Summer Staycation Home Tour
I am so excited today to be sharing with you a tour of our eclectic and summer ready rancher as part of the Something Different Summer Tour featuring 22 unique blogger abodes. Over the past week, I have worked to clean, style (in a realistic baby-friendly manner), and shoot our home and in doing so I have realized just how much progress we have made and that makes me happy! This summer will be our first in our new home in Greensboro, NC, and we’re mostly planning to hang out around here, hit the pool we joined, and work on some projects as well. With a 1 year old, far away travel isn’t ideal, so over the past couple of months we’ve really worked on making our house into a summer staycation family home, a place where we can all play, relax, and spend time together. Just because awesome summer vacations aren’t on our agenda this summer, that doesn’t mean we can’t have a wonderful time making memories right here. After checking out our staycation space, be sure to visit all of the original and fabulous homes on this your, all linked at the bottom of this post for you. (I’ve created a shoppable gallery at the bottom of this post for your convenience. This gallery and post contain affiliate links. I earn a small commission from purchases you make through these links and truly appreciate your support.)
As I mentioned, we’ve made a lot of progress in creating a home we can enjoy together, so I’ve got a lot to show you today! Come on in! We are going to start with our interior spaces, and then head outside where the real summer fun happens.
Our small but mighty entry is hands down my favorite space in this house. The stenciled walls remind me of the summer sky, and our little bamboo bench corral’s all of our shoes… as you can see our family is big on athletic slides. 😉
This printed rug is a new find and I love the touch of mint it brings to the space which helps it feel summer fresh. Would you believe I found it at FiveBelow for $5?! Seriously! (Thanks to my friend Crystal for telling me about it). Soon enough the floor under the rug will be wood and I can’t wait! (This summer our kitchen and dining room will finally be renovated and that includes replacing flooring. You can see a little peek of that original 1966 kitchen in the background.)
Just to the right of our entry sits our living room, an earthy neutral space overall, but I’ve added pink pillows to help it flow with our entry. We are still very happy with the Bassett sectional we added this past winter… it’s cozy and we can all pile on for movies or rounds of Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, and cooking shows, or to play cards or Yahtzee at the coffee table. This summer, maybe we’ll actually try some of those cooking show recipes. We love to watch Chopped and we’ve talked about putting together baskets and having the kids make meals with our help… this may be the time we finally do that!
Since you last saw this space this winter, I’ve made some small changes to suit our family and make it a stress-free zone. First of all, I layered in this gray ruggable machine washable rug which is life changing with kids and dogs! You might have also noticed that the coffee table is naked. After spending many days saying, “No!” to Wilder, and picking up leaves he pulled off of my plant or dirt from the pot he dumped on the floor, I finally decided to just clear the surface. It’s been extremely freeing!
In the back corner, I added a new basket I found at Target. The seagrass fringe just screams summer to me! While it might make sense to put away blankets for the season, when the AC is blasting, I love to curl up on the couch with a blanket; the basket is great for storing it nearby.
As you can see, my thrifted vintage wall hanging is still going strong in the living room and making me happy! I added a seashell to this vignette for a simple summer touch.
Lastly, I’ve changed around the pillows in here to bring in a bit of the pink from the entry door. I found most of them at my local AtHome store but I’ve sourced some similar pillows for you in the shoppable gallery.
The last time I showed you my living room, I shared with you my desk nook… this little corner is going to be a workhorse this summer! With the older kids home to help, I plan to put them on babysitting duty so that I can focus on some tasks that require more than the typical hour here or there that I have to devote to them, such as writing blog posts, completing projects, and working on the background of this business. Sometimes I might just sit here and stare under the guise of working just to have a quiet moment to myself.
To the left of our entry is the hallway to all of our bedrooms, minus that of Sawyer who has the basement mancave. With summer comes a whole lot of togetherness, and I am a firm believer in having a space to decompress, relax, and read. Kids and parents alike need a private space to get away from the chaos that can come from all that company. I am going to share Emmy’s room with you later since this tour is already ginormous, and Sawyer’s is a space that’s on my summer project list. Today I am going to show you some simple ways I refreshed our master bedroom. It has not changed much since I debuted our color blocked wall, but I’ve added some new seasonal touches. We actually spend quite a bit of time in here and it’s important to me that it maintains a serene feel, and works as a space where I can read one of my books, or hunker down with one of the kids to watch a show at night. (I try to have a show to watch with each of them so we get some one on one time. Sawyer and I just finished the first season of Legacies which was perfect to watch with a young teen son, and Emmy and I are delving into the second to last season of Pretty Little Liars.)
With summer here, the time for heavy blankets is over! Our gauzy Urban Outfitters duvet cover is the perfect weight for summer, and I added a lightweight Case & Drift throw to the foot of the bed. Truth be told, I borrowed this throw from Emmy’s room. She has SO many blankets… and I thought it looked light and summery here.
As you can see, Chris’ nightstand has stayed the same because he isn’t really into decor on his nightstand… it’s all about function. However, my side is another story. Bring on the seasonal fun!
I added a plant, some of my summer reading books (Currently reading Then She was Gone which is why it’s separate), a seashell, as well as a beautiful Druzy tassel strand my best friend made for me.
