If you enjoyed this article, check out Beach House Vibes in the City: How to Bring Summer into Any Space.
8/08/2025
Colors have a direct impact on how we perceive temperature. Choose light, cool, and natural shades like chalk white, sandy beige, light grey, dusty blue, sage green. These tones reflect light and make the room feel visually fresher. Bonus: avoid warm, saturated colors like red or orange—they tend to “heat up” the space.

Curtains, rugs, and upholstery can really make a difference. Opt for natural, breathable textiles such as linen, raw cotton, hemp. Go for loose-weave or filtering curtains that block harsh light but still let air in. For rugs, choose plant-based fibers like jute or sisal—stylish, cool, and eco-friendly.
Discover more about our partner's fabrics. Novamobili
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Some materials just look and feel fresh:
These materials don’t retain heat and help give the space a clean, airy feel.
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Even how you arrange your furniture affects the indoor climate:
Bonus idea: place a mirror across from a window—it will reflect light and amplify the openness.
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Some furniture pieces naturally stay cooler:
Staying cool doesn't mean sacrificing style. With the right design choices and materials, your home can become a fresh and relaxing retreat—even in the height of summer. No need for a full makeover—just let in some air… and a few smart ideas.
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Interior Designer since 1985
CEO & Founder, Italian Design in the World
A holiday home lives on a few things, well chosen. It is an exercise in subtraction that teaches a lot about the everyday home too.
Colour isn't a decorative choice. It's a decision about volume, light and emotional temperature — and getting it wrong costs you every time you walk into the room.
Honest materials, real scents: a home is felt before it is seen.
Kitchen and bathroom are where the home meets water every day — preparation, cleaning, care, rest. That is why they are also where the gap between beautiful in rendering and sustainable in use shows first: droplets at joints, twisted paths, light that lies about the face, surfaces that demand obsessive cleaning.
In the city, those few square metres beyond the door are often the only truce between the flat and the noise outside. They are not a decorative extra: they are a border — different light, different wind, different rules. Yet too many balconies stay storage for crates, folding chairs and rushed tiles, as if design stopped at the glass.
The prejudice comes from years of institutional rooms where function crushed aesthetics. In residential work, things have changed: handles that are objects, walk-in showers that are elegance before aid, wide doors and near-invisible thresholds that are build quality before regulation. The gap is not budget: it is awareness that dignity lives in daily details — the ones you touch hundreds of times a year.