Pastel shades are always a top choice for the summer months as they really brighten your interiors. We love the combination of peppermint blues, candyfloss pinks and sherbet lemon to lift our moods and our homes. This is sometimes a tricky look to achieve without it looking too childish or a little sickly, so here are our top tips for creating a summer look with ice-cream pastel shades.

Millennial pink may have had its moment in the spotlight, but we still think pink sofas are a pretty and smart living room choice. A pale pink sofa could easily be described as the ‘new neutral’ as it compliments many interior schemes, but simultaneously injects a subtle pop of colour, more so than a cream or pale grey. A pastel pink sofa is the perfect base for building your ice-cream sundae colour scheme. We love this mid-century style chaise sofa from Arlo & Jacob. Throw over one of their candy stripe Twig throws, and you’ll have the perfect sofa set-up to enjoy a cornetto.

The beautiful Palm Springs, Miami beach and architecture of the art-deco era is a great place to look for grown-up pastel artwork for your walls. This ‘Tropics’ print by Desenio is grown-up, on-trend and the perfect mix of pastel pinks and blue hues. A gallery wall filled with similar images will have you dreaming of sunny vacations (and help you to achieve this look on a budget). Sharp, white frames will look clean and really let the pastel colours pop against either a plain white wall or a light colour paint.

 

If you’re feeling brave, you could opt for a jazzy paint job on your walls, with two complementary colours, like this Pinterest example. Use the alcoves and natural architecture of the room to paint separate areas in your two favourite shades.

A quirky, but fashionable lamp is another affordable way of introducing a statement piece into your pastel theme. This pale sage green lamp from Love Lights has an air of mid-century design about it, and the colour perfectly suits this palette. The green will offer a nice contrast to the majority of blues and pinks that you’ve already introduced – plus it’s on sale for just over twenty pounds.

Lemon yellow is perhaps the happiest of colours, and it’s almost impossible to feel sad when surrounded by this sunny colour. If you’re opting for this pastel scheme in your kitchen or dining room, then these yellow dining chairs from Danetti would look fantastic sat at a white glossy round table, plus they’ll really brighten up your breakfast in the mornings.

We don’t think any interior is complete without some foliage or plants. For this ice-cream shade scheme, we’ve found these gorgeous pastel-hued succulents from Etsy. Pot them in pastel plant pots, or concrete is you fancy something a little edgier as it will provide a good contrast to the soft and sweet colour scheme.