Join me for a tour to see how I used a mix of lemons and lavender to add some simple touches of summer to our home.
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Welcome To The Blogger’s Best Summer Home Tour
This week I am excited to be joining a group of 30 bloggers for the Blogger’s Best Summer Home Tour hosted by Kelly at The Tattered Pew. If you are joining me from Crissy at First Day Home, thank you for visiting. I am so glad you are here!
My name is Jen. I am a wife, mom of two, a lifelong Nebraskan, and the creative voice behind Midwest Life and Style. Here at MWLS, you’ll find a little bit of everything, including affordable home decor, DIYs, made from scratch recipes, and inspiration for everyday living.
Lemons and Lavender Summer Home Tour
The Porch
Hi there, and welcome to my lemons and lavender summer home tour! Let’s start with our summer porch.
Each summer, I love to create a fresh look for our porch with a mix of colorful flowers and simple decor. I enjoy the challenge of finding new ways to style this space without buying all new things.
This year I was inspired by these gorgeous purple and yellow mixed pots that I purchased from The Home Depot. The colors complement each other perfectly and add such a bright and cheery touch to the front of our home.
The flowers are the star of the porch, so I kept the rest of the decor to a minimum. I just added some of my favorite layering rugs and two wood lanterns with candles to give the space a few finishing touches.
Right off of the porch, you can see a peek of the DIY rain barrel my husband and I made last summer from an old wine barrel. To date, it is one of my all-time favorite do-it-yourself projects.
Despite the recent sweltering heat, my DIY door basket filled with petunias, bacopa flowers, and trailing vines and is still going strong. It is a great alternative to a wreath, and I am already dreaming up ways to repurpose my door basket in the fall.
Shop Our Porch
The Entry
I love the purple and yellow flowers on the porch so much that I was inspired to bring those same colors indoors. And thus, the lemons and lavender theme for this year’s summer home tour was born.
Our entry and dining room is one of my favorite rooms in our home to decorate. To add some summery pops of color, I tucked a few lemons stems into a straw basket. Then I draped an old crocheted blanket over the side. I hung the basket on my vintage shelf with a denim jacket and cute straw hat that was a Goodwill find.
It is the perfect summer vignette to welcome guests into our home.
Our entry is also where my vintage dresser lives. It is one of my most treasured pieces of furniture, but it didn’t always look this good. You should have seen what a mess it was when I rescued it from the thrift store. Yikes! It needed help and a lot of it.
My tutorial for refinishing vintage furniture was one of the very first posts I shared here on MWLS. At the time of the makeover, there was a lot of sweat, a little bit of blood, and even some tears that were shed. But the transformation is proof that if I can do hard things, so can YOU! Now the dresser makeover is one of the projects I am most proud of.
Shop Our Entry
The Dining Room
Adjacent to the entry is our dining area. The previous homeowners used this room as a second living space, but I love the look of a formal dining room. And, we already had the furniture from our last home. So to us, it just made sense.
We eat most meals in our kitchen, but this space is great for entertaining when we host family and friends.
Like so many areas in our home, this room is still a work in progress. But one update we did make was the addition of the pendant light. Before we moved in, the dining room had no overhead lighting. It was impossible to spend time in here after dark. Now, with the lighting, we use this space more often. It is incredible how making such a small change transformed the look and feel of the whole dining room!
My vintage dresser doubles as storage for extra dishes and linens, and it also is the ideal place for me to display some of my seasonal decor. For summer, I added a small lemon tree paired with some books, a few antique cameras, and a sign from one of my favorite small shops, Currently Chic Boutique.
Free Summer Printables
My friend and blogging mentor, Julie, from My Wee Abode, recently shared some free lemon printables that are perfect for my lemons and lavender summer home tour theme.
Aren’t they beautiful?
I used some linen paper that I found in my craft supplies to print them out, popped them into some frames, and boom!
With just the click of my mouse, I had new custom art for less than $20.
How To Create A Simple Summer Centerpiece With Lemons
To bring in a few hints of purple, I repurposed the centerpiece from my Easter tablescape. The dough bowl is filled with stems of lamb’s ear and a small garland of lavender.
Then I added a few faux lemons, and that’s it! A simple and inexpensive summer centerpiece.
Since the dining room gets used sparingly, I love to dress up my table with simple centerpieces like this one.
