You don’t have to spend a fortune to give your home or garden a seasonal revamp. From freshening up your bedding to making the most of weeds, here are some low-cost, low-effort ideas
W
hatever the weather, June marks the start of what we consider summer in the northern hemisphere, and many of us are seized with a frenetic desire to make the most of it. We want our homes to be light, airy and inviting and our outside spaces full of colour and scent – but if you’re anything like me, that stuff doesn’t necessarily come naturally. Instead, I’m chasing bluebottles, sweating into my sofa and staring enviously over the neighbours’ wall at their impeccable garden. But in summertime the living really can be easy: I asked home and garden experts for their favourite simple ways to welcome the season.
Sensory tweaks that instantly conjure summer are “so fricking cool”, says colour psychologist Tash Bradley, design director of Lick. A gentle hum of jazz in the background, a summery candle burning (basil or tomato leaf scents are instantly evocative), or, best of all, real greenery. You don’t need a garden to raid: “When you’re next on a walk, pick foliage or bring branches in – the trees are so luscious – and put them in vases around the house,” Bradley says. (Garden designer Sean Pritchard’s book Outside In is full of ravishing inspiration for this.)
