Done Wright Home Improvement: Summer Living Room Tour + eSaleRugs Refresh

A modern meets traditional meets farmhouse summer living room with ideas for decorating a light, airy space using budget solutions.

A big thanks to eSaleRugs for providing a rug for this room refresh.

When you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to want a glass of milk. When you give a decorator a new rug, she’s going to want to redecorate the rest of the room. That’s a fact.

summer living room with modern farmhouse traditional style

Well, I’m not redecorating our entire living room, but after swapping our gallery wall back to our summer botanical print set, throwing in new pillows for summer (a.k.a. reused from different rooms thanks to that good ol’ decor capsule), and placing an order for new sofa/chair slipcovers (which I’ll be sharing soon), this spot in our house feels like a brand new freshened up space.

I mentioned on Instagram Stories a couple of weeks ago that we were planning to replace our old rug we brought from our last house because it had seen entirely too much puppy training for me to feel comfortable about a baby crawling around on it within a year.

Look how pretty now!!!

(Some affiliate links are provided below.)

blue gray living room rug with DIY ottoman from a thrifted coffee table

eSaleRugs graciously sent me this Berkshire rug, and it is easily the softest one I’ve ever set foot on.

And it arrived just in time for Krista from The Happy Housie‘s Seasonal Simplicity Summer Home Tour. If you’re visiting from Bre’s house at Rooms for Rent, I’m so happy to have you here!

summer living room featuring summer botanical prints and blue/gray accents

The rug looks so much more expensive than it really was.

I’d never ordered from eSaleRugs before, but I always drove past their warehouse every day when dropping off Olivia at preschool, and I was always curious. They’re located right in our old hometown.

I already have my sights set on another one for the nursery Robert and I are planning (if we can ever stop dabbling in other rooms long enough) because it’s so comfy. And it lays totally flat, which I never seem to have any luck with when it comes to most rugs. (Why is that?)

light and airy summer living room

Every summer, I always seem to crave light and airy in our living room since the South Carolina summer heat feels like you’re swimming in sticky humidity the second you walk outside. It’s like my subconscious says, “If I surround myself with lots of white and gray and blue, my brain will almost, for a second, think it’s a cool calming spa around here.”

Doesn’t work. That fan is always on full blast no matter what colors I use in here, but a girl can try.

summer living room with limewashed brick fireplace

It really is amazing to me how different this room looks from just a year ago. I’m still totally smitten with this brick fireplace we limewashed.

That basket on the hearth has a dirty little secret; it hides a bajillion chew toys for the pups, and I just throw a blanket on top so no one will know. Sneaky sneaky.

limewashed brick fireplace with tv above mantel

And since I kill everything anyway, those two little green plants from HomeGoods are completely fake. Ha! (Listen, I can either keep the kid alive or plants alive. I can’t do both.)

DIY built-in window seat to hide tv components and cords

Last summer, we built this window seat from a kitchen cabinet too, and it has been the BEST for hiding all of our TV components so that we don’t have a jumble of cords and cable boxes flung around.

DIY window seat made from a kitchen cabinet to hide TV cable boxes and gaming system

It would be deceivingly peaceful in here if you didn’t know that just to the left of this living room is Olivia’s playroom filled with toys now that school is out for summer. #truth

Light and airy summer living room with modern farmhouse style

Also, in case you didn’t already know our ottoman’s secret past, it used to be a thrifted coffee table. I don’t think I’ll ever hand tuft upholstery ever again but it was worth every second of work. I was worried that after all of that work it wouldn’t blend well with the new rug, but it does! Yaaaay!

living room ottoman coffee table decor

This spot right beside our back door is really the only place that hasn’t changed at all in the past year, other than the botanical prints I swap out with every season. That $35 Craigslist bench always ends up with pool towels and flip flops tossed all over it.

entryway with summer botanical gallery wall and reclaimed wagon bench

And just beside it is our breakfast nook, where we actually eat every meal of the day unless we have company over. I found those two old banister pieces in a junky little antique shop and turned them into a wall planter (complete with fake IKEA plants because that’s how I roll). It’s fun to change up with the seasons too.

breakfast nook decorated for summer with a DIY wall planter made from antique banisters

breakfast nook decorated for summer with greenery, blue, and neutrals

But the one thing I do like to have hanging around that’s real… flowers. They’re sunshine in a vase. I dipped the ends of the stems of these buds in alum hoping they’ll last a couple of weeks. Live, little blooms, live! That’s all the effort I’ve got.

white summer flowers in a vase