Centerpieces aren’t just for the dining room, though. It would look pretty on a coffee table or console table, too! This dough bowl makes the rounds throughout my house from season to season and is one of my staple decor pieces.
Shop Our Dining Room
The Bedroom
To wrap up my lemons and lavender summer home tour, here is a peek of our master bedroom. Next to the dining room, it is my favorite spot in our home. You’ll often find me here working on the blog or snuggling with my girls watching one of our favorite shows.
I refreshed our bedding for the summer by swapping out our white duvet for a gray striped one. I also added some new yellow pillows and a cozy throw to bring in some of those summery tones.
I love this time of year when our garden is in full bloom. There is nothing better than having fresh flowers to brighten up our home. I couldn’t resist clipping some purple catmint and placing it on my nightstand.
And by the look of things, I’m not the only one who enjoys spending time cozying up in our bedroom. Miss Chloe approves too!
Shop Our Bedroom
Tour More Summer Homes
Thank you so much for visiting today! I hope you enjoyed my summer home tour and seeing how I used lemons and lavender-inspired accents to decorate for the season. I have more summer inspiration to share with you in the coming weeks, including some fun patriotic recipes and ideas for styling a table for your 4th of July BBQ.
If you are not a part of the MWLS family, I’d love to have you subscribe and join me. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and now, Tiktok!
Next, be sure to visit Cindy at County Road 407. And see all of the gorgeous homes that are part of the Blogger’s Best Summer Home Tour linked below.
Until next time!
Blogger’s Best Summer Home Tour
This week I’m joining some of my blogging friends for the Bloggers Best Summer Home Tours! All week long we are welcoming you into our homes. You can visit each summer home tour by clicking the links below.
Monday’s Tours
The Tattered Pew / Stonegable / My Wee Abode
White Arrows Home / Fiddle Leaf Blog / Dabbling and Decorating
Tuesday’s Tours
The Flowering Farmhouse / Sanddollar Lane / Cottage In The Mitten
Up To Date Interiors / Bricks ‘n Blooms / Cottage On Bunker Hill
Wednesday’s Tours
Open Doors Open Hearts/ Pasha Is Home / Shiplap and Shells
A Blue Nest / Cloches and Lavender / Simply 2 Moms
Thursday’s Tours
Cassie Bustamante / First Day of Home / Midwest Life and Style
County Road 407 / She Gave It A Go / Robyn’s French Nest
Friday’s Tours
The Ponds Farmhouse / DIY Beautify / Follow The Yellow Brick Home
My Thrift Store Addiction / Tatertots and Jello / Sweet Pea
Did You Enjoy this Post? PIN It for Later!
Beautiful summer tour! I love lemons and lavender for summer and all your vintage touches!
Happy summer!
Thank you, Amber. I hope you have a wonderful summer too!
Your home is gorgeous! I love the basket wreath on your door and all of the lemon touches! I pinned it to my summer board to share. Thanks for letting us peek inside your pretty summer home!
xoxo
Thank you so much, Jennifer. It was a fun tour and happy to be joining! I hope you enjoy your summer!
Your home always looks so amazing Jen!! I love the lemon touches you added…super cute!!
Thank you so much, Jennifer! Happy Summer!
What a pretty summer home tour! Love those lemons and that antique dresser is stunning!
Thank you so much, Kathryn. Happy summer!
Well, talk about being surprised! Not only is your lemon and lavender home absolutely lovely, but I gasped when I saw one my lemon printables on your antique dresser! Thank you so much for featuring them, and for the wonderful shout-out! Of course, you know I love lemons, and adding the Lamb’s Ear to the your bowl is perfect! I ALMOST used Lamb’s Ear, too! LOL! Pinned, and always love hopping with you, dear friend. I’m going to link this post to my printables post and so my readers can see it in a real-life situation! 😉
You are so very welcome, Julie! And thank you for making them available. They are gorgeous!😍 I could hardly believe my good luck when I saw them on your blog a few weeks ago. I knew they would be absolutely perfect for my summer home tour, and I’m so glad I was able to include them.
I’m so in love with your style Jen! Lavender and lemons are the perfect combinations for summer and my favorites to use for decor during this time of year. You have given me so many great ideas. Happy Summer my friend!
