5 Home Decor Ideas for Spring

Our recent weather in town was like a roller coaster ride.  A week of warm double digit temperature plunged to deep freeze temperature, and this week we're getting another taste of the sweet warm weather!  I'm not complaining of an early start of Spring, but welcoming the warmth full force by refreshing our home's Spring decor.

It's always fun to reinvent new ways of decorating with what you have, and I've committed to using most of our existing Spring decor accessories from years past.  

At our house, I've added some easy touches to give our decor for a fresh Spring look.  Here are 5 simple things that help bring Spring to your home.

1. Chirpy Birds, Nests, and Colourful Eggs

What's Spring without chirpy birds singing at your window (and wake you up so you can't sleep in on weekends)?  I've invited these ceramic birds into our entryway for a happy, welcoming sight.   I kept our entryway decor simple, and layered on some easter eggs and nest decor for some colours.

Here's a previous version at our old house, using the same accessories.  

2. Other Natural elements - Greenery / Floral arrangements

If your house isn't already an indoor garden, adding plants or fresh (or faux) flowers would immediately breathe new life into your home.  

For me though, I don't particularly have a green thumb.  Spending around 6 hours of awake time at home after work, minus dinner and family time, doesn't leave me much time or energy to care for plants.  I rely on my trusted faux floral friends to bring us some colours until it's time to switch to fall and winter decor. 

So, wherever I can find a spot, I would add some greenery or faux floral arrangement to liven up our neutral space.

Here in the dining room:

We haven't decorated our powder room, so a simple arrangement of hydrangeas adds some much needed colour in it.

I've moved this pot of faux orchid around our house, but I think it's finally found a home in our master ensuite.

Here in our family room, a pot of faux grass gives all the navy decor a pop of colour.

Back at our old house, we had 2 versions of Spring tablesetting.  This is the dramatic, which we used while we staged our house for sale:

This second version was what the Mr. thought didn't have enough oomph.  Very well...

Aside from the greeneries and floral arrangements, displaying fruits in the kitchen is another simple way to add some natural elements to enhance your Spring decor.

I confess, this chrome birds and twigs tray is a new addition to my Spring decor collection.  It's so unique that I just had to grab it from Homesense, even though I had no idea what to use it for...  until I ran out of room on our usual fruit tray with all those clementines the Mr. brought home from grocery shopping, and into this tray they went.

3. Colourful Art

All the greeneries and colour don't end with plants and flowers.  If you had furry pillow covers through the winter months, it's time to replace them with some Spring covers.  For me, these water colour floral cushion covers are a natural extention from the florals and plants around the house.  

Bluebellegray cushion from Chapters Indigo

Pillow cover from Craftberry Bush

Another quick and inexpensive way to add some colours around the house would be with some free printables of Spring.  I love Craftberry Bush's water colour printables and she has this cute Bless Our Nest printable for free on her website!  

If you don't have a colour printer available, it's very inexpensive to print this at a local print shop.  I usually print my quicky artwork on a light weight cardstock at Staples.  You can't beat a decent quality print for under $1!

via Craftberrybush

4. Light weight linens

From window treatments, to throws, to your bedding, it's just natural to change out the heavy weights to light weights as warm weather descends upon us.  

Replacing heavily woven drapery fabrics with lighter fabrics, such as belagian linen, doesn't only lighten the wintery feel, but also lets in more light.  You may consider a sheer-on-sheer window treatment, like this in our dining room, to get the most light through your windows.  

Are you still using flannel sheets, with Christmas themes?  Updating your bedding with some light and colourful fabrics is a great way to indulge in the spirit of Spring.  Our fabulous Canadian designers have come out with some gorgeous bedding that make us long for Spring.  

From Sarah Richardson's own textile line:

via Sarah Richardson Design

To Samantha Pynn's collection for Simons:

via Samantha Pynn pour Simons

5. Fresh Scent

Who doesn't love walking into a fresh smelling house?  I used to love plug-ins with floral scents, but recently I've grown to love clean scents.  One of my favourites is White Tea by Westin.  Yes, that's Westin as in the Westin hotel chain.  White Tea is their signature scent that welcomes you as you walk into their hotel lobby.  

I'm so glad that they actually sell this scent, but it doesn't come cheap.  My trick to prolong its usage is to use it with an oil diffuser, which most people use to disperse essential oil for aroma therapy.  

