Tania Sinel: ~our summer home tour~

~Hello beautiful~

Welcome to our home.

Today I will be sharing with you how we decorate and use our home in the summer months as part of Marty's 2017 summer home tours!
We live on a small lake and have a very casual lifestyle. My husband and I have 2 teenagers, 2 yellow labs, and a sweet little bunny rabbit.

We are total homebodies and love spending time together and having friends over.

To us, summer means, paddle boarding, fishing, swimming, BBQ's, bare feet, gardening, napping in the sun, eating outdoors, and taking long walks.

Lets start on the front porch.
I recently made this sign to welcome everyone to our home.
I planted a simple boxwood in this large pot next to a rocker that I have had forever.
{here is a similar one}
Most of the day, and even into the evening, I leave the top half of the dutch door open.

Please come on in!
We don't have a formal entry.
In fact, when you enter our house, you walk right into the kitchen.

Our kitchen is painted Simply White by Benjamin Moore and the cabinets are White Dove by Benjamin Moore.

I like to keep things bright and fresh in the kitchen with just pops of color in either fresh flowers, fruit on the counter, and cookbooks.
As you will notice in our house tour, black and white is my favorite color combination.

You can read more about this coffee station here.

This stack of cookbooks, both old and new, make me happy.

We have a graduate this year, so a lot of her friends announcements are coming.
I decided to dedicate the laundry room door with all the graduates!

I keep flour, sugar, and powdered sugar handy in these big jars on the counter.
We make a lot of cookies and muffins in the summer.
More kitchen sources can be found here.
{old post, but some of the same items I am still using today}

The mini fridge in the island is constantly getting restocked with juice, water, and soda, for the kids and their friends.

I have filled a big window box outside the kitchen window with boxwoods and purple violas which also bring in more color.
There is also a big lilac tree right outside this window.
When it is in bloom I can keep the window open and it smells so good!

To keep everything light and airy for summer I have replaced heavy bowls with glass ones, as well as canisters and vases.
Most I have found at thrift stores for pennies.
My favorite set of books below from this great store.

We don't use formal china.
All of our dishes are old vintage pieces I have found at thrift stores, mixed in with some pieces from Anthropologie, Target, World Market, and even the Dollar Tree.

Here is more of my Mrs. Meyers obsession in our laundry room, behind the "graduate" door:
{full laundry room post here}
This is my favorite scent.

Just off the kitchen is the family room and dining room.
It's all one big room with stairs that lead down to the basement.

The dining room recently got made over for the One Room Challenge.
I kept things pretty much the same in there.
I am still waiting to find the perfect rug.

Orange is one of my favorite colors, so I added little bits here and there. More purple violas and boxwoods fill the window boxes here.
This room really is all about the view, so I try to keep the decor fairly simple.

And the family room got a bit of color as well.

I find pillows are the easiest way to add color.

They can easily be swapped out for different seasons or holidays, and are an inexpensive solution for adding color.

I love the quirkiness of my new lamps from All Modern.
They keep things from being too serious.

I find myself having a growing book and magazine problem, so I have had to make stacks of them all around now as I am running out of room.

I just got this red grain sack pillow at a local antique shop, and added a red and blue book for additional color to the console table.
You can find a similar grain sack pillow here, and a similar buffalo check pillow here.