Home Decor

Reflecting spring inside your home

Jessica Crawford
Cotton & Co.

(4/2021) It’s Spring! I know that I am not the only one to welcome an end to Winter. I love watching a few romantic snowfalls out of the windows of our old farmhouse. Sipping hot cocoa on chilly winter evenings and concocting hearty chilis and soups for supper. But at some point, enough is enough. And I personally got my fill of snow this year. We are truly fortunate that where we live, we experience all four seasons. So it’s time to put Old Man Winter to rest until next year, and usher in the next season, which is arguably my favorite.

For me, Spring symbolizes rebirth and growth; a time to refresh and rejuvenate. It’s good for the soul. A breath of fresh air in the literal and figural meanings. A time to open all the windows in the house, and let the warm, fresh air fill all the corners it hasn’t reached in months. Feel the sunshine on your face as it washes away all the stagnancy of winter. It’s a time for planning and preparing for the longer, brighter days ahead leading into Summer and Fall.

We’ve been gleefully watching all the purple crocus and yellow daffodils pop up in our gardens. Our neighbor’s cherry tree is blushing and blooming with a pale, soft pink. Our hens have certainly enjoyed the longer days and warmer nights too, as they gear up for their laying season. The grass is starting to brighten and pop, as it does every Spring, fighting its way through the matted remnants of last season. Spring offers us a brand new opportunity for hope and recharge and fresh perspective. Which is even more symbolic this year, as we emerge out of Winter and a year-long dark season, with new hope for promise in the coming year.

Many of us are excited to get our hands in the dirt and play in our gardens. Or looking forward to being outside and getting chores done around the yard. But what about indoors? What can we do inside our homes to reflect Spring indoors?

A first great step is to de-clutter and re-evaluate. It’s a great opportunity to go room by room and find all of that stuff that’s possibly still lingering from fall and the holidays and pack all of it away. Having a clean slate to work with will make it easier to imagine the space and the styles you are drawn to. Is that minimalism, mid-century, farmhouse, boho, rustic, traditional, retro?

No matter what style you typically decorate your home with, reflecting the outdoors, by bringing some of it indoors is a great way to quickly brighten a space and break free of winter. Unearth your favorite vintage budvase. And if you don’t have one, stop by the shop, we have so many vintage vessels and vases, ready to display Spring’s offerings. If you have little ones, have them help snip some daffodils to bring inside, and place them somewhere the whole household gets to enjoy them as they go about their day. Soon the forsythia will be blooming, and a few wild, unruly branches in a tall vessel will be sure to bring Spring to any room in your home.

Reflecting nature indoors is honestly a great rule of thumb year-round. However Spring time is a great excuse to bring something fresh and green to your home. We have recently added a vendor to the shop that supplies us with her home propagated and grown succulents and house plants. She tends to use unique or vintage containers and planters as well. Adding houseplants to your home is beneficial emotionally and mentally, as they boost moods and spirits. But also physically, as they improve the air quality in your home too. And from experience, you can never, ever have too many houseplants.

As the daughter to two horticulturists, I grew up with my parents trimming and rooting this, snipping and planting that. Teaching us how to propagate plants for fun, and also their landscape design company that they owned when I was a child. I remember my dad paying me a nickel for every Privet cutting I planted that took root. And to a seven year old with one hundred cuttings, that seemed like easy money. And it makes me smile, because all of these years later, propagating is suddenly on-trend. We are working on getting propagation stations into the shop currently, as a collaboration between vendors. A pretty way to functionally display your cuttings as they root and grow. Watching a cutting take root is unreasonably exciting and rewarding, and an effective way to grow your indoor plant collection in a budget-friendly way. It’s also a great way to involve kids and make a little science lesson out of it.

Another easy, fast way to transform a space for Spring is to update or switch out some textiles around the house. Freshen things up with a new set of throw pillows on the couch, fresh curtains, a light or bright colored throw over the back of your favorite chair. Textiles are such an easy update, and with so many styles readily available, you’ll never get bored. Plus, I find they’re easy to store and put away and rotate in and out over the course of the year, based on the seasons.

If you ever need help or guidance with a design project that you’re working on in your home, feel free to ask any of our staff members. We all love helping others see a vision come to life, and sometimes a little outside perspective is just what you need. Our friendly staff is more than willing to offer guidance and advice. We’re open weekly, Fridays through Sundays, just down the road in Keymar. Cotton & Co Vintage Boutique, 900 Francis Scott Key Hwy.