White tea oil diffuser;  Wood grain oil diffuser (affiliated links)

I put 5 drops with a medicine dropper into the diffuser's reservoir, and off it goes for about 8 hours.  The scent that comes out of it is never too strong, but just enough to travel through our ground floor.

It brings back vacation joy each time I take in a whiff of its scent.  The oil diffuser is tucked into a corner at our dining room, behind the wall of picture frames on the table.  It's not something meant to be seen; just a subtle reminder of its delicate scent will do. 

It's so tempting to shop all the beautiful new decor that the stores are carrying for Spring.  It can also be overwhelming when there're so much goodies to choose from.  If I can, I would bring the whole store home...  But with a limited budget or limited patience for shopping (like these miserable men), having a list of general decor ideas would hopefully deter you from overloading your shopping cart.   Guilty of that?

Living Room Reveal and Styling Tips

Being in a townhouse, there usually isn't a separate living room so to speak.  Since we had the builder finished the basement as a family room, it freed up space on the main floor (and no TV!).  We also didn't need the builder-designated breakfast area, which is in close proximity to the breakfast bar and dining room (c'mon we're only a family of 3).  That gave rise to the idea of a seating area in place of the breakfast area.

After months of anticipation, we finally (!!!) received the end tables we ordered back in October for the living room/ seating area.  I had decor items lined up for its arrival since our purchase, and we can now focus on beautifying our living room.  

It's been more than a year since I wrote about our living room design board, and this was what I had in mind for our living room in that post:

Deals come and go, and so our furniture choices differ from our design board.  We incorporated pieces that we love, while still staying true to our decorating style.  Here is how our living room actually turned out:

First to set the stage is of course an elegant and comfy sofa.  We've scoured through stores, but none other than the Nicole sofa by Sarah Richardson was our one true love.  The curvy sides and arms add the touch of uniqueness that distinguishes it from traditional sofas.  Plus, I love its large fluffy seat cushion, so nobody would be sitting on cushion gaps.  

Natalie Hodgins, who managed our furniture order seamlessly at Sarah Richardson Design, suggested we also include the back cushions.  We're so glad we went with her suggestion, the back cushions up the comfy factor of a tight back sofa.

With the statement art piece above the sofa as the focal point, we decided to go with a pair of end tables with acrylic legs.  The tables almost seem to disappear into the surrounding, but the chrome accents and mirror bottom shelf bring out the gleam in them.  

Its hard lines are a nice contrast to the curvy marble coffee table and delicate arms on the sofa.  We also love how the mirrored bottom shelf reflects the light from the table lamps and creates depth for whatever decor placed on it. 

Instead of using large armchairs on either side of the sofa, as in my original design board, we opted to use a pair of cane back dining armchairs from Restoration Hardware.  It was one of those decisions that was prompted by a deal, and worked out great in the end.   We already had one from our old house's home office, and saw the second one at the RH Outlet while it was running a 30% off lowest ticket price campaign.  It was a no brainer to grab it!  

Their narrow footprint streamlined the seating area, so that the living room appears less crowded than if we had used chunky armchairs. 

With our living and dining areas being next to each other, we used a silvery blue as a transition colour between the two areas.  The silvery blue tone can be found in the animal print rug, the kitchen stools, and the dining room console.  

It's All in the Details

Now that we have our essential pieces down, it's time to beautify and liven up the seating area with accessories!  This is a stark contrast to the year at our rental, which I never bothered to decorate.  It was a boring place to stay at, lacking in character without something beautiful to look at.  

Since moving in at our new house, I've purged through our old home decor accessories and curated items that we love.  I don't really work with a theme, other than a seasonal one.  However, the objects still look coherent, because they all represent us.

With a prominent piece of artwork above the sofa, we picked out neutral tones for the throw pillows.  Pulling a darker tone from the art, in this case the navy, for a contrasting pillow colour helps to ground the space that would otherwise appear washed out.

We didn't want too many accessories to crowd up the small seating area.  Afterall, if I didn't exercise control, I could easily pile up the coffee and end tables with everything I love ;-)  

In keeping with the spirit of less-is-more for this small space, instead of filling up the coffee table with books, I decided to give it some breathing space by corralling simple accessories on a tray.

I used metallics throughout to balance the strong copperish gold tone of the frame.  It helps to avoid washing out the rest of the seating area against the strong piece of art.  

Here on the pale marble coffee table, I used a mirror tray with bronze frame and an antiqued gold lantern:

And at the end table here, with the gold resin shell bowl and beige-gold toned capiz shells tray.  I love how the gold Jonathan Adler Carnaby Zebra dish echoes the animal print rug to subtly tie in the accessories.  

