Browsing Tag

spring home decor

Seasonal

Freshen up your home with pastels

Bree here, from Home Zone Furniture.

Feeling inspired by spring? Between the warm weather, the chirping birds and the blooming flowers, this season puts everyone in a cheerful mood — and for good reason.

If you love spring’s upbeat style, try incorporating its signature pastel palette into your home with accessories and furniture. These are five of my favorite ways to invite soft, happy, serene pastels into your home decor this spring.

Accent chairs

Make an immediate statement in a living room or study with a pastel accent chair. In order to put the emphasis on the color, start by finding a chair shape that complements what you already have in the room. The perfect accent chair must walk a fine line between standing out and fitting in. Next, choose the pastel. Baby blue, soft pink, muted green — the options are endless. Lastly, choose a pastel fabric that has an interesting texture or pattern to give your chair even more personality.

Throw pillows

Throw pillows are the perennial answer to adding seasonal color to your home. Whether you’re looking to freshen up a living room or bedroom, use throw pillows as an opportunity to experiment with home design on a budget. Try working in both odd and even numbers of throw pillows to find a look that feels authentic to you and your home. A light to dark blue ombré lineup of pillows on your couch might be the answer to livening up a drab living space for the season!

Wall color

Many of us consider neutrals to be the only option for wall color, but think again. While a rich, saturated color is often too overpowering to use on all four walls of a room, pastels are another story entirely. In fact, pastels are a great option for wall color because they add some life to the room, but they’re light enough to keep the space feeling open and airy. Keep in mind that sometimes a light yellow or subdued pink can pass as a neutral. If you’re unsure about painting a whole room with your chosen pastel, start by painting one accent wall and go from there.

Rugs

Pastels can also be found underfoot. Place a beautiful rug with soft pastel details in your dining room or bedroom this spring. If you’re hosting an Easter dinner, for instance, a pastel-colored rug will add a subtle festiveness that will complement other holiday decorations. Even beyond the Easter eggs, pastels are the perfect palette for highlighting the colors of a flower bouquet during any season. A pastel rug can be a nice choice for a bedroom, too. The soothing shades are sure to create a calm, serene environment from floor to ceiling.

Curtains

During the spring and summer, every home should be equipped with light-colored curtains to deflect the sun and keep cool. If your walls are painted a neutral tone, take the opportunity to choose curtains in your favorite pastel shade. If you don’t know which to select, pick a color that’s eye-catching but still complements the other furniture and decorative accessories that fill the room.

What’s your favorite pastel, and how will you incorporate it into your home this spring?

Bree

Seasonal

5 accessories to take your home from winter to spring

Bree here, from Home Zone Furniture.

As the seasons change, so should your home accessories. This spring, go for key pieces that are easy on the wallet but make a strong visual impact regardless of your style. Whether you’re looking to tweak your bedroom, living room or kitchen, these are my five tips for inviting the color and beauty of spring into your home in no time!

Bed linens

Welcome spring into your home by putting the right sheets and blankets on your bed. As the weather warms up, you’ll want to swap out heavy textiles like flannel and velvet for cooler materials like cotton and linen. Lightweight fabrics like these will regulate your body temperature and help you sleep soundly at night.

Spring is also a great time to experiment with colored sheets. Try incorporating a soft, pastel palette in your bed linens for a look that’s both serene and cheerful.

Throw pillows

To quickly brighten up your bedroom or living room with the colors of the season, look no further than throw pillows. Simply swapping out your pillow covers with beautiful, garden-inspired shades is certain to lighten the mood in any home. Don’t be afraid to choose patterns and fun colors — you can always rearrange. Stripes and large-scale floral prints are two of my favorite choices for spring.

Rugs

Sometimes a room just doesn’t feel complete without an area or accent rug. In the spring, change out high-pile rugs in dark colors for low-pile rugs in a light or bright color. Natural textures like seagrass are also a nice choice for bringing in a laid-back, beachy vibe.

If you have a rug that just doesn’t seem to be working, this is also the perfect season to take it out completely and go for bare hardwood or tile floors.

Curtains

Curtains have multiple functions and should be adjusted according to season. In the winter, curtains protect windows from incoming drafts to keep you warm. In the spring and summer, well-chosen curtains can block out harsh sun rays and regulate the temperature inside.

For warm weather, go with a gauzy cotton or linen curtain. To keep inside temps as cool as possible, don’t forget to choose a light color — white reflects light, while black and other dark shades absorb it!

Fresh flowers

Last, but certainly not least, bring the outdoors inside with freshly cut blooms. Your flower arrangement can be as big or small as you like depending on where you want to put it. Place a small vase filled with delicate blooms next to your bedside, or create a larger, dynamic arrangement for a coffee table or entrance hall.

