The school year is over here in Texas and it already feels like summer! As strange as this may sound, I usually don’t decorate the house for the summer ~ instead, I “un-decorate” to make it feel light and airy: I remove all heavy and darker decorative pieces from the coffee tables, consoles, shelves etc. and I put them away for the summer months. I guess this is a practice that comes with my Greek origin: in Greece there is an actual process of getting your house ready for the hottest months of the year. The summers there are hot (day and night) and the windows stay open (24/7) (or at least, they did before the appearance of the ACs). With the windows open most of the time, there is A LOT of dust coming into the house. So, along with spring cleaning, we prepare our houses for the summer and that is several days of work, sometimes more than a week! ~ we roll the rugs and give them away for storage (in Greece, the carpet cleaning companies pick up your rugs, wash them and store them on their premises for the summer and deliver them back to your house in the fall), we hide the silver pieces, as well as the heavier decorative items, sometimes even switch heavy window treatments to lighter ones and of course we launder ALL our winter clothes; 99% of the households do not have dryers so, imagine how much work this is ~ every piece of garment must be washed, air dried, placed into plastic bags and stored in special closets to protect them from moths and beetles). Less stuff around the house means less surfaces to accumulate dust, less rugs on the floors make sweeping easier, so overall less chores for a summer to enjoy!
Of course, here in Houston, Texas, I would never consider opening the windows any time of the day or night during the summer, so dust is not so much of an issue. And although I do not go through all these summer chores, I still keep the tradition of making the house feel light. It maybe a habit, but it mostly is because I like the transition between the seasons AND because I always look forward to the process of making the house cozy and warm again with the first signs of fall.
But even though I don’t load the house with summer themed decorative items, I still keep a large glass bowl filled with seashells, driftwood and pebbles on a coffee table. And since I’m always in the mood for a simple seasonal craft I picked a few seashells from that bowl to make a seashell door knob hanger for the main door.
It’s such a simple craft, easy and quick and it gives that summer tone to the house without much fuss.
Even if your home is not a beach house, this little touch of summer will look nice on your door during the summer months. My front door is dark so light colored shells make a nice contrast.
Most of the shells I used were store bought but it would mean much more if they were memories collected from a beach. Simply drill a hole (be very careful) with an electrical drill or with a pocket knife (instructions here) for the twine to pass through. Alternatively, tie the twine around a small piece of driftwood or a starfish. The two identical white shells on the lower part were from a seashell garland and had already a hole which I enlarged so the twine can pass through.
You can make your door hanger as long and as full as you want. It can also makes a cute gift that anyone would appreciate!
Make sure to collect some sea treasures next time you’re on the beach for this cute little craft!
Have a wonderful summer! 
