some new bathroom-tolerant plants for some greenery, replace the hardware or cabinets here, as well as installing new towel racks, faucets, or showerheads; they may look intimidating but often just changing the fixtures can be done by yourself with some simple hand tools.
Don’t forget the accessories, either. While you’re at it, change up the towels on the rack, buy a new little soap dispenser or tissue box holder, a cute little sign to hang up and give your guests a laugh. Make sure that the colors and materials you buy play along with the theme of the updated bathroom.
Smarten Up Your Home
We touched on this a little earlier with adding smart lights and device-controlled LEDs to your home. That’s just the tip of the iceberg with how you can smarten up your home. In addition to lighting, you can also install a smart doorbell, giving you alerts and sometimes videofeed of who’s at the door. Other security options include smart cameras and smart locks to keep your home safe. You can also install smart thermostats, which can help you cut down on your energy bill (along with those more efficient LED smart bulbs) by optimizing your AC usage and maintaining a regular temperature.
The great thing about these smart gadgets is that most of them can be added in by the homeowner. There might be a bit of a learning curve with getting it to synchronize to your phone and learning the nuances of the app control, but a smart doorbell and smart thermostat can be installed quite quickly, and you can see results of your labor that same day.
Refresh the Flooring
We can already picture what you’re seeing in your head–but don’t fret. You don’t need to rip up the wooden floorboards or tear out the carpet to update your floors. If you’re willing to get into a big renovation like that, we support and salute you and wish you all the best! However, if you’re on a budget, can’t tear out the floor because you’re a renter, or simply aren’t willing to engage in a big renovation, there are plenty of options.
You can replace nearly any type of flooring with stick-on solutions, like tile and linoleum. These are very easy to install, and are also very reversible, making them ideal for renters who need to leave the dwelling in the original condition. If you’d prefer not to do that, you can simply replace or change up the area rugs in the space. Like the furniture, lighting, and color of the walls, a rug can create a focal point within the room, and change the temperature of the room’s mood. Keep the room’s color palette in mind when selecting one.
Declutter and Organize
This is a simple and often-overlooked way of updating the house, and it’s arguably the cheapest one on this list. Plus, if you decide to refresh the floor or change up the paint color, you’ll have to declutter your home and organize anyways, at least temporarily. A well-organized home can feel airy and more spacious, and can improve your quality of life.
Go through each room and take stock of what items you use and don’t use. Are there items that are a little dated? Items that are simply collecting dust and haven’t been used in months? Years? Think about selling, donating, or recycling them.
If there’s clutter, think about what you can do to declutter it. Buy some organizers to better organize those junk drawers, storage bins to stow away the kids’ toys, and shelves or cabinets to house other clutter you don’t use. But again, even if it’s de-cluttered, remember that if you don’t use it, you might be better off tossing those items out.
Give Those Windows a New Treatment
Old, outdated, or shoddy window treatments can make a room look its age, or drab. Windows are the apertures that let in natural sunlight, and the way they frame the light can also affect the mood of the room. So give them the treatment that they deserve!
Like most of the other suggestions on this list, you don’t need to sink a lot of money, time, or effort into the windows to make them look upscale. With a little creativity and DIY, you can still make a light and airy window treatment that’ll help light up the space.
We recommend that you choose treatments that go along with the design of the room. Choose light and airy fabric curtains if you’d like something to go along with summer, or heavy and darker fabrics in winter. Curtains are especially simple to set up, and easy to change up with each season. Blinds and shades can also be used if you’d like a more modern look, and more control over the light and privacy. As we said earlier, curtains are super easy to set up and can even be sewn by yourself if you’re feeling crafty; more sophisticated treatments like Roman blinds or plantation shades might be better off saved for professionals.
Your Own DIY Projects
We mentioned in the last update that you can make your own DIY curtains, but we thought it was worth mentioning again. There are multiple simple DIY projects you can work on, that elevate your home’s decor. You can be as creative as you wish with this one.
You can build custom shelves, with DIY kits that you buy, or with wood and materials you buy, sand, and paint yourself. You can take your DIY shelves a step further by adding in your own DIY decorations–these can be hand-painted ceramics or wooden frames, your kids’ school projects and artwork, or an eclectic mix of your souvenirs from travels. Just be sure you don’t start hoarding and cluttering–go back to update number eight!
One of the big buzzwords and trends in interior decor is a DIY art gallery, which we mentioned above. This requires a little bit of craftiness too, but is a nice personalized update to the home, and will be the talk of your next party. You can create, recycle, or buy picture frames of all different sizes and styles for a more eclectic touch of style.
Conclusion
Update your home will enable you to make your house feel lively besides enhancing it. The look of your living space can be changed into a fabulous as well as functional haven by focusing on making both inside and outside spaces more appealing like renovating your kitchen, toilets, improving curb appeal as well as creating welcoming outdoor areas.
This is also an opportunity to introduce some energy-saving facilities and add personality to them which would have long-term use. Therefore, embrace summer’s warmth and creativity while ensuring that your house is a more livable and energetic place for everyone involved.
Conor Prendergas is a freelance copywriter, with five years of experience writing for healthcare companies, science news, medical journals, and now for GenStone. He has a BA from Muhlenberg College, and is in his third year of his MD at New York Medical College.
