Quick Summertime Decorating Projects

Spend a lazy summer afternoon crafting quick decorator projects, with or without the kids. Only a few supplies will be needed to refurbish, restore, or revamp items that have been tucked away in the garage or attic.

Neighborhood yard sales are also a great place to discover inexpensive items with repurposing potential, as are flea market finds. Then let your imagination take you to some of these great summer project ideas, as seen in examples from Family Circle and Better Homes and Gardens Magazines online.

Get Colorfully Organized

Organization is essential in any family with one or more children; so why not let it make a bold decorating statement? No need to hide these beach-accessory baskets, that scream summer grab-n-go in bright Caribbean strips and colors, as shown in "Sand Traps - Instant Summer!". Spray paint bold stripes onto an existing basket set, and add your own colorful accessories.

Display craft-organizing, summer-sliced and painted "Fruity Cases", sure to add a decorator touch to any corner, table top, or wherever your mobile crafts go. I keep my crafts and sewing/mending supplies in old hat boxes (shown above) to organize, while adding a decorator flair above built-in shelves.

Artistic Decorator Touches

Organize and artistically frame, then hang costume jewelry above dressers, to grab and wear, on your way out to summertime parties and barbecues. Even costume jewelry is worth artistic display, as elegantly shown in this boudoir presentation "Power of Paint".

Add flair to any boring lamp base, by either filling a clear base with natural sand and shells, or grab a White-Out pen (or brush) adding your own summertime doodles, as demonstrated on this aqua lamp base, "Decorate with Doodles". See the finished lamp scrolling-decor, with shade replaced, in "Lighter than Lace".

Colorful Sea Sprays

Summer-up walls or furniture with sea-spray flecks of color, only requiring one or two art brushes, and tiny pint-size cans of paint (in as many colors as you want). See these fun examples shown in a "Modern Art Background", suitable for kitchen or dining areas.

Achieve the same fun sea-spray effects on drapery, by using up collected buttons in your sewing kit, and hot-gluing them into place, as suggested in "Button Burst: Make It". Or turn this project into a great button-sewing lesson for the kids, because hand-stitching the buttons into place will insure laundering permanence.

Summery Repurposing Projects

When remodeling your bedroom, or just replacing a frumpy headboard with a more exciting look, don't throw the old one away. See how an old headboard becomes a permanently-installed cushion for "Bench Seating", creating a summery-citrus breakfast nook.

If you cannot afford to replace curtains or draperies, give them new life by draping fall and winter scarfs over them. Bring out scarfs and shawls that are normally closet-bound throughout the summer, to give the illusion of elegant drapery valances, as shown in "Top It with a Scarf: Make It".

Summertime straw hats could also be used as a decorator statement hanging over either end of a drapery rod, on canopy bedpost corners, or gracing bedroom lampshades. Save your hat boxes for decorative craft-organizing boxes (discussed earlier) so hats will be handy to grab, for summertime gardening or sun-tanning activities.