With longer days and brighter mornings ahead, there’s no better time to give our homes a much-needed seasonal refresh. We asked some of our favourite interior influencers for their top easy ways to refresh your home for summer. Read on for inspiring trends and clever ideas to brighten up your living spaces and make the most of the sunnier season.
With summer approaching, how would you like to refresh a space with rugs, carpets, or runners? Any colours, textures, or prints inspiring you right now?
Reka Thornton:
I gravitate towards timeless pieces and enjoy keeping the light, uplifting spirit of spring and summer alive in my home year-round. That’s why I’m drawn to soft, pastel-hued rugs and sandy neutral runners with colourful, unexpected details.
At the same time, I like to embrace the seasons by adding playful touches – like vibrant stair runners and cheerful door mats – for a bit of charm and spontaneity.
This summer, I’m especially inspired by bold Mediterranean patterns and sun-drenched colour pairings such as cobalt blue with lemon yellow, or rich red with fresh green—combinations that evoke not only the warmth of summer but also the beauty of the natural world.
Anywhere Ca-rPET Bouclé Re-vive Carpet, Margo Selby Stripe Sun Whitstable Carpet
Experiment with unexpected colour pairings to add visual interest and a sense of wow factor to your home. Explore our extensive range of colour combinations, using our Make Me A Rug service to try out Reka’s suggestions.
Susi Bellamy:
With Summer fast approaching, elevating a room with soft colours and rich textures is a perfect way to revitalise a space and bring a fresh feeling into it.
At the moment, the quiet sophistication of tertiary pastels adds a seasonal touch, creating an effortlessly modern yet timeless approach to any room, especially when paired with textured surfaces, creating a luxurious layered palette. The soft, muted tones of pastels and subdued hues fill a room with a refined ambience to transform any room into an inviting space.
Many of my prints are deeply inspired by the time I’ve spent living in Florence, embracing the Italian aesthetics, environment and rich history. When paired with marbling techniques, this creates designs that are perfect for the laid-back elegance of summer, with soft tones or subtle patterns. Whether it’s a subtle runner in a hallway or a striking, bold rug, these elements will refresh your home for the season ahead with eye-catching accents.
Polly Fern:
When the warm weather arrives, I like to keep the back door to the garden open, and I usually place a small natural rug or runner by the back door in the hallway. It’s lovely to walk barefoot into the house and onto the natural runner!
I am currently drawn to yellow and mauve tones. I believe it’s inspired by the wildflower meadows where I walk the whippets every day, filled with beautiful clovers and buttercups.
If, like Polly, you’re looking to bring a touch of nature into your home and blur the lines between indoors and outdoors, natural textures are a perfect place to start. A sisal or jute rug, with its warm golden tones, instantly adds a cosy, earthy feel that warms up any space.
Sisal Kayal Periyar bespoke rug with a Cotton Herringbone Eggshell Border
Sandra Baker:
A beautiful, neutral carpet, with a bit of texture to add interest, is the perfect base for any room across the seasons. Layering rugs on top of the carpet allows you to inject personality into the room and they’re easily switched up for a different vibe.
As summer approaches, you can swap any heavy, darker coloured rugs for lighter colours or textures for a more airy feel. Heavy wool could be replaced with a natural jute. I’m always drawn to a floral in the summer months, and I’m currently really loving vintage Scandinavian rug designs.
Emily Murray:
I’m someone who loves colour and pattern, but as summer approaches, I find myself increasingly drawn to floor coverings that are more about natural texture and ‘foot feel’ than pattern, especially as there’s so much of it on my walls already! In our busy family room, I recently replaced an old, threadbare, patterned rug with a beautiful new wool rug, made bespoke by Alternative Flooring using their Make Me A Rug service. Not only does the room feel calmer and – oddly – bigger, with a rug that covers more of the wooden floorboards, but the super-soft rug entices us to lie on the floor as well as the sofa. It’s become my new favourite spot to work out, too – I fling my bi-fold doors wide, lay down a yoga mat on the soft-yet-firm surface, and turn the music up!
One pattern I’m definitely not bored of, and which feels as fresh as ever, is a stripe, especially on the stairs. A pin-striped runner is like dressing your stairway for a summer wedding in a timelessly classic suit, and no-one does luxe striped runners like Alternative Flooring! Add some colour to the runners – I prefer pink, unsurprisingly, but also navy blue, or even orange for an extra zesty hue – and your house will be best dressed for any summer occasion.
Chunky Wool Omaha Pebble bespoke rug with a Twill Fealu Border
Did we mention that stripes were going to be big this year? We agree that it’s an all-year-round pattern, but if your living space needs a pop of colour or an extra touch of personality this summer, a patterned carpet, rug or runner is a great option.
