With Summer Fast Approaching, You Have to Add These Tidbits to Your Sunroom
A sunroom offers a wonderful way to spend time outdoors while enjoying the creature comforts of home. This sun-bathed space is designed to be cheerful and inviting, flooding the room with natural lighting that can lift the spirits and even improve your mental health by boosting serotonin. However, with all this beautiful and bountiful sunlight, how do you decorate the space and elevate it even more? From lighting a few candles to adding a colorful rug for a soft underfoot; add these tidbits to your sunroom this summer season.
Candles for Ambiance
Keep your sunroom smelling amazing with a variety of candles. Even during the evenings, candles offer a soothing glow and ambiance. Give your sunroom ultimate summertime vibes with a collection of beach candles or a beach oil diffuser that bring back memories of family vacations at a beachside bungalow or taking a stroll on the warm sand as the saltwater tides recede. While you generally want to avoid placing an oil diffuser in direct sunlight, you can keep it somewhat shaded on a tucked away shelf. Keep either on a tray, surrounded by decorative seashells and bits of driftwood.
Pops of Color
Sunrooms are meant to feel light, bright and airy, so allow it to be just that. However, you can still play with color schemes, incorporating color in other ways. Painting the walls in a lighter hue or crisp white, add pops of color here and there in the decor. Through pillows, artwork, rugs and more, you can still give the sunroom some personality and even change up the colors through the seasons. However, in the summer, consider brighter and saturated hues like vibrant greens and blues or even more dainty pastels like blush and faded lilac tones. Once you set the foundation with neutral or white-colored walls, the color possibilities are practically endless.
Artwork, Sculptures and Tapestries
With a museum-like quality flooded with natural sunlight, a sunroom is the perfect place for art. Whether it’s fine art paintings, sculptures or tapestries, adding art to a sunroom presents character, color and more. Make the most of limited wall space between a sunroom’s expansive windows to hang framed art prints or small painted canvases. Among tables and even pedestals, situate a few sculptural pieces for visual interest, too. You can even hang an heirloom tapestry or macrame woven piece within the space as well. Adding both artwork and color, consider hanging a few stained-glass pieces over the upper windows to cast colorful shapes across the space.
Whatever artwork you choose to hang, keep in mind that the sun could cause damage and fading. Instead, use tips and tricks to prevent UV light damage, such as framing the piece with a UV-filter glazing.
Soft, Warm Rugs
Since the flooring in many sunrooms is covered in ceramic tiles, hardwoods or a material other than carpet, rugs are a must-have. Plus, rugs offer many advantages, from being warm underfoot to adding softness, color and texture to the space. Adding rugs can also add acoustical value, helping a sunroom with a noticeable echo. And if your sunroom gets warm and heats up the flooring, a rug can protect your feet from burns, too.
Choose a rug with bright summer colors, such as cheerful oranges or greens to mimic and tie in the surrounding outside greenery. If you prefer a more rustic, natural look, consider a rug made of sisal or woven material. Keep in mind, too, that whatever rug you choose, it doesn’t have to be permanent. While a natural woven rug is perfect for lending a beach bungalow-inspired vacation vibe in the summer, you can swap it out with a more dense, thicker rug in the colder winter months when the tile flooring is more shocking against bare feet.
Greenery and Floral Arrangements
Basically a greenhouse, you can’t have a sunroom without flowers and plants. So make sure to liven up your sunroom space with some summer flowers and lush greenery, inviting the outdoors in. Scatter them throughout the space, too! Place a few in pots on the ground or place some on nearby tables, but also hang them from a hook mounted to the wall, guiding the eye up and making the sunroom appear spacious.
Even if you don’t have a green thumb, there are several indoor houseplants that are exceptionally easy to care for. Succulents, aloes or spider plants are just a few hard-to-kill plant varieties. Be sure to play with the pottery they’re placed in as well. It can be as simple as terra cotta pots or a grand, glazed pot with ornate hand-painted details–whatever fits your sunroom’s style and personal taste. Be sure to add character to the potted plants, too, adding decorative stones, trinkets and other charming details. Even if you don’t have a green thumb, you can always pick up a bouquet of summer flowers from the store, such as sunflowers, dahlias or lavender.
Versatile Window Treatments
One of the greatest advantages of a sunroom is the ability to see the surrounding landscape outside. So take advantage of your wall-to-wall windows and avoid covering them up whenever you can. Choose window treatments wisely so you can have the best of both worlds. By choosing something like sheer curtains or shutter blinds, you can allow for ample sunlight during the day while giving yourself and your family privacy during the evenings.
In the same vein, when you do have your curtains pulled back, the yard will be in full view. While many sunrooms offer amazing views of rolling vistas or a lush forest of pine trees, adding some interest to your immediate yard and surrounding areas can liven the space up, too. For instance, you can add a bird feeder or bird bath within view or add a gazebo outside hung with string lights and a bench for sitting. Ultimately, adding a few outside decorations and elements will make your sunroom more engaging and inviting, allowing you to sit and ponder life in its peaceful retreat.