You are too kind. Thank you, Kim! I appreciate your sweet words. I hope you have a happy summer too!
Jen, I love the way you decorated your home for summer! Your purple and yellow combo reminds me of my mom. It was her favorite color combo.
Thank you very much, Leena. I am crushing on the yellow and purple this summer. They are so bright and cheery!
Jen!! It’s impossible to go wrong with lemons and lavendar!!! I’m actually about to head to a local nursery and buy a little bit more lavendar haha PS Your kitty was on your bed again… i’m going with that bed must be so comfy cause that cute kitty keeps showing up in the same spot 😆 Loved your tour, especially your vintage dresser!!!
Thank you, Aliya. I tried real lavender last year…it didn’t go so well.😢 I just stick to fuax for now. And yes, the bedroom is her FAVORITE spot to snuggle. She always seems to have a knack for knowing when I’m about to shoot, but I don’t have the heart to move her. Hope you are enjoying your summer!
Jen, you had me at lemons and lavender! I adore the colorful blooms and charming front entry. It’s a pleasure to visit your lovely home again! Blessings, Cecilia @My Thrift Store Addiction
Thank you for stopping by today, Cecilia. I hope you have a wonderful summer!
Jen,
Oh my goodness, your home looks amazing!
I absolutely love the lemon details and the overall fresh, welcoming look.
It is so fun being on this hop with you my friend!
xoxo,
Brendt
Thank you, Brendt. I enjoyed your beautiful tour today as well. Happy summer and see you in a few weeks in Atlanta!
Loving the lavender and yellow! So perfect for sweet summer vibes!
Thanks so much, Ana. I think the colors are perfect for summer too!😘
Jen,
Your home tour is so great. I love the lemons too. So fun doing these together.
Thank you, Rachel! I always look forward to home tour week. So fun!
How beautiful Jen! I love how you decorated everything and your plants look so good! I love all the lemon and lavender touches. xo
Thank you, Stacy! We don’t have space for big beautiful gardens like you, but I love to add plants and flowers where I can.
We took a long road trip last fall and went through Nebraska. Goodness me, it was beautiful! The words
“lets move here” came out of my mouth a few times. Anyway, loved all the bright lemony accents in your tour, so cute! And I can see why you’re so proud of the dresser transformation. It’s gorgeous! I’ve never been in the mood to even try it. Every space looks so pretty. Excited to be hopping with you this week. Happy Summer!
Thank you, Cindy! And how fun! Yes, I like to think that Nebraska is one of those hidden gems. Friendly people, and a lot of wide-open beautiful countryside. Next time you drive through let me know! Happy summer to you too!
Your summer home is beautiful and lemons scream summer. All your petunias are so pretty. I don’t think I have ever seen them with yellow and white stipes in NJ.
You have many rustic signs that are so pretty too. Pinned!
Thank you very much, Cindy!
I love your style, Jen! Everything is so cohesive throughout, and it feels so bright and summery. I too love that vintage dresser makeover!
Thank you, Crissy. I can’t even begin to count the hours I spent stripping and refinishing the dresser, but it was worth it. I love it!
Your summer home tour is so pretty Jen. Love the yellow and purple flower combination on your front porch and how you repeated it throughout your home. Your vintage dresser is just gorgeous!! So fun touring together this week. Pinned! 🙂
Thank you, AnnMarie. I agree that these tours are always so fun. I am happy that I could join you all!
Your home looks gorgeous decorated for summer. I so much enjoyed every single picture.
Thank you, Paula. I always enjoy home tour week. It is fun to see all of the beautiful and creative ways that people decorate their homes.
Your combinations are so pretty. Yellows and lavender so nice. It is so nice to see people enjoying their home and you certainly reflect this attribute.
That is so kind of you. Thank you, Dina. I’m so glad you enjoyed the tour.
Jen I loved your tour! The colors you chose are so pretty and perfectly simmer! You have beautiful style and a beautiful home! Thanks for joining me this week. Pinned!!!
Thank you so much, Kelly, and thank you again for organizing such a fun tour. Hope to do it again in the fall!
All of your lemony touches are so fun! I especially love your vintage dresser- that patina!
Thank you, Cassie. Yes, the dresser is my favorite. The natural wood color is so much better than that terrible black color that it used to be.