Shades of Summer Home Tour: Decorating with Summer Whites & Pops of Pink

Summer is here! Ok, maybe not officially yet but with schools getting out, the weather warming up, and everything blooming like crazy, I think it’s time to welcome in the season! I tend to go on a purging and simplifying tear around my home at the beginning of each summer and make just a few simple changes so that my house feels lighter, brighter, and fresher. The fresher part is pretty easy living in Connecticut where even a black thumb gardener like me can have a yard full of flowering bushes and trees like the huge rhododendron that’s blooming outside our living room window right now:

I’d love to show you all around the inside of our home too and today I get to do just that as part of the Shades of Summer Home Tour hosted by my super talented friend Kelley Nan. Seven of us are sharing our homes all decorated for summer and we’ve each chosen a favorite color palette to give you ideas for different ways to incorporate color into your own home this summer. Our rhododendron tree sets the tone for my color choices, which are summer whites with pops of pink!

If you’re new here and stopping by after having toured Emily’s beautiful home at Emily A. Clark, welcome! And for the rest of you, thanks for coming back for a visit – you know I always love having you here! As a super quick intro for those of you new to my blog, we live in a 60+ year old home in Connecticut that was a bit of a dated disaster when we moved in four years ago but we’re slowly transforming it into a home that my family of four adores. I love decorating with clean lines and a casually elegant feel but most importantly I love having a warm, welcoming, comfy home for our friends and family to gather together. Ok, enough of me blabbing, let’s get going with this tour… come on in! (post includes some affiliate links – full disclosure statement available {here})

— Full Source List Included at End of Post —

 As you guys can see, {this beautiful boxwood wreath} that I got in early spring is still going strong and I’ve added two Boston ferns to the mix thanks to the suggestion a bunch of you gave me on Instagram! My doormat had seen better days so this one’s a new summer addition c/o Olive Paper Company – you can find this doormat and others they make {here} – so cute!

Oh, and I just realized I kinda messed up earlier when I said we’re a family of four – my furry friend “Hope” makes five! You’ll see her throughout my home tour because she sticks to her mama like glue 🙂 Come on inside…

We’ll head to our family room first – my favorite room in the house! It went from being the ugliest room in our house to what I think is the prettiest one after doing an extreme makeover for the One Room Challenge last year – you can check out the “before” and “after” transformation {here} if you missed it!  On our way there, we’ll pass the bay window right next to the pink rhododendron you saw outside. We have a cozy window seat built into the window that’s the perfect spot for reading a book or curling up for a nap. My youngest daughter and Hope were curled up on it just a few days ago when I snapped this pic:

I think I need to frame this one – definitely a keeper! The two pillows on our window seat are some of the beautiful new pillows that I recently added c/o Serena & Lily to lighten things up for summer – {this 24″ beautiful embroidered one} is in the back (definitely a splurge but the embroidery is gorgeous and it’s one you can use year-round) and {this 20″ two-tone linen pillow} is in front – it’s two-sided with a white Bone color on one side and Platinum on the other. I’m loving how the different textures and shades of white add a fresh feel to this little nook!

Heading on into the family room, you’ll see that I swapped out my heavier fabric pillows that were there this winter with new white ones in a bunch of interesting patterns, color tones, and textures:

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You’ll also see that Hope made herself right at home yet again – she’s got some serious blanket radar – if there’s a blanket or throw anywhere within eyeball distance of her mama, she’s all over it!

This trio of pillows in the corner of our sectional is my favorite – they’re all slightly different shades of white but when you put them all together they blend beautifully! And by the way, if you’re seeing a little pinky tinge in the pic, it’s not just your eyes – the sun bounces off the pink blooms in front of our house and bathes parts of this room in a pinky glow!

And of course I’m all over anything that has tassels!

Both ends of the sectional also have a {white tassel pillow} along with {this fluffy 24″ linen end pillow} with rows of crocheted appliqué in ivory on a white base. Having lots of texture and different tones of white is definitely the key to pulling off an all-white look without it looking boring!