On the wall opposite our bed sits the gallery wall that helps hide our TV. I’ve been walking around the house for months trying to find a space for Chris’ lion sketch he did when he was a kid. After rearranging my dresser a bit, I realized the perfect space had been there all along.
I simply slid over my white glove mold to the right, and added in another seashell as well as an orange blossom candle from one of my most favorite candle companies with a cause. My brother took that cold beer photograph years ago and even though it’s a fixture in the gallery, it really has a summer vibe to it!
Although Chris doesn’t like too much stuff on his nightstand, I take liberties with his dresser and either he doesn’t mind, or he doesn’t notice. Most likely it’s the latter.
On the left side of his dresser, I added a large thrifted seashell that has a beautiful abalone finish inside, and a mova globe with constellations, perfect for summer stargazing.
On the right side, I added Chris’ aviator sunglasses. He actually bought these almost 10 years ago for an 80s party we were going to, but I thought they looked pretty fun and summery on display.
Aside from watching shows with my kids on summer nights, our family also loves to all hang out in our downstairs family room and watch movies or Riverdale. We put Wilder to bed at 7, and then the 2 older kids and Chris and I head down to hang out on our old West Elm sectional. This space is not even close to being finished, let alone started, but we are making do with what’s here at the moment.
I bought the coffee table before we moved on my local Facebook Marketplace and I just love it! I recently added this Holly & Martin side table that I won in a giveaway as well as a comfy leather pouf (shown above) for Sawyer to sit on when he plays video games. And yes, he will be playing some this summer, but not all day every day as he intends. Bahaha. That amazing bison canvas came from Value City Furniture and is only $99! It reminds me of our summer travels to South Dakota two years ago, one of our most epic adventures.
We’ve got some plans for this space, but it’s going to take a lot of work so possibly come Fall One Room Challenge, I will be joining in the 6 week adventure.
As you can see above, the family room backs up to our back yard, where we’ve just worked on our patio to create a space to spend our summer nights. Just last week I showed you how to create light poles for your string lights. We installed these in our own yard so that we could have ample lighting for evenings spent out here grilling, playing cards, sipping wine or beer with friends.
We eat dinner constantly out here, and I had set the table for our meal the other night so I took some photos to share that with you. While most of the home is done in neutrals with a bit of pink, I decided to use my old blue Falsa blanket as a tablecloth and I loved the pop of vibrant summer color it added here.
Because we have to carry plates downstairs to get to where we are eating, I bought a set of Room Essentials dishes in gray from Target. I complemented those with cups from the same collection in blush. At 79 cents a piece, I figured you can’t go wrong. For flatware, I used this gorgeous matte black flatware from Craft & Kin.
I have been wanting some simple black modern everyday flatware and this set fit the bill perfectly.
Of course the mosquitoes here are pretty bad, but we’ve added a couple of concrete citronella candles I found at AtHome to either end of the table and they definitely help.
At the other end of our patio is our seating area.
We are hoping to add a coffee table/fire pit one day so we can also roast marshmallows out here, but for now I like to come sit out here and let Wilder play on the rug. That’s one of Emmy’s favorite summertime activities!
Beyond the patio is a large back yard that needs some serious love! There’s also a tree house we hope to make over this summer, and a tree swing that we’ve discovered supports my weight… Yes, we’ve already had a few nights of fun with everyone (with exception to Wilder) taking turns on the swing! Our older kids are past the point of asking for pushes, but they love to have Chris help take them to the highest heights possible on this swing.
Let’s head out to the front yard now, which happens to be a space we’ve really made the most of so far. In our move we had to say goodbye to my peonies, the day lilies and other plants we lovingly put in the ground, our vegetable and herb gardens, and more. It’s going to take time for the new yard to be as much of a haven for us, but this grand magnolia tree in the front yard which has just bloomed is making my heart happy, and it’s quintessentially southern.
For Wilder’s first birthday, we gave him a wooden giraffe swing which we hung from our Magnolia tree in the front yard because it was the perfect tree for it, but also because we needed a place for him to hang (literally) while we play one of our favorite yard games, Kubb. My parents introduced us to this game a few years ago and we fell in love! It’s perfect for all fitness levels (meaning it requires little athletic ability). Our back yard is too sloped, so we use the front yard to play, with Wilder sitting nearby in his giraffe swing.
As you can see, I also added a couple of adirondack chairs. We purchased these from World Market (they are a total steal!) and I put them together easily one afternoon. While gray may seem like a random choice, we wanted something that would hide dirt well, and I felt that these brought in the gray of our concrete porch planter. In the late afternoon these chairs end up in the shade and I often find myself sitting out here.
A couple of years ago, the kids and I bought Chris a large metal praying mantis created by an artist for the garden. I was excited to finally get her out to greet our guests.
And finally, we are back to our little front porch which I made over on a budget a couple months ago.
Thank you so much for stopping by to see our home ready for all of our staycation summer adventures! Be sure to visit all of the other homes on this tour because each of them offers something different and will inspire you to think creatively. And if you saw something you liked, be sure to visit my shoppable gallery below this post.
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
