Savvy Tips For Styling Your Home For Optimal Comfort This Summer

This summer is going to look quite different from summers of the past. Communities may just be starting to reopening after widespread quarantines and lockdowns to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, but that doesn’t mean everything is going to go back to normal immediately. Many of the events and activities, such as festivals, amusement parks, and camps, have been canceled in the interest of avoiding large gatherings of people. Without the usual activities to keep them entertained, families are going to be spending more time at home than ever before.

To make your home the comfortable haven that you need it to be, you may need to invest some time — and a little bit of cash — into styling your home this summer. As you think about what changes and improvements to make, focus on your family’s unique needs. While the tips below can help anyone make their full house more comfortable for the summer ahead, you will need to use your own judgment to determine what works best for your family. Let’s dive into these tips for styling your home to make it your family’s perfect sanctuary this summer.

Give Kids Their Own Space

With all of your family members spending the majority of their time under the same roof, it’s important that each person has a space they can go to when they need time away from everyone else. This ability to retreat from all of the noise and distractions that come from a family is important for the mental health of each of your family members, even the smallest ones.

Think of ways you can help your children create their own spaces. This could be as simple as setting up a beanbag or comfy chair in a corner of their bedroom to create a reading nook. If you have a communal playroom for your kids, set up zones for each child that gives them a special space of their own. Wherever you set up your child’s space, encourage them to personalize it. Have them look at an online furniture store with you to pick out unique pieces for their space or help them decorate their walls so that they can insert their individuality into the space. Teach your kids how to keep their spaces organized by putting away toys when they’re done playing and tucking books away into bookshelves. Having less clutter in the house will help everyone feel more relaxed and comfortable.

It’s even more important for teenagers to have their own space during these times. Your teen may be feeling a wild mix of emotions from not being able to see their friends, missing out on major events like prom, and having to skip their favorite summer events. Help them cope by creating spaces for them to which they can escape. If you have a guest room or office that is going unused, consider letting your teen set it up as a room where they can pursue their hobbies or passions. You could also transform more removed areas of your property, such as the garage or an unused shed, into an alone space for your teenager. If you do allow your teen to use a space like your garage as their own, just remember to make sure the space is safe and secure for them. You could install a keypad on the garage to secure it and give your teen residential garage door openers so that they can access the space any time but strangers are unable to. Not only will this boost the security of your garage, but it will make your teen feel like they have exclusive access to the space.

Transform the Bathroom Into a Spa

During these stressful times, it’s just as important for you to have a place to which you can escape as it is for your children. While you can turn any available room or corner of a room into your personal space like you’re doing for the kids, you could also focus on the bathroom. The bathroom is where you get ready to face the day and many people find their self-care routines relaxing and grounding. By styling your home to optimize the space in which you do these routines, they’ll feel even more comforting and indulgent.

Start with decluttering your cabinets and drawers. Toss out any old products and use up any moisturizers and face masks you have lying around. You can then refill them with the products you truly love, allowing you to have your treats but not clutter up the space. Once you’ve paired down your existing products and stocked up on your essentials, it’s time to organize. Use shallow baskets or repurposed gift boxes to neatly divide the drawers and use small cups to store objects like brushes and tweezers.

The next step to styling your home’s bathroom is outfitting it with a shower curtain, bathmat, and decorations that you love. You could hang whimsical art on the walls to insert your personal style into the space or fill the room with indoor plants to add a bit of greenery. Invest in objects for your personal comfort as well, such as a new bathrobe, to ensure you can have a true spa experience.

This is also the time to tackle any bathroom renovations you’ve been wanting. Adding a bathtub, for instance, could greatly increase your comfort in your home’s bathroom. Contact professionals for tub installation services and discuss your options for how you could install a tub while adhering to social distancing. This may be a project that requires a bit of time and planning, but you would get a feature that increases your enjoyment of the bathroom as well as the value of your home.

Brighten Your Living Room

You probably won’t be out and about as much this summer, so it is important to bring the lightness and cheer you would experience outside into your living space. Luckily, there are plenty of ways of styling your home that will brighten it up. Start with getting as much natural light into your living space as possible. Keep your window blinds pulled up or invest in aesthetically-pleasing window drapes that you can easily adjust to let light in during the day. Not only are drapes a practical purchase, but a pair of aesthetically-pleasing drapes will go a long way in styling your home.

If your living room lacks natural light, consider investing in new window installation. This is also a good time to look into installing glass doors that lead to an outdoor living space, like a patio or deck. These doors will let in a plethora of natural light while also giving you easy access to another relaxing area your family can put to use this summer. For these bigger projects, you will need to discuss with professionals what kind of safety measures they can utilize to ensure they maintain social distancing. However, it will be well worth it if you can improve the comfort of your home.

