Summer decor WHITEWASH IT To immediately bring in a summery feel, paint dark wood or dark walls white or other light colors — light blue, green or yellow make a house or a room much brighter. This doesn’t have to be entire rooms or even entire walls; look at trim, staircases, doors and other smaller areas. ADD HANGING PLANTS Bring your garden inside with hanging plants in the dining and living rooms, patio and other places. Flowers spilling out over the side of a hanging basket provides a different kind of ceiling decoration than a fancy light and makes a room seem brighter and more colorful. ADD A FIRE PIT You can build a firepit or buy a small metal pit for your backyard, which means campfires, s’mores, hot dogs and sitting around the fire for hours, an ever-popular summer activity, right into your space. Adding a picnic table to your backyard, if you have room, helps to bring even more summer fun into your yard. You can find the supplies for these easy projects at any home improvement store. INSTALL A MIRROR Mirrors make rooms look bigger and brighter. You can set one up on a table near a window, giving it lots of light to reflect, surrounding it with plants and other decor. 14 | At Home • June 2018 Winter is over, spring cleaning is done and it’s time to redecorate with lighter colors and fabrics, flowers and fruit and all the decorations that make your house feel like summer inside and out. House Beautiful offered a list of fairly inexpensive, do-it-yourself options. ADD COLOR Keep fresh flowers in a vase on the table, counter or book-shelf, swap out dark drapes for light- or bright-colored window coverings, add a couple of colorful throw pillows to the couch and exchange your bed coverings and towels for brighter, lighter or patterned versions. Stumped when it comes to color? Visit a local design or paint shop and see what’s in style now. SUMMERIZE YOUR FIREPLACE Once it’s cleaned, you can keep candles, plants, flowers or other summer items in your fireplace, providing decoration during a season when you won’t be building fires. CHANGE UP YOUR FURNITURE Want to feel like you’re on a boat or on the beach? Change up your upholstery, either permanently, through DIY reupholstery, or by adding new throws, pillows and trimmings on the furniture. You can plan colors and patterns with a nautical or tropical or forest theme, helping to bring a little of the outdoors into your living room.