Won’t spring just get here already? Use your green thumb and love of all things gardening to inspire your home decor. We spend time making outdoor spaces seem more like indoor spaces, but you can also bring the things you love most about your garden indoors, to enrich your home. You can use items from your garden, found at yard sales, reclaimed items, or incorporate colors and patterns inspired by your favorite outdoor spaces.
A table for the birds – Turn a decorative, inexpensive bird bath into a practical conversation piece. Place the birdbath in a corner of a bedroom, living room, den or office.
1. Fill the interior space where water would normally go with a variety of items. Use polished or collected rocks, shells or glass marbles as the first layer. Add any related items that you to display. Consider packets of heirloom seeds, antique gardening tools, vintage postcards, or photos of your best gardening moments.
2. Top with a round, glass tabletop. If you’re not worried about kids or active, jumping pets, it’s okay if the glass tabletop (which you can find at Walmart) extends slightly past the edges of the birdbath.
3. Finish the table with a small lamp, a vase or a display of miniature watering cans.
Seed packet collage
Seed packets are so colorful and sometimes whimsical that they make great art on their own. Arrange empty packets by color or another pattern inside a picture frame. Hang a series of these collages together for maximum impact.
From nature comes art – You may have a small collecting problem. Do you collect dried flowers, herbs and interesting leaves? There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem comes when you press them and they remain flat and unseen between the pages of a book. Why not display these finds in a creative way?
1. Repurpose a foam tray that was used to package vegetables. If you don’t have any of these, a wooden tray from the craft store or a piece of found wood will work.
2. Paint the tray or wood with interior latex paint. Perhaps you have a can in your garage from your last decorating project. If you want your art to have a naturally aged look, apply crackle medium (in a spray can at the hardware store or in brush-on form at the crafts store) on top of the paint.
3. Arrange your pressed herbs, flowers and leaves into a pattern or the shape of an insect, like a butterfly. Use glue to attach the pieces once you finalize the design.