My summer living room- a quick and easy refresh

Y’all, can I just say, good gracious am I glad that the cold temperatures are behind us.  And yes, I do realize that is ironic coming from a Georgia girl who rarely sees temps below freezing.  Part of that is that I just love summer decorating.  I love refreshing the rooms, cleaning out the spaces, and lightning things up.  Today I want to show you my summer living room- made possible by two fairly small changes that made a huge impact on the room- changing out the slipcover on the couch and adding in a new rug.  (By the way, you can see my living room before this refresh here.)

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The slipcover

The biggest change came from changing out the slipcover on the couch.  It’s the ubiquitous Ikea Ektorp that I think every blogger, their blogger bestie,  and their mother has had at some point.  The old slipcover was a gray twill.  Changing it out to this lighter, brighter color made a huge difference.

I was worried that the off-white color would look washed out or muddy next to the white walls, but it doesn’t.  It looks light and beachy. My favorite is how it looks against the buffalo check curtains (available from this Etsy shop).

The sun streams in this room like crazy.  We took down some awful blinds in here not long after we moved in and never replaced them.  We don’t have a need for them for privacy, and I love the sunlight, but it does make it hard to photograph this room sometimes 🙂

The rug

Did y’all notice the new rug?  I actually bought it awhile back to go in our bedroom- but it brought out the orange in the floors way too much, so it moved to the living room, where it belonged the whole time. It came from Rugs USA and is this one.  I stalked it until one of their 80% off sales.

I love that this rug is a blue that is such a dark royal that is almost reads navy.

The room

We also moved some furniture.  The dresser that on the wall to the left of the picture below was moved out of here, and that really opened up that walkway.  Now, this room can breathe!

I feel like our summer living room definitely has a coastal farmhouse vibe. 

Have I ever shown you guys my little reading area in this room? We made it from the weird little walkway into W’s room that we enclosed.  It’s my favorite part of this room, although it’s kind of quirky.  It’s my little old lady reading spot.  While the boys are watching TV, I sit and read my Better Homes and Gardens like I’m some kind of grown up or something.

Tucker, our youngest little bulldog terror, ate the upholstery on the bottom of the chair.  And we need to replace the baseboard on the wall.  And, I’m just noticing how dusty that table is.  But, you don’t have to look at all of that.  In fact, forget I mentioned it 😉

You can tell, I’m sure, that this room is very well worn.  Pretty darn lived in.  I don’t iron slipcovers or pillow covers or curtains, and I don’t decorate with anything that can’t take a beating or is too precious to handle our family.  To be honest, the older I get the less patience and tolerance I have for trying to maintain perfection in our home.

What do you think of our summer living room refresh?

And here’s some coastal farmhouse living room pieces I’m loving recently…