The Joys of Spring Decorating: 6 Spring Home Decor Ideas

Buds on branches, birds chirping, longer and sunnier days: Spring is here (finally!). And while for many of us that means it’s time for spring cleaning, it’s also time for spring decorating. 

In fact, the two can go hand in hand. While you’re decluttering your closets and dusting the tops of your bookcases, you can also be stashing away those items that made your home cozy for winter and replace them with decor to make your home spring fresh. Not sure what we mean? Check out the spring decorating ideas below.

Six spring decorating ideas for a seasonal refresh

Swap out your textiles

Those thick velvet curtains that helped keep your living room feeling warm and comforting in January can make your home seem dark and even stifling come June. The toasty flannel sheets you loved snuggling in throughout those chilly winter nights will have you waking up in a sweat in spring. 

Photo credit: Studio Lux Interiors

When possible, replace heavier fabrics with lighter ones. That doesn’t mean tossing your velvet sofa, of course. (For one thing, velvet upholstery is luxurious, sumptuous, and glamorous year-round.) But swapping out the bouclé pillows on that velvet sofa with linen ones, for instance, will instantly make the sofa and the room feel more in sync with the season. Replacing the faux-fur throw from the arm of your leather wingback chair with a lightweight cotton one will have the same effect. Ditto taking down the velvet curtains and putting up floaty white sheers that let the sunshine in—and if you can’t do that, at least tie back those velvet curtains to minimize their presence. 

In the bedroom, linen, silk, or bamboo/lyocell sheets are especially delightful for spring. That’s because they’re breathable, so they’ll adjust to your body temperature—perfect when a balmy spring evening transforms to a frigid spring night. 

You might also consider rolling up your wool rugs and letting the natural beauty of your floors shine through. Walking barefoot on cool tile or sleek wood in spring is just as much of a tactile treat as striding barefoot across a wool or sheepskin rug in winter. If your floors aren’t something you want to show off, or if you live in an apartment and need to keep them covered, switching to a flat-weave rug made of sisal, cotton, or jute is a chic option. The lack of a thick pile visually lightens a room.

Brighten up, colorwise

Moody blues, chocolate browns, and rich burgundies help create a winter-perfect cocoon. Now that it’s spring, though, make like a butterfly and break free from the cocoon to bask in sun-kissed colors. These can range from bold citrus hues—lemon yellow, lime green, grapefruit pink—to soft and subtle pastels such as baby blue, lilac, and peach. This last color is very flattering to the people inside a room, which is one reason Pantone chose it as its color of the year.

If you’re all about neutrals, opt for lighter tones: tan, wheat, or beige rather than hickory, espresso, or sable. Or if you’d like to bring touches of color into a room but don’t know where to begin, you can’t go wrong incorporating nature-inspired hues such as sky blue or terracotta. After all, it’s difficult to improve upon Mother Nature. Can’t quite visualize whether certain colors will work with your furnishings? An AI-powered interior design platform such as Palazzo can show you in a flash.

Photo credit: Johnson Sokol

We’re hardly suggesting that you reupholster your sofa, paint your walls, and replace your storage furniture for the season (unless you want to, of course!). Because color is such a powerful tool when it comes to creating a mood, adding just a few brighter or lighter elements in a room will make an impact. A yellow vase, a teal runner for your dining table, and of course throw pillows in the breezy hues of your choice are easy and affordable ways to give your home a spring refresh. 

One more color-related spring decor suggestion: By now you’ve probably come across the “red color theory” or “unexpected red theory.” This design concept contends that adding just a flash of red into a room, regardless of the rest of the palette, will elevate the space. Introducing a pop of green will have the same effect, and honor spring to boot. A malachite tray atop your coffee table, an emerald-green throw across the foot of your bed, even a dozen limes in a glass bowl as a centerpiece: You’ll be impressed by what a difference it makes.

