Midsummer Night’s Dream Summer Decor

The Yule season has Father Christmas. Easter has the dapper rabbit with a basket of eggs on his back. Winter has golden deer and candlelight. Autumn has Halloween frights from the vintage 20s. But for the longest time, I was perplexed what sort of decorating I could do in summer time. I have zero interest in what the stores have on display at this time of year: patriotic wares and preppy lakeside themed nautical decor. But there is something I love about summer: Midsummer night. And the most famous celebration of that event is Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

So a few years ago I thought it would be fun to decorate the house for midsummer. I wanted to evoke the feeling of the imagery from that play: from stage productions, artworks, films. I wanted dewdrop dusk, cobwebs glittering in moonlight, will-o-wisps flashing in the darkness.

My house is already bursting with faeries, but it’s still fun to source and make decorations for this particular theme. The centerpiece is the fireplace.

My Fancy Fairy wings hooked perfectly onto my fireplace screen, and at night, the light glows through them beautifully, showing off their iridescence.

The mantel is a riot of flowers and vines, green gauze cheesecloth fabric, and moss.

Printed reproductions of pages from an Arthur Rackham illustrated edition of the play are strewn along the back of the display. I crumpled the papers and tore the edges raw for a more worn and aged look.

And, just like Midsummer itself, the mantel comes to life with the glow of lights at night.

The Faerie grottos I found at Michael’s craft store in early spring. I saw them on a shop-with-me video online, and went out a couple of days later to collect a couple of them just for this purpose. I added twigs to the inside and outside, gauze cloth, flowers, faerie lights, and of course a couple of residents, plucked from a book of Arthur Rackham Faeries.

I wanted to make glittering cobwebs from hot glue, but very quickly discovered that my hands aren’t steady enough to do that work victoriously. I had to settle for making them from craft glue, and adding a generous helping of iridescent glitter.

The newest addition to the display, added after the previous pictures were taken, is a long strand of iridescent dewdrop beads I twined around the ground and the wall chandelier.

In the hallway, more faeries caper and flit about.

Paper cutouts by Arthur Rackham are hiding here too, in the flower arrangements.

I purchased these golden faerie statues a couple of years ago, and finally got around to adding some brown paint to antique them. “After” on the left, “before” on the right.

They perch on the edge of two stacks of old books.

I picked up this old postcard in an antique shop in Hebden Bridge, England two Novembers ago. I have no idea if this is a Midsummer play, some sort of queen of May event, or what, but it definitely evokes the theme.

Little paper dolls by Green Girl Studios add even more magic to the display.

I switched out my spring yellows in the wash room basket for an asymmetrical fall of vines.

The gold animal statues I purchased from Target about five years ago also got the antiquing treatment this year, and I like them so very much better this way. The snail is the “before,” and the rest have already been enhanced in this photo.

They crawl and fly around the greenery and vines surrounding Titania on my dining room table.

She was purchased from Dellamorteco on Etsy. At the time, she was only available in green, and I wasn’t happy with how that looked. So…you guessed it. I painted her a copper color, letting the green show through in places like a patina.

For funsies, I decided to try making a pressed flower candle. The result is a bit amateur, but I think it adds to the atmosphere just fine.

The chandelier in here has wisteria and vines…

And more Rackham faeries hiding about.

A close up of the queen…

I’m still on the search for perfect napkins and napkin rings for this theme. But I’m sure I’ll find them eventually! I love my oak leaf and acorn plates, and they work great in this display.

I hope you enjoyed my photographic tour of my Midsummer Night’s Dream decor. If you’d like to see this in motion, I have a YouTube video tour you can watch too.

So what do you do for summer decorating? I’d love to know.