Just in case you're wondering, no, the seating area is not considered done until the Mr. installs the full-panel wainscoting as in my design board.  He gave me the "I've got a lot on my plate" look when I reminded him about it the other night.  I brought it up, just because...  I'll leave him alone for now, as he's still finishing up with our dressing room.   =)

It was exciting to envision this builder-designated breakfast area to be a seating area when I first saw the floor plan.  Even more fun was the design process, and now furnishing and personalizing it to suit our living style.  

We love how it is neutral enough to not fight with the artwork, and yet everything works in harmony.  This is the first room that we see when we walk into the living area, and it should naturally feel welcoming.  We wanted it to be a focal point without being too formal (ie. realistically livable with a kid).  

I think with the speed the little man dashes to the couch after coming home, we've at least managed the livable part =)

P.S.:  The wainscoting should be a piece of cake for the Mr., since he's done the wainscoting with the chair rail for our old house's living/ dining room.

5 Things to Consider for an "Effortless" Gallery Wall

Now that the Holidays are over, I'm still reluctant to pack away the sparkly decorations and Christmas lights that line our staircase.  Actually, call it a case of mild procrastination.  Afterall, it took quite some effort to lay out the decorations, they should stay out for a bit longer, don't you think?

I blame the delay of packing up our Christmas decorations on decorating the little man's headquarters - his bedroom and playroom.   Not that I'm doing any of the installations...  Anyway...  Little man's working corner in his playroom is finally in place, and I should really unpack some packages lying around that are for a gallery wall in the room.

A gallery wall is an eclectic display of art, giving the room a casual vibe.  For our house, there's no better place than the playroom to have some fun with it!  The. Mr is not a huge fan of gallery walls, but he has reluctantly played along with the idea for one in the playroom.  So to honour that, I promise to keep it small scaled with a somewhat neat demeanor.  My plan is to have it above a future toy storage unit, with a wall space of around 5-feet wide.

I want the gallery wall to look effortlessly casual, but it still takes some effort while taking these factors into consideration:

1. DETERMINE THE BOUNDARY

The width of most gallery walls are bounded by, or just beyond, the width of the furniture below it, if any.  For dramatic effect, you can even go wall to wall, similar to the sample image below.  As for a vertical boundary, a more comfortable grouping would see the bottom of the layout at 6"-8" above any piece of furniture, up to around 2-ft off the ceiling.  You know the general rule of hanging wall art at 60-62" from the ground?  In the case of a gallery wall, treat the whole layout as a group, so that the group's centre is at eye-level.  You don't want to be crunching your neck to look up to ALL your pieces!

via Emily Henderson

2. SHAPE OF THE LAYOUT

Do you have a neat and structured personality, like my Mr.?  Then a square or rectangular shape gallery wall will most likely be your pick.  Or are you more coherently random, like me?

Structured shape via The Southern Thing

coherently random shape by Lay Baby Lay

3. SHAPES, SIZES, AND COLOURS OF THE FRAMES

Using various shapes and sizes of frames for the gallery wall is one way to give it a dose of your personality.   For little man's playroom, I originally planned on using colourful frames.  I'm having second thoughts about that, and I think monochromatic frames would play a balancing role against the pops of colours around the room full of toys.  

via Love Grows Wild

via rh baby and child

4. SPACING AROUND THE PIECES 

A visually appealing gallery wall should have just enough pieces that are grouped comfortably together.  The key is to avoid looking too messy.  Spaced too tight, it would look like too many pieces are crying for attention, and the frames would look crammed; spaced too far apart, then they look like individual art pieces sharing the wall.  

To be easy on the eyes, I find that the optimal distance between each piece should be around 2-3".  There're no hard and fast rules about it, and it all depends on the different sizes and shapes of the pieces.

via Driven by Decor

via RH Teen

5. INCLUDE WHIMSICAL ACCENTS

Gallery walls are never boring - display some loved and dearest pieces to let your personality shine through!  A touch of whimsical accessories bring these gallery walls to life!

via Project Nursery

via Something to be Found

The next time you see a casually and effortlessly chic gallery wall, you can count on the fact that the more casual it looks, the more effort it required!  A lot of planning goes into perfecting even a seemingly random placement of pieces.  But don't be boggled down by the planning; afterall, the point of a gallery wall is to have fun with it!  Once you have collected your pieces, it's definitely a fun exercise to hone your sense of design and use of space.  Let loose and have some fun!