Welcome spring at your front door

With spring door decor, your home can show off its seasonal style to passersby as well as to family and friends. What’s more, spring door decoration ideas tend to be easy to implement. Case in point: wreaths. No, they aren’t just for Christmas. Wreaths made with dried or faux lavender, baby’s breath, safflowers, forsythia, or pink pepper berries are truly welcoming spring door decorations that you can enjoy well into autumn. You can also go bolder with wreaths of faux tulips or daffodils in full bloom. And all you have to do is hammer a hook onto your door and hang the wreath: instant springtime!

Photo credit: Home at Ivy Corner

Those of you who are gardeners no doubt already have planters and urns positioned on your front porch, filled with flowers ready to bloom. And if your thumb is anything but green, faux topiaries flanking the front door are certain to bring Old World elegance to your entryway and the season. 

Or skip the flora altogether and instead decorate your porch for spring with a small piece of garden statuary, such as a stone duck sculpture or a cast-iron pineapple finial. (Pineapples have been a symbol of hospitality for centuries, making them wonderful additions to a porch or an entry.) And don’t forget to refresh your doormat, either with a good spring clean or by replacing it with something colorful, whimsical, or both.

Bring the outdoors in

Fresh blooms in a vase are the go-to for spring home decor, for good reason. Few things lift one’s spirits and enliven a room quite like flowers. Fresh herbs in pretty pots are also lovely—and you can snip off the leaves to use when cooking! Any sort of plants, in fact, from cacti to ferns, will help blur the distinction between indoor and outdoor at least a little. Floral motifs on bedding, throw pillows, table linens, lampshades, and slipcovers also help bring the beauty of the great outdoors in.   

Flowers and plants aren’t the only way to incorporate nature’s bounty into your home. There are numerous other natural materials to use, such as wicker or rattan. A basket woven of seagrass or water hyacinth not only keeps toys, extra blankets, or other items chicly out of sight but also enhances a room with organic texture. You can also place the pot of a large plant within a wicker basket for a double dose of natural beauty. Rattan seating has become more popular lately, so if you’re looking to update your dining room or kitchen, consider new chairs with caned inserts. When winter rolls around, you can always add cushions to give them a new look. 

Photo credit: Fremont Design

Plaster, terracotta, and other materials that reference the enticing rough-hewn texture of stone also bring a layer of outdoorsy elegance to a room. Especially if your home is heavy on polished marble, lacquered wood, translucent acrylic, and gleaming metallics, a table lamp with an irregular plaster body or an unglazed stoneware vase will provide a visual and tactile reminder of nature’s perfect imperfections. 

Refresh your point of view

Museums regularly change out the art they display, so why shouldn’t you? In addition to being an easy element of seasonal decorating, switching out your artwork will make you feel as if you redecorated the entire room.

Photo credit: Huff-Dewberry

A set of vintage, or vintage-style, botanical prints is a perfect tribute to the season. Likewise, hanging a large photograph of a lush meadow, a coastal scene, or an alfresco gathering will give a room an instant spring refresh. (For a dash of retro-yet-timeless glamour, check out Slim Aarons’s vibrant prints.) If your taste runs more to abstracts, consider replacing your existing jewel-tone or dark-tone works with those in a lighter palette. Even substituting the cream matting of your art with an unexpected sunny color will revitalize your home for the season. 

Smell the roses

Or if not roses, any home fragrance that leans away from the heavy spices and smoky woods of autumn and winter. Light floral medleys are always popular once the weather warms. Single-note florals are lovely too. (Lavender works especially well in a bedroom, as it’s been proven to encourage relaxation.) Those who find florals overly feminine or fussy should consider candles and diffusers with herbaceous and green notes such as mint, rosemary, and tea leaves. Also consider scents with a hint of citrus courtesy of verbena, orange, or the like. Not only do they evoke sunshine and balmy breezes, but they’re also associated with cleanliness!

Photo credit: Eugenia AI

Spring ahead your way

What’s most important about decorating for spring is that you do it your way. Someone who prefers contemporary minimalism will welcome the season into their home in a much quieter way than a color-loving maximalist, for instance. If you’re unsure what your decor style is, take our design aesthetic quiz.   

Sherry Chiger was formerly the head of editorial at One Kings Lane, where she produced a leading interior design blog. She also writes on decor and other topics for numerous other sites and publications.