How to Bring the Outdoors in with Winter Decorating
When you take down your holiday decorations, there’s a rather long stretch of winter left before you can start decorating for spring. Bringing the outdoors in can help alleviate the winter “blahs” and bring some life to your indoor decor.
Here are some tips and ideas on how to bring the outdoors in with winter decorating.
1. Flowers
Wait…aren’t flowers springtime decorations? Not necessarily. Winter is actually the peak season for several types of flowers, like pussy willow and myrtle. Ivy is another hearty indoor plant that you can grow easily indoors, and its trailing green vines can fill a bay window or hang from baskets and pots.
2. Blooming Cuttings and Bulbs
If you have spring-blooming plants or trees like forsythia, redbud, or dogwood in your yard, you can cut a few sprigs and place them in water. Change the water daily, and clip the ends of the cuttings an inch or so every few days. With luck, the bare branches will form buds and blooms.
3. Natural Colors
Nature-inspired colors bring a sense of the outdoors to your home. Light blue and brown evoke a blue sky in the woods; brown, tan, gray, and green remind you of mossy rocks and ferny woods. Gray and red accents give a cheerful, wintry feel. Think of what you enjoy about the outdoors, and accent with the colors of the things you love.
You can also go with the snowy theme and decorate with creams and whites. Adding candles to this outdoorsy decor keeps it from being too cold and frosty.
4. Natural Materials
Bringing the outdoors in can also mean using natural materials in your indoor decorations. We’ve already discussed twigs and branches, but there are other natural materials, too, like jute, hemp, rocks, pine cones, and even nuts. Glass jars and bowls filled with pine cones and/or nuts are a nice natural accent, and throw rugs made of hemp or jute are also earthy and natural. Rocks can be set up in sculptural piles, or placed in shadow boxes.
5. Natural Scents
When bringing the outdoors in, don’t forget the smells! Woodsy incense and pine-scented potpourri are great ways to evoke the outdoors. Try to go with natural smells rather than synthetic ones that tend to smell quite unnatural.
6. Greens and Fruits
Just because the holidays are over doesn’t mean you can’t have greens in your house. Combining greens with fruit is a great way to decorate naturally. Try placing apples and pine cones on top of pine boughs you’ve laid on your mantle or table, or place lemons and limes among trailing ivy vines.