Top Tips To Refresh Your Home For The Summer with Affordable Art Fair

[Paid partnership with Affordable Art Fair]

If you follow me on Instagram or have been a reader of my blog for a while, you’ll already know that I’m a huge art lover, so when Affordable Art Fair asked me to work with them again (having visited the brilliant Battersea show back in March and fallen in love with, oh I don’t know, over a hundred pieces), I didn’t have to think twice.

I’ve put together a series of decor tips as a starting point for refreshing your home for the summer, choosing art to go alongside each one. FUN!

Lighter and Brighter

Give your living room a fresh feel for the warmer months by switching up your cushions. Such an easy thing to do, but it really makes a big impact and can transform the feel of a room. Store away deeper colours and heavier fabrics for the summer months and bring in some lighter fabrics and some more colour - a little, or a lot! Cottons and textured linens are always a winner. Make sure you choose colours that work with your existing colour palette - you can even take inspiration from a favourite piece of art. The pale pink, blue and lilac in this piece Summer Light by Kirsten Jackson is the perfect summer colour palette inspiration.

Colour Block

A great way of injecting some life into a space is to follow the colour block trend, which these artworks by Lucie Sheridan fit superbly! If you love this look, but don’t want to overwhelm the space, my advice is to add a pop of colour to your walls by painting a block behind a mirror or a piece of art, avoiding painting the whole room. Then it’s then easy to remove if you change your mind or want to update the colour with the seasons. Use decorators’ tape to mask off the area (Top Tip: run a bank card along the tape to make sure it’s really well adhered so the paint doesn’t bleed), and paint inside using a colour that makes you happy and compliments your room and art. This is also a great way to make a piece of framed art appear larger, or to unify a grid of prints, creating the feel of one big artwork. If I were to add a colour block to Debbie, Kate and Twiggy, I’d use a mid-blue to compliment all three, which would look great on an otherwise pale neutral wall.

Outside In

Make your own mini-jungle by bringing the outside in. Green is an uplifting colour and house plants can not only lift your mood but help to purify the air, especially if you’re unable to get out to the park as much as you’d like to! Keep to a tight colour palette to make a statement, using several different shades of greens in your accessories too, for an elegant layered look. This piece A Ripe Landscape 6 by Jon Rowland which celebrates the fertility and sensual nature of the countryside is all kinds of greenspiration!

Living Still Life

Create an ever-changing living Summer ‘still life’ vignette with a beautiful vase of flowers or greenery from the garden, grouped with some favourite decorative objects and a bowl of fruit. Restyle as flowers wilt, or fruit gets eaten. You could even echo a still life artwork for a bit of fun - a simple bowl of pears and green grapes would look beautiful sitting below this piece by Estelle Day.

Transport Yourself

Transport yourself to your favourite real or fantasy holiday destination, using colour, texture, art and scent. Never under estimate the power of scent to instantly evoke special memories and moments in time, so get your favourite scented candle burning - who says they’re only for special occasions! Personally I quite fancy lazing about under these Costa Rica Palms in Christine Flynn’s gorgeous work.

Fresh Start

Start afresh by taking everything off your shelves or sideboard and rethink the way you style it. Sometimes less is more, so rather than putting it all back, really consider each piece. Top Tip: shop your home! You often stop really seeing things when they’re always in the same place, so moving things around gives you a new appreciation of what you already have. That said, I’m more than a little obsessed with this Surfboard, hand carved in marble by Kartel, which would look incredible gracing a shelf or sideboard in any contemporary interior. So. Cool.

Personal Sanctuary

If you have the space, consider creating your own little personal sanctuary. It needn’t be a whole room, it could be just a chair in a corner of a room, with a few things on a side table that make you smile. From books and magazines, to a plant and scented candle or favourite object. Create a little area that really makes your heart happy, like this Come Here piece by Kate Boxer makes me!

Monochrome Magic

If the idea of bringing colour into your home makes you anxious, never fear as monochrome works for all seasons. If black and white is your thing, you can still make a space feel more summery with lighter textures for the warmer months and perhaps switch out some of the heavier dark pieces for whites and pale neutrals. A huge piece of art like 11 Lines / Waiting For A Spring Tide by Paul Fry will stop a monochrome space from feeling cold and clinical.

Home Bar

The timing couldn’t be better to add a home bar into your living area. As the nights get a little balmier, you can just grab some ice and get mixing! You don’t need to have an actual bar cart of course, it can just be a dedicated spot on a sideboard, or shelf. Use a nice lacquered tray to keep it looking organised and make sure your best glasses are on display too. Peter Kotka has the right idea with this Tanqueray Temptation hyper-real oil painting which would look fab hung behind your bar tray. Oh look, it’s G&T o’clock. Cheers!

I’m so inspired having worked my way through the incredible selection available online at Affordable Art Fair, and I definitely need some new art in my life this year. An abstract painting I think. Or THAT marble surfboard…

For now I’ve done a spot of window shopping, and curated a collection of over eighty pieces starting from just £100, that you can check out here.

Here are just a few more of my favourites to whet your appetite, let me know your favourites and if you buy anything! 

Top left: Nicola Hyslop Life Inside, Right: Maggie La Porte Banks A Sense of Place, Bottom Left: Camilla Jane Gittins Colours Found In Nature 1