How to Transform your Home into a Summer Haven

Spring has finally hit England! The sun is out, the beer gardens are full, the parks are blanketed in picnic rugs we’re all starting to think about our new wardrobe. 

Spring is a beautiful season and we love to celebrate it in the best way we know how - haberdashery and arts and crafts! With the transformation of spring comes the natural desire to want to declutter, bring more light and colour into your life and we start gravitating more to the outdoors. We believe it’s important to reflect all of this within your home in your own personal way so we want to share with you some ideas on how you can build a summer haven in your home - and make it your own!

Ice Cream Summer Quilt
Summer quilts are a fabulous addition to a British home (because, let’s face it, it’s not always 25 degrees!) but to make something that’s built for warmth and also summery, we think you should create one that’s light, bright and themed! We’ve suggested ice cream as a theme because it’s fun, a bit different and an easy way to transform a normal bedroom into a summer bedroom. There are several ways to go about creating your ice cream summer quilt - either find patchwork squares that already have ice cream on them, or, choose block coloured patchwork squares and create the shapes of the ice creams yourself.

Melon Themed Tea Towels
We’ve picked melon because nothing shouts summer quite like the bright, beautiful melon fruit! These are especially great for if you’re having a garden party or BBQ. You can craft these melon tea towels in a couple of ways, either sewing the whole intricate pattern yourself, using large pieces of material to create the shape of the melon and just sew these on, or find pieces of material already with melons on them.

Picnic Blanket
Okay so this isn’t exactly a household item as such but it’s a great and handy thing to have around the house when you need to take it out! Create your own picnic blanket by either using patchwork squares or just a lovely cotton fabric that you like the look of. You’ll then need to choose a waterproof material to line one side of the picnic blanket with before padding the in-between to make sure it’s nice and soft to sit on. Make sure you use extra material to act as a tie when you want to pack it up and carry it around

Floral Table Runner
If you can’t eat your dinner or drink your cup of tea outside during the great British summer, bring the British summer in to you! A table runner is a lovely and currently very stylish addition to your kitchen or dining room table. Rather than covering the whole thing in a table cloth (which seems a shame if you have a beautiful table you want to show off!), a table runner is a lovely accessory that can be changed and altered throughout the seasons. To bring the feeling of summer onto your table, make your table runner a floral one that even when the sun isn’t shining, you’ll feel like it is

Shower Curtain
Perhaps not what usually comes to mind when thinking about summery home accessories, but a great summer addition to your home that’s pretty unique. You can find a waterproof materials that will make a fantastic shower curtain - we recommend something nautical or something bright and colourful to bring a lovely summer vibe to your bathroom

Summer Fabric themed Bulletin Board
This is a fantastic idea for a family home. Rather than having the usual cork bulletin board up in your kitchen, there’s a very simple and easy way to jazz it up for summer… Cover it in fabric! Let your kids decide which summer-themed fabric they want to cover the bulletin board in - this will hopefully incentivise them to want to use it properly too. Take a look at our summer fabrics to pick from

Reupholster your Pouf
This isn’t nearly as big a job as it sounds to begin with. Your pouf should really be a relatively easy thing to upholster and what better time to change your tired external material and swap it for something seasonally relevant and beautiful! It’s important to keep your upholstery fresh and small reupholstering projects like this are a great way to do it (not too often mind!). Pick your summery material and get to work! Check out this handy little guide on how to reupholster your pouf

Hanging Book Storage 
Another great asset to a family home is hanging book storage! Super easy to make, all your need is some of your favourite summer fabric, sturdy buttons and a little sewing skill. Simply fold your material in half, pull down around 4 inches so it’s not even - this is where your buttons and button holes will need to be. This will create a simply pouch that’s great for holding books! Mount this on your wall by attaching ribbon to the back that can hang on a nail or hook in the wall - hey presto, your hanging book storage! (just make sure it’s low down enough for kiddies!)

We hope you’ve found these useful and that you now have some ideas on how to make your home a summer haven this year!