Midsummer Night’s Dream House Decor

Summer just isn’t my season. I love gardening, but even that is more pleasant in spring. The two statements “It’s a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky” contradict each other in my opinion…when the summer sun starts to blaze, I run for cover. It’s no surprise to me, therefore, that the usual offerings in summer decor hold no appeal for me either, so I usually will end up either leaving out some of our Easter decor until Halloween comes out in September, or just putting out some of our generic home decor. But this year I wanted to try something a little different: a summer decorating theme inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, especially Titania’s faerie bower.

If there’s one thing I do love about the season, it’s Midsummer. I mean, it’s an entire solstice devoted to the fey!

The main event for the theme is my dining room table. I had a midsummer themed party a few years ago, and wanted to try to get the same feel from that decor across in a way I could keep up all season. (Real moss and dangling yarn do not mix well with two cats.) So the moss became a nubby moss green scarf used as a table runner, the yarn vines turned into wisteria, and so on.

In the early spring, Target had some gold garden creatures in their dollar spot. I picked up the snail, dragonfly, cricket and bee for some midsummer forest whimsy.

At first I set the table with deep purple flowers, but it didn’t seem right, and a friend pointed out the arrangement didn’t coordinate well with the wall mural. So I went back to Dollar Tree and found these lovely blue flowers with purple around the edges.

For those who read my last post too, I’d like to point out that 99% of the florals in this decor are from Dollar Tree, including these ferns. I mentioned in the last post that they sell especially good quality ferns in spring. This is them.

The centerpiece of the table is this sculpture of Titania by Dellamorteco. I deliberated adding some gold dry brushing to it and still may, just as I also want to add some patina and green to the gold insects. But for now, I like it as is too.

The table is set with green oak leaf and acorn plates, with leafy placemats tucked underneath.

Nestled into the wisteria in the chandelier are a few Arthur Rackham faeries. Do you see the one in each photo below?

I’m so happy with how this came together.

In the living room, I left some of the base decor up from spring, including the tall blossoming branches, and faux moss mat.

At the center, I borrowed this little terrarium I filled several years ago with a vignette of old book illustrations, a silk blossom covered in letters, and the words “With a Faerie hand in hand” on three banners on the three sides.

In the very back, I added more of the ferns from Dollar Tree, and printed out pages of the Arthur Rackham illustrated A Midsummer Night’s Dream, carefully tore the edges and crumpled and smoothed them to age them, and tucked them in among the faux ferns.

I turned the nests into faerie beds by adding cut outs of Puck to one side…

…And a faerie messenger to the other.

The hall table is still a work in progress. I’m considering getting this incredible paper art for the table center, since I’ve now moved the little Wendy Froud faerie since I took this photo. But I’m open to other suggestions to make this area more Midsummer faerie bower-ish!

The Wendy Froud faerie just looked so much more at home here, so this is where she will be for the season.

I added these Victorian artworks from the Shakespeare play to either side of the mirror, by John Simmons. Hermia and Lysander.

And Titania herself.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my decor for the summer season! I surely like this better than anything else I’ve done for the season in past years. I will be adding to this and tweaking, and welcome ideas!!