Summer Home Tour 2016

Summer is here! Hooray! All winter long we’ve waited with the expectation of what these summer days and nights would bring: sunshine, sandy feet and belly laughs coming from the she shed. As many of you know, we live on the coast and summer by the sea is simply the best.

I’m delighted to be joining in on the Simply Summer Home Tour hosted by Nina Hendrick along with Birch Lane and Country Living Magazine.  In fact, Birch Lane sent me a gift card to purchase a few things to celebrate summer! How fun!

If you’re new around here, welcome to our home. I share this beautiful house with my husband, two sons, our dog, Poppy and a beta fish named Fire.  We live in an historic home in Scituate (Sit-U-Ate), a fishing town on Boston’s South Shore.

Here’s a view of our house I don’t think I’ve ever shared on the blog before 😉 In the summer things slow down around here, which I love. Instead of schedules and rushing around, we watch the tide charts and our biggest decision is what beach should we go to today.

I often get asked about our door and shutter color.  They are painted with Benjamin Moore’s Buxton Blue in high gloss. The best blue out there by far!

Last year I discovered Boston ferns. They are perfect if you’re looking for an easy to care for plant with a BIG impact.

The urns are vintage and were a gift from my mom.

I enjoy filling our window boxes with gorgeous flowers and change them with the season.

So I had every intention on taking you on a BIG home tour inside. We just had loads of home renovations done, but life has been hectic with Father’s Day and my kids last week of school this week. Pictures and mirrors aren’t hung and decorative items still need to find their way to hutches and shelves. I just couldn’t get the whole house put back together in time. So I thought I’d share where we spend most of our time in the summer – the sunroom, our deck, the yard and my she shed.

When not at the beach our favorite place to be is home.

I’ve included a few affiliate links in this post for your convenience.

We redid our sunroom a few year’s back after Poppy got sprayed by a mean skunk.  Anyway, the table and chairs were thrifted and redone. The walls are Simply White by Benjamin Moore.

I found the oars on Freecycle and painted them, this little cabinet was a yard sale find and painted with milk paint. Most everything in our home is upcycled or made by us 😉 We spend so much time out here. This room isn’t heated so I use a space heater in the winter, but I adore all the natural light and ocean breezes that come through our windows.

I enjoy clipping flowers from our garden and placing them in vintage ball jars.  I LOVE the blue! Don’t you?

The mock orange smells like heaven!

The boys gave me sweet peas for Mother’s Day and they are growing on my table.  These have special meaning because sweet peas were in bud vases on all the tables at our wedding in England.

Also on the table is this gorgeous whale cutting board from Birch Lane:

A perfect addition for our coastal home!

My childhood toy chest, which I painted in a coastal style, holds beach gear and rain boots. The boys’ painted these birdhouses last year and they are one of my favorite things!

Just outside the door is our deck. We gave it a bit of a refresh last year. Luke built the table and benches, click here and here to get those plans.

Oh, and here is Poppy! She’s often giving me those looks…

We spend so much time out here, from coffee in the morning to breakfast and lunch, and we also entertain out here. Our home feels like it doubles in size in the summer!

I’ve used a lot blue and white out here, my favorite color combination.

The wisteria didn’t bloom this year for some reason. I’m blaming the cold spring!

The mugs and bowls are by Birch Lane. I love how fresh everything looks on white crockery. I made the tray myself and shared the tutorial here.

Fresh melon is such a welcome refresher on warm summer days!

We added the Sunbrella umbrella from Birch Lane last year along with the rug has made this space such a welcoming room. Comfort underfoot and cool shade when needed.

Let’s say bye to Poppy and move onto more of our yard.

Luke and John are planting potatoes.

This is our first time trying potatoes so if you guys have any tips let me know. I’ll share more of our garden soon. I shared the raised bed plans here and our garden markers here.

After working in the garden and DIY projects we like to relax in our yard. On Father’s Day we sipped wine right here.

The fire fountain is a new addition to our yard and I shared it a few weeks ago. We love it! It adds instant ambience and is so relaxing to watch the flickering flame and hear the trickle of water. I shared these photos the other week:

We have quite a big fenced in yard for our harbor location and the kids and dog love playing out here. We just added a new area for them, their very own picnic set, a mini version of our cedar set. Luke and Conor worked hard on it.

If you’d like to read more about that click here.

It’s the perfect spot for snacks after the beach.

It’s also a great place for crafts and I know we’ll be doing lots of that right here this summer:

After three years in our home, this garden and yard are really starting to take shape. It’s becoming how I dreamed. As with any garden and yard there’s still a lot I’d like to do. One day I’d like it to look like an English garden, over grown with beautiful flowers, but we have the rest of our live’s here to create that.

For now, I enjoy looking after the plants we’ve added.

Oh, and there’s me! Luke snapped this while I was clipping cat mint over the weekend. I simply love how cat mint smells and the beautiful purple flowers. My wardrobe in summer is sundresses and flip flops all the time and letting my natural curls show.

We created this gravel patio and made over this shed last year as a little coastal oasis. You can see the full reveal here. Lots of hard work went into this space and this is probably our biggest DIY to date.

It’s my coastal oasis in the corner of our yard.

The climbing roses are the prettiest pink which looks so lovely against the gray siding.

I’ve filled the window boxes with beautiful summer blooms.

I love potato vines for planters!

We painted the cedar doors and shutters to match our home’s. So the She Shed is a mini version of our home.

Would you like to step inside?

White shiplap walls make everything better, am I right? Things are simple and easy out here. A driftwood garland from Birch Lane and my grandfather’s old binoculars. Greenery everywhere.

Would you care for a glass of blueberry and mint infused water?

It’s delicious.

Beautiful watercolor pillows by my friend Lucy!

As I write this, I’m realizing I took way too many photos of this space so I might have to share a completely separate post, but I’ll share a few more here.

Fun SEA SIDE letters form 163 design company and sailboat image from Kjeld Mahoney Photography in the harbor.

This is where I go to relax and read magazines and even a book. We’re hoping to add some screens for the doors to let more ocean breezes in.

My new current obsession are the bluestone terracotta from Birch Lane in my favorite blue and white combination.

They really look old. I was even fooled when I pulled them out of the box.

Simple ferns from our yard that were growing wild.

Keeping it simple for summer is my favorite.

I hope you enjoyed seeing more of our home and will share more soon of the home renovations, the boy’s bedroom inspiration and reveal once it’s done and, of course more summer inspiration and recipes.

Thanks for joining me on the tour of our home.

Be sure to visit all the other bloggers who are taking part this week:

Visit Country Living Magazine to see more summer decorating ideas!

Monday

Nina Hendrick | Maison de Pax | Cherished Bliss | AKA Design | A Burst of Beautiful | Liz Marie Blog

Tuesday

Migonis Home | So Much Better With Age | Zevy Joy | Just a Girl and Her Blog | Shades of Blue Interiors | Making Home Base

Wednesday

Rooms FOR Rent | The Wicker House | Bless’er House | Love Grows Wild | Finding Silver Pennies | Design, Dining + Diapers

Thursday

Craftberry Bush | Jennifer Rizzo | The Wood Grain Cottage | Ella Claire | Tidbits | City Farmhouse

Friday

Kindred Vintage & Co | The Blissful Bee | The Happy Housie | House By Hoff | Nesting With Grace | Life on Virginia Street