Other places in the home that could always use a pop of color and a dash of fragrance include the mantle, the kitchen countertop or the bathroom vanity.

Bree

Seasonal, Spring

Tips for creating the perfect spring floral arrangement

Bree here, from Home Zone Furniture.

One of my favorite things about spring is sprucing up my home. Once the spring-cleaning is complete, I like to revive the high-traffic areas in my house with unique flower arrangements that I’ve assembled myself. It’s amazing how a simple bouquet of flowers can enliven a room and instantly boost your mood.

Whether you’re preparing for a party or just wanting to channel your creative side, use these tips to create the perfect floral arrangement to freshen up your home.

Scavenge.

Flowers can be collected from a variety of sources. If you have a garden, start there. Maybe you have roses, wildflowers, honeysuckle or climbing ivy—they’re all attractive (and free!) options. Your local grocery store offers an array of flowers at a fair price—a high-impact arrangement doesn’t require the most expensive, exotic flowers from a ritzy florist. As you look for flowers, prioritize color harmony and select a variety of shapes, sizes and textures. Dig through the flower bunches to find blooms that are healthy, slightly budded and without brown stems. Don’t forget the greenery! Doesn’t matter if it’s store-bought or from your own backyard, greenery gives your arrangement much-needed structure and depth.

Select.

Be creative when it comes to picking a vase. Sure, putting a bouquet in a clear glass tapered vase is the classic choice, but mix it up with a mason jar wrapped in some craft paper or your grandmother’s ceramic water pitcher. Try using an opaque vase if you can, as it hides the crisscrossed stems and complements the color of the blooms. As for size, the rule of thumb is that the bouquet should be one and a half times larger than the vase itself.

Prepare. 

Have all your tools on hand before you start arranging the flowers. Things you might need include floral tape, twine, floral scissors, rubber bands, a rose stripper, wire and wire cutters. When you get the flowers home, immediately put them in tepid water and cut a solid inch off the stems using a sharp knife. Regardless of the bouquet shape you plan on creating, it’s a good idea to make a grid on the mouth of the vase with floral tape before you start. This helps the flowers stay upright as you build the arrangement.

Arrange. 

And now for the fun part! As you arrange, try to sit down so you’re working from eye level, not from above. After all, the top of the arrangement is not what people will be looking at. Remember there are no set rules when it comes to arranging flowers. The most beautiful bouquets mimic the randomness and asymmetry of nature.

Start building your bouquet with greens and foliage. This will help you create the shape the flowers will fit into. Greenery should hang over the lip of the vase and have a high point in the back. Next add filler flowers; black-eyed Susans, milkweed, and Spanish lavender are colorful choices. These smaller flowers help to create additional webbing that will hold your show-stealers up. Bold blooms such as roses, gerbera daisies or sunflowers should be placed last. Maximize the impact of these big flowers by placing them in strategic positions throughout the arrangement.

Check fullness and color variety as you go, taking a step back from your arrangement and moving it around to view different angles. As mentioned before, prioritize with color, i.e., one bouquet with pinks, reds and oranges, another with blues and purples. Don’t be afraid to play around with scale—leave small flowers on a longer stem, and cut the stem of a larger flower rather short. Every flower arrangement is unique, and the more you practice, the more comfortable you’ll be in your arranging.

Place.

Flowers can go just about anywhere in the house, as long as they’re out of direct sunlight. A few places I like to display flowers are on the bedside table, on the dining table and in the bathroom (especially when entertaining guests). The proportion of the arrangement is important to consider. In general, I like to make sure the size of the arrangement is appropriate to the room it’s adorning, e.g., a bathroom is best paired with a small bunch of fragrant flowers. If you’re hankering to build a sprawling, multi-tiered arrangement, make a place for it on an entryway surface or family room side table.

As you plan the arrangement and placement, be practical. If it’s a petite bedside table arrangement, go for a vase with a wide base and relatively short blooms so you don’t knock it over in the night. If the arrangement is on the dining table, it shouldn’t be so tall that people can’t see each other. (An easy way to check this is to put your elbow down on the table, and your fist in the air; make sure the bouquet’s height is not taller than your fist.) The last tip here would be to protect the surfaces you’re adorning by using cork coasters. Fitting a coaster to the vases you fill will help prevent unsightly water rings on your furniture.

Maintain.

Once you’ve worked hard to create the perfect arrangement, be sure to care for your flowers so they last as long as possible. Strip the stem of any leaves that will touch the water in the vase. Leaves sitting in water rot and make the flowers die more quickly. Trim the stems often, change the water daily and keep the bouquet away from direct sun.

Happy arranging!

Bree