Of course, installing windows and doors for more natural light isn’t a possibility for every family. Instead, brighten up your living room with well-placed pops of colors. Getting new throw pillows, blankets, and lamps are affordable touches that can add a significant amount of personality to the space. You can also try rearranging the furniture to open up the space or reorganizing shelves and tables to make the area appear less cluttered.

Zone the Rooms

With more people in the house more consistently, things tend to get messy and disorganized quickly. try zoning the rooms in your home to maximize your downtime and minimize your cleaning time. For instance, you could designate a counter in your kitchen as a sandwich bar. In a house filled with older kids who make their own breakfasts and lunches, this will keep you from having the clean the entire kitchen after every meal they make.

You can do the same with your living rooms and bathrooms. If you have a family room as well as a living room, designate one for louder or messier activities like listening to music or playing with toys and the other for quieter pastimes like reading or meditating. If you have multiple bathrooms, turn one into the spa we discussed previously and the other one will be reserved for the messier necessities, like shaving or dying hair.

Turn Your Backyard Into an Outdoor Oasis

If you have outdoor space, you have a wonderful opportunity to create a relaxing oasis that your family can use all summer long. Fresh air does wonders for maintaining motivation and well-being and it is surprisingly easy to outfit your outdoor space for optimal comfort. Start with placing comfortable furniture outside. Whether you have a patio, deck, porch, or a simple patch of grass, contact outdoor furniture specialists to find out about your options for furniture that will hold up in the outdoors. These specialists will know what chairs and tables will give you the most comfort while also lasting the longest.

Continue adding comfort and styling your home’s outdoor space with small accents, like throw pillows and outdoor rugs. You can also decorate the area with objects like tea lights and lanterns, providing light when the sun starts to set as well as a pop of personality.

Once you’ve finished styling your home’s outdoor lounge area, turn your gaze to the rest of your backyard. While you may not use all of it as a place of relaxation, you can use it as a place of activity. Those who love to garden can use their free time this summer to focus on backyard landscaping. Try planting new flowers and shrubs and creating garden beds that add a touch of style to your backyard. You could even plant a vegetable or herb garden this summer to grow fresh produce. Gardening projects can serve as a relaxing, productive activity you do on your own or as a bonding activity that you can involve your kids in.

Even if you aren’t handy with a spade and shovel, you could contact landscaping professionals to improve the look of your outdoor spaces. You could have them focus on the softscaping, which are the living elements like plants and shrubbery, of your yard or have them do hardscaping. Hardscaping would involve the addition of any non-living elements, like patios, decks, and walkways. Another good investment at this time would be fence installation. By fencing your property, you can make your space even more private and ensure that your children and pets don’t wander out of the yard while they’re playing outside this summer.

Create an Area for Exercise

To ensure that your family is getting enough exercise to keep them healthy, create a space that is devoted to physical activity. Outdoor spaces are perfect for this. If you have a swimming pool, call professionals to give it a good cleaning and make sure it is ready for use this summer. Large backyards can also be transformed into baseball diamonds or football fields, allowing your kids to play the sports they love without leaving home.

If you lack sufficient outdoor space or it’s too hot for outside activity, set up an indoor exercise area. This can be a corner of your living room that you use for yoga or a guest bedroom you transform into a workout room. There are plenty of workout videos online that you and the kids can follow along with. You can also use objects you already have in your home workout with or you can invest in jump ropes and dumbbells for simple, but effective workouts. You can then easily store away these smaller objects when you’re done working out and use the room for whatever other purposes you need.

Optimize Your Kitchen Space

As your family is going to be making a lot of their meals at home, your kitchen is going to be one of the most-used spaces in the house. This makes it important that your kitchen is optimized for functionality this summer. Start by ensuring that all of the major appliances work and calling professionals for appliance repair if anything is broken. If you have a faulty dishwasher or wonky refrigerator, you’re going to face a lot of obstacles as you try to handwash the army’s worth of dishes your family uses and store large amounts of food to avoid going to the grocery store. Fix any problems now so that the rest of the summer is smooth-sailing in the kitchen.

Next, take the time to declutter your kitchen. Your cupboards and drawers are probably filled with items that you never use or that are expired. Toss out anything that’s underused or expired, but keep in mind that seldom-used devices like ice cream makers or fondue sets might have their moment while you’re all cooped up at home and looking for fun things to do. Organize everything that you decide to keep thoughtfully and use trays and storage boxes to keep items neat and tidy.

Finish off your optimization by styling your home’s kitchen to your personal tastes. You’re going to be spending a lot of time in the kitchen this summer, so spend time styling your home’s kitchen with accessories and decorations that bring you joy. Even simple additions, like a fun set of measuring cups or an aesthetically-pleasing paper towel holder, can go a long way in styling your home.

With these simple tips, you can transform your home into the perfect sanctuary for this summer. Remember to consider what your family’s unique needs are and put in the effort to fulfill those needs however you can. With some thoughtfulness and planning, you can turn your home into a comfortable and stylish place to spend time in this summer.