There is nothing quite like the early days of spring, when windows are opened for the first time in months to usher in fresh, warm air. There is a tangible whimsy and lightness revealed, and decorating your home to reflect this season of new beginnings is all part of the fun.
Incorporating spring decor is about embracing soft colors, natural elements, and breathing fresh life into your home. Whether it’s your coffee table, console table, or dining room table, spring table decor is an easy way to add fresh accents that nod to the season. Here, we cover essential elements of table styling, spring table decor ideas, and take a closer look at styling different types of tables.
Spring Decorating Ideas
No matter what kind of table you are styling, creating visual interest begins with layers, including elements that are tall, low, and somewhere in-between. You can create these layers in any number of ways, but here are a few of our favorite table decoration ideas.
Texture
For seasonal warmth, fold in a textured layer. For inspiration, look no further than to natural elements: a glance at your backyard might reveal a mossy layer of brown earth, delicate grass seedlings, silky flowers in full bloom, and the occasional wispy feather laying in the yard. When thinking about your color palette, look to the earth-tone color combinations that occur naturally within these elements.
Fabric and textiles are an excellent way to introduce texture into your spring table decor. For table runners, placemats, and napkins on your dining room table, consider a natural base like a burlap table runner, or opt for warm, cheerful patterns like whimsical florals, gingham or seersucker placemats. Each of these fabrics has its unique surface texture that creates a tactile visual experience.
Stacking Books
By creating a base with a few stacked books, you can place decorative objects on planes at varying heights. Depending on the width and the depth of your tabletop, consider placing two or three hardcover books from your reading collection, or perhaps opt for larger art books or coffee table books that speak to you. Play around with each arrangement until it feels right.
Creating thoughtful stacks of books also enables you to show off your personality and personal interests in high-traffic areas of your home, so choose colorful spines that complement your room’s larger palette and choose topics that highlight your lifestyle and tastes. As an alternative, consider selecting books that reflect the season. A book featuring topiary design or the paintings from Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny, for example, are perfect options to underscore the whimsy of the spring months.
Florals and Greenery
A simple arrangement of florals, greenery, or branches are a natural way to incorporate outdoor elements and a pop of color into your spring table decor. When searching for the right plants, consider seasonal blooms. For spring, that means tulips, peonies, hyacinths, and daffodils.
When adding height to your table, consider folding in branches of flowering trees or shrubs. Be sure to select a sturdy vase or vessel and carefully place fresh blooms or simple green sprigs that add height and greenery to your table decor. Bright yellow forsythia or soft pink magnolia blooms are among our favorite as they’re elegant, colorful, and a simple solution for filling a void in your space. (Tip: greenery generally lasts longer than fresh florals).
Trays, Dishes and Votives
To complete your layered tabletop, fold in a few low-layer elements. Among our go-to decorative objects for table styling include surface-skimming trays, stout votive candles, and decorative dishes for collecting loose items, which serve both an aesthetic and utilitarian purpose.
Spring Table Decor Ideas
Creating spaces that are both beautiful and livable is at the heart of our mission. And for active families turning to outdoor activities as the weather warms, it’s important to include functional elements in your spring table decor. These are a few of our favorite ways to style console tables, coffee tables, and dining room tables for spring.
How to Decorate a Console Table
Console tables are fixtures of high-traffic entryways and other more public spaces of a home. As such, they can quickly become a landing pad for family clutter. In styling your console table for spring (and frankly, all year-round), consider using woven trays to contain keys, sunglasses, and small items you need when coming and going.
Storage
For additional storage, consider tucking woven baskets underneath to help contain soccer cleats, baseball mitts, and other outdoor accouterments that become ubiquitous in spring. (This is especially important if your home does not feature a dedicated mudroom.)
Greenery
While you may associate wreaths with the winter months, they can be used in your decor year-round. Swap out your evergreen and pinecone wreath for a boxwood wreath with a simple bow to adorn the wall over your entryway console table.
Mirrors
When selecting your console table decor, consider adding a mirror into the mix. Hanging a mirror above a table not only allows you to check your appearance before leaving home, it also helps reflect spring sunlight around your space, brightening up what may be an otherwise darker entryway. As an added bonus, greenery placed on your console will appear twice as lush reflected in your mirror.
How to Decorate a Coffee Table
What constitutes practical coffee table design will depend on the primary dwellers of your home. It is often wise for families with young children or pets to keep coffee table decor to a minimum on low-lying coffee tables. In these instances, a single metal vessel or a sturdy ceramic piece filled with fresh-cut flowers or low-profile candlesticks may be your safest option.
Alternatively, consider incorporating design elements that your children take part in creating. Plant some seeds with little ones in ceramic pots, and watch their delight as they see the first seedlings appear. Or, invite them to decorate papier-mâché Easter eggs and display them in a durable wicker basket or shatter-proof Melamine bowl.
For those homes with fewer tiny hands, the sky is the limit. In these cases, remember the basics: look to a mix of low-layer elements, middle layers with intentionally placed objects, and a little height from an arrangement of greenery. And, be sure to call upon objects and books that hold personal significance.
How to Decorate a Dining Room Table
Table Settings
When styling a spring dining room table, consider casual place settings. The spring table is a bridge between the formality of winter holidays and laid-back summer barbeques. Setting the table with less pomp-and-circ*mstance sets the tone for long, enjoyable evenings on the patio.
Linens
For spring holidays celebrated with extended family, formal place settings may be appropriate. There are still practical elements to consider, namely, selecting the right spring table runner and linens for the occasion. Patterned fabrics like gingham and floral prints can hide a multitude of food-spillage sins, while materials like linen are durable and easy to wash when messes occur.
Decorative Objects
Warm-weather days are an enjoyable time to go antiquing, and the fruits of your labor can be woven into your dining room table decor, both formal and casual.
Ultimately, the most critical part of selecting table decor for any room in your home is about embracing the mood of the season. Spring signifies hope, vitality and rejuvenation. It is a season for celebration, especially with family, and with the love of a shared space.
