By Atreyee Choudhury

Atreyee Choudhury, Founder & Principal Interior Architect, De Panache, found her passion for interiors while studying for her Bachelor of Architecture. With more than 20 years of experience in the industry, she is known to have the biggest exclusive cladding collection in Bangalore that she sources from across the globe.

Summer brings us a joyful memory of vacations, travel, and outdoor activities. The remnant blossoms of spring still linger throughout. This is the season to enjoy more outdoor spaces than indoors, even during late evenings. As the spring transcends into breezy, hot, and long summer days, consider these tips for your living room decor to make your summer more memorable.

1. Add indoor plants: This will make you connect outdoors with indoor spaces. Create your private zen garden with very low-maintenance succulents, driftwood, a pebble bed, and maybe a Buddha statue or a European sculpture. Buy fully grown indoor or semi-indoor plants from reputed nurseries around you and place them in your living room to instantly change your living room’s decor. A dry garden nook is always welcoming in living rooms. These indoor plants also purify the air.

2. Decorate your patio/outdoor spaces: With school holidays around the corner for kids, this is the perfect time to set up an outdoor dining space in your backyard or balcony. Add cane, bamboo, or solid wood outdoor furniture and enjoy the gradual progression of the dazzling sun into a mellow orange ball. Set up your balcony with outdoor solid wood furniture and hanging cane lights to enjoy the night sky aglow with bright city lights. Be it an outdoor bar or a large barbeque with a few friends in the backyard, invest in a summer-friendly setup with outdoor furniture and lights.

3. Tablescaping with natural flowers and creepers: With the backyard and balcony bursting with an array of colours, this is the perfect time to hone your creative table skills with artefacts and fresh flowers. Lay a pretty table in the foyer with vibrant flowers. Instead of buying flowers from the market, head straight into your backyard garden, pick fresh flowers and decorate your foyer.

4. Swap heavy bedding and drapes with cotton bedding: Swap your winter heavy bedding and drapes with light coloured breathable cotton ones for a breezy look and feel. Neutral-toned or white linens, pastel-coloured flowy curtains, and translucent sheer fabrics will diffuse bright daylight and create a cosy indoor environment.

5. Create a gallery wall: Preserve your vacation photos by printing and framing them. Then, arrange the mixed-sized photos together and create a memory wall. These multiple-sized photo frames of your past vacations will inspire you to plan your next summer vacation. It will also be an exciting and engaging conversation topic during a family get-together.

6. Don’t overdo it: Less is more, especially in the summers. Keep it bright and peaceful with white. Consider painting your walls and ceilings with a pure serene white paint. Use neutral or pastel colours for certain accent walls, along with white. These pastel shades will soothe you and bring respite to your soul from the scorching sun.

7. Use a designer ceiling fan: An elegant ceiling fan can instantly change the look of your bedroom. Summer months need cross ventilation, and ceiling fans can be more energy efficient than a regular A.C. It need not be a mundane white ceiling fan. Instead, choose a wooden or hand-made luxury designer.

8. Let in abundant light: Throw open your doors and windows, pull back drapes, install mesh windows and doors to ensure the evening breeze finds its way into your home, minus the mosquitoes.

9. Add an aquarium: Invest some time in aquascaping your living space. You can create a theme-based aquarium with the help of professionals, or simply purchase a small fish bowl, which you can decorate with driftwood or rocks.

10. Grow aquatic plants on your balcony or terrace: Consider growing aquatic plants on your terrace or balcony to keep your home cool. Aquatic plants will absorb heat along with water. You can grow water lilies that bloom almost daily instead of lotus, which bloom only once in 3-4 months. Keep the water lilies on the terrace in pots filled with water and create a base with vermicompost, clayey soil, and sand to plant them, enabling their growth and refilling water when required. As stagnant water can become a breeding ground for mosquitos, leave a few guppy fish here to eat the larvae in the pots.

11. Keep water bowls and birdbaths in your open spaces: During the hot scorching summer months, add a couple of water bowls in your balcony filled with fresh water. Decorative marble bowls or even large carved stone bowls can add character to your open spaces. Water bowls can reduce the temperature and also help in serving thirsty birds. You can also place a decorative birdbath in your backyard to make the garden cooler, and it will also invite plenty of chirping to wake you up at dawn and keep you close to nature throughout the day.