summerhometour

How is it that we’re into August already? Didn’t it seem like summer just started? Before I start changing things around the home for fall, I’d like to share photos from the summer home tour I did as part Shelstring Blog’s “Summer Home Tour Series.”

By the way, if you’re a regular reader of Beauteeful Living, you’ll recognize a number of these photos from previous posts. One of my photos below actually made it to Huffington Post‘s website! O-M-G 🙂

FRONT YARD

Our house is a split-level. What you will notice most about our front yard are the pavers in our driveway, front steps, and pathway leading to our backyard. We did a complete makeover of our front and back yards 2 summers ago. Replacing the old concrete driveway and patio with pavers made a huge difference!

House Exterior - Beauteeful Living

FOYER

Since we have a small foyer, I try to keep the decorating at a minimum in this area. This bench seating set-up works for us for the summer. However, before fall starts, I’d like to replace this bench with a slender shoe cabinet. We keep our shoes off in our home. Shouldn’t everyone? 🙂

Foyer - Beauteeful Living

FAMILY ROOM FIREPLACE

The only fireplace we have in our home is situated in our family room. Currently this room serves as a playroom for our 2 daughters. Once our youngest turns 8, we plan on converting this room back to a family room. Right now, we use our basement as our TV/media room.

For summer, I decorated our fireplace mantel with hydrangeas from our garden and added a “Love Summer” banner.

Summer Fireplace - Beauteeful Living

LIVING ROOM

One of my favorite things about our living room is the large bay window in the center of the room. Not only does it let in lots of natural lighting, it’s also the favorite place where my 2 dogs love to hang as they stalk the mailman, UPS delivery person, and other dogs. 🙂

We love the couch in this photo which we bought when we first moved into our home 10 years ago. Miraculously, with 2 dogs and 2 kids in our home, this sofa is still in great condition. I often change pillows and throws on this couch to go with the season’s color scheme.

Living room - Beauteeful Living

Another favorite item in our living room is this geometric rug. I get tired of things easily but 3 years in, I still love how this rug looks in our living room.

Living room rug - Beauteeful Living

KITCHEN

Our kitchen was renovated 8 years ago. You can read all about it in this post. Opening up the walls in our kitchen was the best thing we did since it created an “open-concept” living space.

Kitchen - Beauteeful Living

Here’s a view of our kitchen from our dining room:

Kitchen full view - Beauteeful Living

DINING ROOM

For summer, I decorated our dining room with coral and turquoise colors. You can read more about it here. The coral and white striped curtains are my favorite home decor purchase this summer!

Summer Entertaining - Beauteeful Living

I used flowers from our garden for this centerpiece:

Summer Entertaining floral centerpiece - Beauteeful Living

Here’s a view of our dining room from our living room:

Dining Room - Beauteefulliving

BATHROOM

As you may notice, I have a thing for the color coral. It’s one of my favorite colors. It just screams summer to me. And, boy, do I love summer!

Bathroom - Beauteeful Living

Bright and cheery colors like coral and teal make me happy.

Bathroom vanity - Beauteeful Living

Let’s now head outside to our backyard.

WOOD DECK

The sliding doors in our dining room lead to our wood deck. To maximize shade, last summer we installed a pergola over our outdoor dining set. Dining outdoors has been a much more pleasant experience during these hot summer days and evenings.

EXCITING NEWS: This photo was featured on Huffington Post‘s website (link here)!

Pergola on deck - Beauteeful Living

POOL DECK

When we purchased our home, our above-ground pool area was one of the biggest eyesores. Read more about it here. Ever since we installed a new pool deck and replaced the old concrete patio with pavers, this outdoor area has become a tranquil space for our family to relax during the summer. Since I love the tropics, I tried decorating our outdoor space with a tropical theme.

Pool and deck - Beauteeful Living

Here’s a view of the back of our house from our pool. Love how our palm plants give a tropical feel to our backyard. They are seriously the next best thing to palm trees! 🙂

Backyard view - Beauteeful Living

My summer home tour concludes here. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little tour around the interior and exterior of my home. One of the most rewarding aspects of home ownership has been the freedom to make updates based on our own personal preference. Coming up with a design plan for our home has been a fun and enjoyable learning experience!

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Do you change up your home’s decor for summer? If you have feedback on my summer home tour, I’d love to hear it. Xoxo, Tee.