My Five Favorite Summer Accessories

Belated Happy 4th friends – I hope you’re landing here after a fun long weekend! We spent a few days with our toes in the sand at Nauset Beach at the Cape with our good friends, definitely a summer highlight!

Today I’m back with July’s My Five Favorites along with Pam of Simple Details, Jennifer of Dimples & Tangles, and Kris of Driven By Decor.

This month we’re so happy to have the fun and gorgeous Mallory from Style Your Senses hosting along with us!!! Mallory is mama to two adorable little ones, and shows how to pull your look together effortlessly even when you’re on the go with kiddos in tow (be sure to check out her IG!!)   Style Your Senses is filled with beautiful home projects too – one of my absolute favorites is the French-inspired nursery she designed for her first baby girl. I can’t even. It’s the sweetest!!

Mallory is the absolute perfect person to join us for this month’s topic – summer accessories! I’m talking about a few things for the home in particular but my chic co-hosts will surely have some fun accessories for you thrown in as well.

My entire house is a basically in summer mode all the time – a bit of a sunshiny coastal vibe is what gets me through the long New England winter – so I don’t need to do much to bring on a summer feel, but here are a few simple touches to freshen up the house in this glorious season. Affiliate links are included in this post for your convenience; you can read about affiliate links right here.

FLOWERS OR GREENS FROM THE YARD

Take advantage of these summer months and bring the outdoors in. Pretty much all summer long, you’ll find cuttings from my yard all over the house. I don’t even discriminate against weeds as long as they’re green!

 

Poison ivy is just about the only thing that’s safe from my shears in spring and summer!

Feathery and delicate astilbe from the garden…..

….so pretty in a casual, colorful summer bouquet!

What’s in your yard, or maybe your mom’s yard or your neighbor’s? I’m sure they wouldn’t mind sharing ?

Here are some great plants for a cutting garden by the way!

POTTED HERBS 

In addition to all the greens and flowers I forage from around the yard, every summer I plant herbs in containers for our deck. They’re easily accessible for cooking and look pretty in colorful planters. It’s a win-win!

Here’s an easy recipe for basil pesto if your summer pots do well this year!

Ocean State Job Lot is my favorite source locally for inexpensive planters like this one on my deck.

This planter was only $9! Pretty good around here for a nice sized pot. Even if you don’t have an Ocean State Job Lot near you, mid-summer is a great time to find sales on outdoor items so keep your eye out. (PS that chive above is wild and comes back every year even, despite being completely neglected. My kind of plant!)

A couple related posts to check out:

Tips for making wine cork herb markers

Planting herbs in containers

SHELLS

When I was growing up my extended family spent summer weekends together at the beach, where I would scour the shoreline with my brothers and our cousins looking for treasures from the sea. We’d fill up our buckets to the brim with sea glass, starfish and all sorts of shells, studying them for signs of occupancy, then organizing hermit crab races for our temporary pets  (there was no way mom was letting us bring them home!)

Shells are the easiest summer accessory ever!  Add to bookshelves, fill the bottom of a glass vase or scatter into a tablescape. Beautiful au naturel, or add a little glam with Rub n Buff to grace your coffee table or hold salt on the dinner table.

OR if you want summer to be a permanent vibe in your home then go big and make a shell mirror,

or two!!

(a little sneak peek of the bathroom reveal coming this Friday!)

 

A NEW FRONT DOOR MAT 

If you entertain more in the summer, a new door mat is a quick way to spruce up your entry. You might have seen on Instagram that we just had our house painted in June. Our front steps are in DESPERATE need of being done over, but for the time being I’m all about distracting the eye from that hideousness – flowers and a fresh new doormat do wonders for crumbling cement!!

I thought this “hello” one was cute (no longer available – lots of other cute ones here), but maybe a tad too small, so I put it to the back door,

and made a SUPERSIZED 60″ mat by duct-taping two together, it worked like a charm and gives me the look of the oversized mats I love in the Frontgate and William Sonoma catalogs for a fraction of the price.

I used these mats and although the pattern doesn’t line up perfectly, it’s not really noticeable and the seam isn’t even visible. I’m totally doing this every year from here on out!

 

OUTDOOR STRING LIGHTS

Sitting outside surrounded by twinkling lights with your friends and family, a little music and perhaps a glass of rose, it doesn’t get any better on a breezy summer night! My last “favorite” summer accessory is one my kiddos and are going to work on this week….setting up globe string lights across our fire pit.

I told the kids the only way this whole lighting project is happening is if they do it with me – I want them to learn how to learn a few DIY skills along the way (but really I just want some QT with them!!)

We’re planning to do a modified version of Jen’s outdoor light poles over at City Farmhouse, criss-crossing them over the patio and attaching them to the house. I bought 4 strands of these lights because they were the best price for the amount of lights (20) and the length (20′).

I’ll keep you posted on how this little summer project goes down!

Little by little our new outdoor space is coming along…..read about how I installed this pea stone patio and fire pit last summer.

 

The rest of the My Five Favorites crew is sure to have all sorts of goodies for us, so let’s hop over and check them out!

Simple Details

 Dimples & Tangles

Driven By Decor

and our special guest host, Mallory of Style Your Senses!