Happy Hour : Summer Rooms

Every been in a restaurant when it turns "Happy Hour?" You notice the mood instantly changes as everyone is ready for fun. Whenever I'm having a Bad Hair Day, my cure is always a personal Happy Hour. Of course, I'm hopeless addicted to interiors; so for me, this hour is all about decorating. In this series, we'll look at some quick and happy mood changers for our very own Happy Hour. Each should take about an hour - a mere 60 minutes - to perk up our minds and our rooms. Let's get the party started.

How about a Happy Hour for quick summer decorating? It's as easy as looking at your "inventory" around the house and put things together in a new way. Downstairs, we have a long pine table. I've added a summery painting of three girls I did years ago, a junk store frame (with cardboard "picture") and gathered my straw hats from the closet. Easy peasy. Let's take a look at our summer house.

An outside cafe chair was added to the mix.

Upstairs, on the entry way table, Blue&White with collected shells and my beloved moss balls ($1 Store).

Having raided my jewelry drawer, my buddha (Marshall's) is all decked out.

The Bay Area summer fog (AKA Carl, the Fog) visits each night and clears off the following day about noon. Sometimes, Carl calls for a morning fire.

The living room fireplace mantel with Blue&White (Ross), lanterns (TJMaxx) and the conch shell collected on our Jamaican honeymoon.

An IKEA living room coffee table with my new-to-me old blue cookie tin ($20 on Etsy). It holds our cache of TV-watching-candies.

In our sunroom, I made pillow out of a cotton shower curtain (Target) and my purchased-just-before-shelter-in-place $5 fern (including ceramic pot) from Home Depot continues to flourish. And speaking of flourishing, I'd love to know what you've been up to in your rooms. Maybe all this room tweaking is akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, but I'm loving playing in my life-size playhouse right about now.