How to Romanticise Your Summer: A Storybook Life Reset
There’s something magical about treating each season like a fresh chapter. To reset and start to truly build that storybook life we all dream of. And summer? Summer is the soft, golden one – where pages turn lazily in the shade, iced drinks are clutched in one hand, and the scent of lavender mingles with vintage paper.
I like to think of this time of year as the moment to step fully into your storybook self – to reflect, realign, and reimagine how you want your days to feel. Not a dramatic transformation, but a gentle aesthetic reset that makes everyday life feel just a little more enchanted.
Here’s how to curate your very own seasonal storybook life this summer.
☀️ This is the first post in my Bookshop Girl’s Summer Series: Living a Storybook Life – a whimsical seven-part guide to crafting a gentle, bookish summer filled with creativity, nostalgia, and literary charm.
📌 Up next: Dress Like a Storybook Girl: Your Summer Capsule Wardrobe Guide
1. Start With a Mood Board
Begin by gathering images, textures, and colour palettes that evoke your ideal summer feeling. Think: sun-dappled book pages, iced coffees on ivy-covered balconies, linen skirts, pressed flowers.
💭 Amy’s Note: I always start with Pinterest, but I print out a few favourites for my pinboard too – something about a tactile collage just feels right.
✨ Try This: Cute floral drawing pins for your mood board
2. Choose Your Seasonal Colours & Textures
Pick 3–5 colours that you want to weave through your wardrobe, spaces, journaling, and daily life. Maybe soft sage, blush pink, cream linen, and antique gold?
💭 Amy’s Note: I find a signature colour combo helps me feel rooted – like my whole summer is being told in one consistent tone.
3. Romanticise Your Daily Rhythms
Think about the parts of your day that could use a little extra magic – your morning coffee, your walk to the shop, your reading time. How can you elevate them?
💭 Amy’s Note: even with a toddler running around I’m always trying to find ways I can make things slower, gentler and a little more mindful.
4. Style Your Space for the Story You’re Telling
You don’t need to redecorate – just small touches: a summer floral in a teacup vase, fairy lights strung above your bookshelf, a new bookmark tucked into a frame.
💭 Amy’s Note: my toddler has recently enjoyed bringing me daisies and other flowers he has found growing wild, I’ve been putting them in a glass jar on my desk to make things feel a little special.
5. Set Gentle Intentions for the Season
Rather than big goals, set a few intentions that feel dreamy and manageable. “Spend more time outside,” “Write in my journal once a week,” “Read under a tree.”
💭 Amy’s Note: I like to phrase mine like a sentence from a book: She spent her days with bare feet in the grass, always carrying a paperback and a pen.
Next Up…
Let’s take this aesthetic to your wardrobe. Up next in the Bookshop Girl’s Summer Series:
✨ Dress Like a Storybook Girl: Your Summer Capsule Wardrobe Guide
📌 Pin this post for your seasonal reset and find more summer ideas on the blog — your storybook life awaits.
Amy x