And with my summer whites, come those pops of pink! In our family room, I brought pink in with the throw that Hope’s laying on (psst… it’s actually a tablecloth but I use those for light summer throws all the time!) and with a few flowers. This is the first year that my new peony bush bloomed so I mixed a few of those blooms in with some store bought ones for this little arrangement:

There are also some flowers on our family room desk between the bookcases courtesy of my husband – he bought me lilies for our anniversary about a week ago and we kind of both got a laugh out of it because when they arrived, not a single bloom had opened so it was just a big bouquet of nothing but greenery.  They opened up after a few days though and are still going strong!

And did you notice that we have a new baby brass animal in the family? I’ve had the large turtle dish since last year and just couldn’t resist getting this cute baby brass turtle dish to join in the fun!

One last addition to this room is a little bit of beachy, summer texture! It’s not an easy reach from the end of our sectional to our acrylic coffee table so I’ve been looking for a small side table to rest a glass or small plate on. I happened upon this small woven stool at HomeGoods last week – perfect!

I’m loving it in its new home! And in case you’re wondering (because I was when I saw it in the store!) it’s not at all wobbly for sitting a drink on.

Now let’s move on to the dining room where I set a super simple table around a centerpiece of pink and white peonies:

I think peonies are my favorite flowers – so gorgeous! They’re the perfect flowers for a centerpiece for any of you who doubt your flower arranging skills – as long as you mix up the different colors a bit, you can pretty much throw them in a vase ({this one} is my go-to vase) and let them fall as they may! I love it when an arrangement has a natural look:

Each place setting is just a simple rattan charger and plate layered with a mini wood and marble cutting board. Do you remember how I did a tablescape several months back with similar mini wood boards? Well a few weeks ago I came across these marble and wood ones at HomeGoods and couldn’t resist them because I thought that wood strip at the bottom would be perfect for putting a guest’s name. I experimented with a few different ways to add the names and ended up doing it with white cursive stickers since I wanted to be able to remove them and reuse the cutting boards in the future:

Some pops of pink even got added to my plate wall courtesy of that pink rhododendron outside – can you see the pink reflection in some of the plates?

Let’s head out from the dining room for a quick peek at a couple of other spaces!

I shared my master bedroom refresh a few weeks ago which included swapping out some of my heavier winter bedding for this light and bright hotel-like white bedding. I’ve never gone all white like this with my bedding before and I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it but I actually love it!

Since my bedding refresh, the only other change I’ve made for the summer season is to add some flowers to my little planter head girl on our bedroom dresser:

It’s always fun giving her a brand new “do” with each season!

I was hoping to wrap things up by sharing a tour of our patio but it’s been nonstop rain and gloomy weather for the past five days here. Same for you guys? It seems like there’s been more rain than usual for most of us lately. I’m all ready to go when the sun does finally decide to come out! I’ve updated our rolling baker’s rack with our summer essentials that are easy to grab as you go out the door to the patio:

I keep our outdoor pillows on the top shelf of the rack (I’m using {these palm leaf pillows} that I bought last season), glass storage jars and tablecloths on the next shelf, two catch-all baskets in the middle, and then a caddy for silverware from HomeGoods (I kept my old set of silverware around to use for outside entertaining), {these acrylic glasses}, and some new melamine plates & bowls from HomeGoods on the shelf below: 

I haven’t made any big changes to my nesting herb crates since early spring other than keeping them filled with blooms from our yard. Our hydrangeas are starting to bud so hopefully pretty soon I’ll have an endless source of free flowers for the rest of the summer! Love that!

I hope that you all enjoyed my Shades of Summer tour! I’ve included a full source list below which hopefully covers anything you have questions about but if I missed something, let me know! Also, if you want to check out the rest of the rooms in our house you can do that {here}. And if you’d like to follow along in the future you can find me on Instagram {here} or sign up to be notified by email of new posts on Driven by Decor {here}. 

Now it’s time to move on to the next home on the tour by Heather of Setting for Four – she decorated for summer with an indigo, black, and gray color scheme that I can already tell I’m going to love from the sneak peek I got of her foyer! Hop on over to Setting for Four {here}!

Heather will direct you to the next person in line on our tour but you definitely don’t want to miss anyone, so here’s the full list of the other tours to go check out: