How Do I decorate my home for Spring with vintage and antique items?
I do it with flowering branches, plants, and natural elements like nests and baskets. Fill in any bare spots around your home using plants, flowers–anything green really! I love that juxtaposition of the old and new. I use my collection of vintage and antique vases and vessels to showcase the beauty of spring.
As I get to the end of February, I am over and done with Winter. Unfortunately, living in New England, there is still a lot of Winter left. So I cope by bringing the feeling of Spring inside.
Forced branches and bulbs in Vintage Vases and Urns
I usually start at the end of February/beginning of March by incorporating forced branches and forced bulbs, and by the end of the month, the Easter eggs and bunnies start coming out. I enjoy using natural items like nests, moss, flowers, and I will usually buy a Spring candle to burn. Right now, I am enjoying the Thymes Olive Leaf candle. (The Thymes Fraiser Fir is my all-time favorite candle.) It’s a lovely clean scent which is what I want in the Spring.
I also try to keep a natural palette so you won’t find a lot of jarring bright colors in my home. This year I find myself gravitating towards mossy greens and creams, but it changes every year. This year I celebrated Spring with this beautiful tallow berry wreath. If you would like to see how I made it you can find the tutorial here.
I have nothing against faux flowers. I use them all the time. Especially in my booth, it’s a low maintenance way to bring color and texture to my space. I am usually there once a week to replenish and revamp, so fresh flowers are not an option. In general though, I always prefer natural items like the tallow berry branches or pepper berry is another favorite that has excellent color. Did you know that they bleach and die them? So you can get them in a gorgeous creamy white as well. I have worked as a florist for many years, and I never knew that they came in different colors. That is another wreath I hope to make in the fall, so stay tuned for that
Planting spring flowers in unique Vintage planters
The kitchen is the heart of our home, and I always have fresh flowers by my kitchen sink. So this space changes weekly. I will usually start in February with a vase full of pussy willow, then move to tulips and daffodils. It’s constantly changing and always reflecting the season. Lately, I have also been incorporating potted flowering plants, like this Hellebores (which I hope to plant in my garden) that I purchase at Wegmans of all places. I planted it in this beautiful copper pail that I found at a local estate sale.
Forcing Wheat Grass in vintage baskets
Earlier I mention my obsession with hunter green and green. In keeping with the green theme, this year I tried something new. I have had a bag of wheatgrass seeds sitting under my kitchen sink for two years now, waiting to be sowed for spring décor, and finally, this year, I sowed some seeds. In these drab months of Winter, I crave all things green because the color conveys a feeling of life to me. I planted up a few containers this year, but my favorite was this 50’s gold metal basket.
This basket came in an auction box lot, and it was full of moldy Christmas greens (I wish I had a before photo). I was tempted to just throw it all out, but the form was so beautiful. I know I could give this basket new life.
I also planted a few other containers with wheatgrass and used them in my Easter décor. Here I planted vintage desert cup with wheat grass. You can read more about my experience growing wheatgrass for décor here. It was a good experience, but I am not sure I will do it again.
I love to juxtapose vintage items with flowers and plants. In this vignette I have a beautiful vintage (almost antique) trophy, my collection of flower frogs on a large silver tray. This 1922 trophy showcases these purple Hellebores gloriously. My dad had given me a plant a few years back, and I planted it, but I don’t think it likes its location because I’m lucky to get 3 or 4 blossoms. So I end up stealing them from my parents’ garden every year.
These Ranunculus were from my Easter centerpiece. They are one of my favorite flowers ever and I try to enjoy every last bit of them. Once I see that they are starting to die, the stem will start to shrivel, but I like to pop the head off the stem and float it in some water. By doing this I can usually get an extra 2 days from the bloom, and I enjoy displaying them in this unconventional way.
They look so sweet floating in this vintage silver plated butter dish.
These are some ways that I decorate my home for Spring with vintage and antique items.
How do you incorporate your vintage and antique items in your Spring décor?