10 Simple & Thrifty Summer Living Room Ideas | European Cottage

Summer is right around the corner and I’m so excited to show you how I added thrifty Summer living room decor to our living room.

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To watch the video head over to YouTube and see how I transition our living room for Summer.

https://youtu.be/N-sOIb2RhsI

I feel like this goes without saying, but Summer home decor has to be simple and easy.

The summer months are too busy with all kinds of good and beautiful things to waste any time on tinkering with home decor.

Or having to constantly clean up the home decor because there’s too much.

So all these ideas are ways that I added simple cottage charm to our living room on a budget.

Thrifty Summer Living Room: Simple Color Scheme

Creams & Blues

This is the color scheme I’ve stuck with for a few years now.

Honestly, I don’t see me changing it any time soon.

I have many items that are within this color scheme already, so it doesn’t make sense to me to go out and buy new stuff.

Not to mention every time I pull out these pillow covers and blankets my husband comments on how much brighter and happier the living room feels.

At the end of the day that’s the most important thing for any home.

That those who live in it find it cozy and comfortable.

Thrifty Summer Living Room: Throw Pillow and Blankets

The places that I put the colors the most in our home are the linens, and for the living room that is the pillows and blankets.

I also love adding them because they are an inexpensive way to brighten up our couches.

These are not the couches I would pick if I were going shopping today, but 10 years ago on a newly wed budget, these are the couches we ended up choosing.

They function really well.

In fact I love how comfortable they are.

They aren’t perfect, but they aren’t imperfect enough to put “buying new couches” on the top of our to-do list.

We’ve also considered buying slipcovers that would protect them and then we could change the color, but that isn’t cheap either.

So here we are, doing the best we can with what we’ve got.

Pillows and blankets.

Thrifty Summer Living Room: Wood Furniture

The European cottage style I love so much has a lot of wood tones in it.

So I had to add this to the list.

Especially since you can easily purchase a coffee table or a side table off Facebook marketplace, or a secondhand store for a great price.

Then give it a little makeover to turn it into the style you want.

Have you noticed yet that there is another piece of wood furniture that received a recent update in our living room?

Yup.

I did some research and learned how to paint over chalk paint.

It was signifigantly easier that I ever imagined.

So if you find a piece of wood furniture that you love, but it was painted with chalk paint 5 years ago, no worries!

I’ll share all that I learned from my research and experience in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime here are a few other wood finishes that I’ve done through the years that add to the cottage feel.

Wood Coffee Table Makeover – White Wax Finish

DIY Side Table – Clear Wax Finish

Milk Paint – Wet Sanding Finish

Green Armoire – Enamel Paint Finish

Thrifty Summer Living Room: Casual & Simple Curtains

I recently shared my DIY no sew curtains in the dining room and I love the way they turned out.

But for this HUGE window in the living room, I wanted something a little more simple and casual.

And let’s be honest, something that will last through all the seasons.

I chose these casual linen curtains that are light and thin.

The neutral cream color is perfect for adding to the simple cottage style, and they work from Fall all the way to Summer.

Thrifty Summer Living Room: Baskets

I think I have more baskets than I know what to do with.

But, it’s because they are one of the best functional decor items ever.

Beautiful and functional for storing toys or books.

Also functional for going to the garden and harvesting produce to bring inside.

They are great in closets, on the floor, or hanging on a rack.

Baskets are a staple for the European cottage style.

But the best part is you can get them so inexpensively!

The one on top of our armoire I picked up at an estate sale for $5.

My favorite thrift store has then for $0.50 sometimes!

Thrifty Summer Living Room: Vintage Artwork

Now here I have to be honest with you.

I’m not sure I love the artwork over here.

So much so that I used command strips to hang them.

I think once we get the mantel up I’ll know better if this will work.

But for now I added this artwork that the girls and I made.

Every Summer the girls and I try to press flowers between pages in books.

There isn’t always a goal in mind for when they are pressed, but we just enjoy doing it together.

One year I made this pressed flower artwork with them and that’s what I did here as well.

Very inexpensive too!

All you need is a frame and time to go pick and press the flowers.

Thrifty Summer Living Room: Greenery/Florals

This is one of my favorite parts of decorating in the Summer.

All the fresh flowers and greens that I can use to decorate my house for FREE!

We planted lilacs a couple of years ago, and this year was the first year they bloomed.

So I snipped them and brought them in so we could enjoy.

But I’ve used all kinds of stems to decorate our home.

Even just stems with leaves and no flowers are beautiful this time of year.

The big black planter with stems in it is actually my DIY artificial plant that I made last year.

It’s held up really well.

When I made it, my husband had me half-convinced it would become trash within the year, but here we are 1.5 years later and it still looks really good.

It’s lost a few leaves due to children and our crazy dogs, but nothing that a little hot glue couldn’t fix!

Once we have more flowers blooming I will probably start creating more floral arrangements but until then, I’m sticking with the simplicity of a cluster of the same stems.

Thrifty Summer Living Room: Vintage Pieces

This is one of the most fun parts of decorating.

Hunting for the perfect piece at the perfect price.

I’ve found many beautiful vintage pieces, but knew they weren’t worth it because they were too much money.

Another really great thing about Summer is garage sales.

The brass pitcher I got at a garage sale last month for only $3!

Garage sales are definitely full of hunting, and take up a lot of time.

But the prices make it worth the stop every time!

(Flea markets have started back up here in Ohio and I’m so excited!!)

Thrifty Summer Living Room: Lighting/Lamps

This is something that we are working on little by little in our home.

Light fixtures can be so expensive!!

Which is why I did a DIY aged lamp makeover last fall.

I understand that sometimes you can’t avoid spending money, but whenever it’s possible I try to do a diy project.

I love the way this little lamp turned out and I also love the way the room feels with it sitting on our end table.

In the evening when the sun is going down, we don’t want our big lights on because we’re trying to get our minds ready for bed.

So a couple lamps are the perfect amount of light.

Thrifty Summer Living Room: Rug

This particular rug is what I would consider a “splurge”.

I understand some people are going to think it’s a reasonable price for a rug, but for me, it was a lot.

I spent $300 on this rug.

But it has held up really well so far, and I love the way it brings the living room together.

Not to mention how soft it is.

We love sitting on the floor and playing board games as a family, and the carpet was so rough that it would leave marks on our legs.

Our home was built in the early 2000s so the carpet is starting to wear out and not be as comfortable as it once was.

But now that we have this soft rug no one ever complains about sitting on the floor!

Another thing I love about it is that it creates separation from the entryway behind the couch and at the same time it makes to room feel more cozy.

We didn’t have a rug in this room until last Fall.

We moved in 6 years ago and just didn’t do it because it’s a carpeted living room.

Last September I decided to try it and see how I liked it (my husband thought I was a nut case putting a rug on carpet) lol.

But now he admits that he likes it as much as I do and is glad that I did it because of the way it make the room feel more complete.

See, ladies!

Sometimes we can get our men to recognize how genius we are haha!

If you’re interested in this rug or some of Amber’s other styles (like the ones in our kitchen) then you can head over to Amazon and see what all she has.

I just checked and the prices right now are higher than what I paid for this specific rug, BUT all the other styles are actually cheaper than what I paid!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

It means so much to me!

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Have a great week! XoXo

Open Your Doors,
Aliya

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