Breezy and Beautiful Bedrooms That Capture the Spirit of Summer

The colors, sights and soft, gentle air of summer are wonderful influences for a bedroom design. It’s easy to translate them, too, through organic textures, nature-led palettes and motifs, and light-enhancing strategies. Be inspired by these sleeping spaces, which evoke the season beautifully.

1. Dress in white linens. Nothing says summer like a bed swathed in pristine white sheets. They look cooling and help regulate body temperature naturally even on hot nights because cotton is breathable.

Want a more relaxed effect than crisp cotton offers? A duvet cover, sheets and pillowcases made from pure linen, like these, have an invitingly rumpled appearance and make sleep comfortable when the nighttime temperatures stay high.

Related: What Is a Coverlet Compared to Duvets, Quilts and Comforters?

2. Swap the headboard. Including florals in a bedroom is a shortcut to summer style. This room introduces them with a headboard in a painterly floral motif that makes the bed a focal point. Try upscaled blooms like these teamed with a geometric pattern against a backdrop of white walls for a contemporary take on the romantic bedroom.

3. Dream of tropical shores. Follow the lead of this room and use a brilliant accent shade to suggest the season. Coral, both as a color and a motif, stands out against the layers of neutral shades for the floor, furniture and soft furnishings, and evokes faraway, sun-drenched locations. Keep themed touches like these to a handful for a sophisticated result.

4. Play up the light. A room filled with daylight is key to a summery look, so strategies that introduce as much light as possible and reflect it back into the space are vital.

In this bedroom, clear stair railing ensures that the light isn’t blocked, and dark, heat-absorbing shades are avoided. Select different textures in an all-pales room to create decorative interest.

5. Lift with white. Traditional furniture complements the period surroundings in this room. To keep the scheme light and summery, the biggest beams are painted white — a clever tactic to visually lift the ceiling and keep the room airy. Shutters that fold neatly away repeat the pale colors of the painted furniture and the upholstery for a pulled-together finish.

Related: Don’t Forget Architectural Details Like Corbels

6. Ramp up color. To create a vibrant take on summer color in a bedroom, select shades from opposite sides of the color wheel, such as this room’s green and pink.

These pairings are dramatic, creating a look-at-me effect rather than a subtle backdrop, and this combination is a genuine reflection of the punchiness of summer color, as the display of blooms beside the bed proves.

7. Go for painted paneling. The paneled wall and ceiling give this room a beside-the-sea look that instantly brings summer to mind. Install boards horizontally to draw the eye outward and make a narrow room look wider than it really is, and finish them in white to increase the sense of space.

8. Frame a view. To appreciate summer inside a bedroom, welcome it in from the outside. Opt for a window treatment that exposes every inch of glass, like these solid shutters, to maximize the focus on the green and growing landscape. In this room, a mirror opposite the bed reflects the garden outlook to double the effect.

By Sarah Warwick, Houzz