With summer days coming to an end, kids heading back off to school, and cooler weather on the horizon, many homeowners take this time of the year as a queue to pack away their summertime décor and break out the pumpkins and turkeys. For those who just aren’t quite ready to let summer end, why not find ways to bring the summer into your home year round? The kitchen is a great place to impart some summery design, since it’s a room where everyone spends time and can enjoy the fun ambiance that a beachside cottage style kitchen can bring, even on the coldest of winter nights. Here are a few great ways to turn your kitchen into the home of the endless summer!
1. Cabinetry Facelift
Take a cue from the beach cottages of New England here, and replace cabinet doors with doors that have a glass front, or some type of window-pane style design. Sure, this will force you to keep cabinets organized and tidy, but would that be the worst thing to be a little more organized? Adding some type of lighting within the cabinets will provide a great look in the evening hours, and even guide you through the dark kitchen during a midnight snack run to the fridge. If you choose to add lighting, consider how the light will flow downwards through the cabinets. If you have solid wood shelving, light won’t make it very far. The go-to color for coastal, summer kitchen cabinets is white, so consider a DIY job to give your cabinets a fresh, bright new look.
2. Brighten Up the Backsplash
Pull off that boring old designed backsplash and find a new tiled backsplash that accentuates a few colors that scream beach. Blues, greens, and tans are all great ways to impart some oceanic colors into the kitchen to tie together the theme. If a new backsplash is out of the budget, you can still get creative with a stencil and some grout paint, adding designs intermittently throughout the wall and sprucing up that age old grout with a fresh coat of white paint.
3. Bring in the Light
Even on the dreariest of days late in the year, a summer-themed kitchen will be able to bring in enough outdoor light to make you feel like it’s the longest day of the year! Making a move towards white colored walls, cabinets, and appliances will immediately brighten the space when natural light enters through windows. If the kitchen only gets limited natural light, find ways to add reflective surfaces to the kitchen, like polished tile, countertops, and stainless steel décor. The light refracting around the roof will immediately become amplified, turning a dark kitchen in an inviting, bright space for all to enjoy.
4. Create a Space for All
While not every kitchen is capable of fitting an island and seating into it, there are certainly ways to utilize even the smallest of spaces for entertaining year round. One great way to make the most of limited space is to find a rolling island/cart with caster wheels on the bottom for easy mobility. To keep with your summer theme, add white bead board and trims to the doors, and get creative with 2x4s to create a boardwalk-type surface that can be used for serving, or as a decorative piece.
5. Year-Round Décor
While there are certain items that really should only be displayed during the summer months, like that giant flag with the smiling sun on it. Developing a style that makes you imagine you can smell the salty air every time you pass through your kitchen really isn’t quite difficult. Keep theme and decorations around a nautical/vintage theme, and pick items that you can add additional décor to during holidays to really make it part of your home. Brass wall art, model ships, and nautical rope are all great foundations to picking out décor for your new kitchen design.
The most important part to creating a summer feel in your kitchen year round is to make it personalized to you and your family’s preferences. Don’t forget to add lots of great beach pictures from past trips or have the kids gather shells to place around the room or in a vase. The opportunities are endless, but don’t let conventional “décor rules” stop you from enjoying that summer feel in your home year round!