Getting A Head Start On Spring

By Pat Stelzer

RusticDecorating.com

Watching snowflakes fall is entertaining only during late November, December and maybe part of January. Long about February, those winter blues set in, and everyone becomes anxious for the arrival of spring. By the middle of February, people are beginning to get cabin fever, hoping to awake and find early signs that winter is on the way out. No one can rely on Puxetawny Pete, the ground hog, to be accurate, so why not take matters into one’s own hands.

Changing home décor ever so slightly can help combat that slide into winter doldrums. Toward the end of February, put a little “spring” inside the house in easy, simple ways. Change those winter pieces depicting snow scenes with something that heralds the season of rebirth. Put away snowmen and poinsettia pictures. Bring out decorative items that remind everyone of early spring flowers and gardening activities. Crocuses, irises, jonquils, are among those first welcome signs that spring has arrived. Use the colors of those spring harbingers to brighten rooms and help counteract winter’s hold on the human spirit, remembering that home is where the soul is renewed.

Simple things work best. A touch of spring color in a throw pillow, a picture or collage of spring blossom signs, change the atmosphere of a winter weary house and buoy spirits of its residents. Plants started in pots resting on a kitchen windowsill become a daily reminder that it won’t be long before those emerging seedlings can be moved outside. A large clay pot of bulbs, when the first green shoots begins to appear, brings with it the promise that by the time the flower bursts forth, spring will have arrived.

February is also good time to begin making plans for the yard and the house. Spend February deciding which rooms to redo, how to replant a window box or flowerbed, anything that looks to the coming season of change and new growth. Walk through the house, making note of things that need attention or could do with a change. During those last few weeks before spring arrives, shop for paint or fabric or garden supplies. Start those new plants inside. Hang a new picture depicting spring flowers or simply change that winter welcome sign for one with flowers and birds.

Decorating for holidays is a custom in most homes, so why not make it a seasonally directed activity, too. Celebrating each season with special, but simple, decorative nuances can work wonders for the house as well as those who live within its walls. Summer’s red, white and blue are replaced by fall’s gold, orange and brown. Those give way to the red and green of the Christmas season. Bring a little spring, yellow, pink and lavender, into the picture when those last vestiges of winter refuse to release their hold on the weather. Don’t wait until Easter to do it. Making home decorating a year-round avocation can be easy and fun using different wall hangings and ‘knick-knacks’ that change with each season, and it is one of the least expensive ways to achieve a year-round sense of “newness” in the overall décor.