In Between Decor

We are the rare people who like winter.  Well, I lurve winter.  Everything looks more beautiful with an inch of snow resting on it in my eyes.  But there's that in-between time from Christmas to spring, and when we came back from Vermont the first week of January, our neighbor already had her tulip wreath up.

Uh...no.  It's January, we are 3 weeks into winter no matter how many tulips you plaster on your door.  It's a common thing though because most people including myself don't really have winter decor that isn't Christmas related.  So I started perusing "after Christmas winter decor" to see if I could get inspiration from blogs and online magazines and I did.  It was more about textures, shopping in your own home to look at something in a different way and keeping some things that you may have had out at Christmas but still take you into winter.  One of the things I really liked was the use of lamb's ear in a lot of vignettes.  It has almost a frosted look that is perfect for winter but can easily mesh into spring.  The lamb's ear is the only thing I bought.  I found a garland of it at Hobby Lobby for 50% off, so it was $10.

I left my mantel pretty much the same, but in the space where the Christmas candle and poinsettia ring were in the middle, I snipped off an appropriate length of lambs ear.

I also snipped off a few to tuck in between a cottage votive holder I have on the TV armoire just for a soft look with the pine cones.  

(Our votives are Luminara so they won't catch the foliage on fire.  Best investment ever.)

The most fun I had was "shopping" in the house.  I actually saved a few items straight out of the donate bin once I had the inspiration to look at them differently.  

Top shelf:  The seagrass basket was a 2 tiered clearance steal ($15 from $40) from Sur La Table for the Mr's 40th birthday party.  I took out the middle bracket to make it flat, took some of our crispy greens from the kitchen pass thru, and put a huge sugar pine cone in the middle and some fairy lights.  The candle isn't usually there.

Middle shelf:  I had grand ideas for that cupboard door from an antique shop, but it never came to fruition.  Just as I was ready to part with it, I thought it could give some nice interest to the shelf for other things to sit in front of it.  The seltzer bottle is from an antique shop in Patchogue NY from our trip to the Hamptons.  Beside it is a maple syrup tap from Montpelier VT the first time we went there.   I printed a picture of our last sledding session in VT on the big hill with nothing but our two tracks on it, and it's the Mr's favorite thing up there.  I put some lamb's ear beside it and used a slab of birch we had in the garage from our Charlie Brown tree from Detroit's Eastern Market the year before to elevate the clock.  (I put a few sprigs of boxwood and baby pine cones in front of it.)  Beside it is a hedgehog we already had.

Bottom Shelf:  The sewing box is always there as our "junk drawer" for keys and such and the lantern is always there too.  I saved the shutter from being donated and just flipped it on its side when it was just shy of fitting the normal way.  In front of it is lamb's ear, a French tin I bought from an antique shop in Calistoga, CA on a trip to wine country (the non-drinkers raid the antique stores!)  On top of the tin is a silver-ish cardinal I got a few years ago that I took out of the bedroom.   Yes, it's a hodgepodge of things, but I think it works and makes it feel winter cozy in the house.  It makes me happy to not have spring stuff while the snow is still flying.

I still have our vintage ski's on the wall with two winter prints between it and a picture of Stowe, VT I took that I had mounted on canvas.  I still have up the wooden Pottery Barn tree shelf that I had up for the holidays but just took the Christmas decorations off of the hooks and use it for keys now.  So it still feels very cozy to me in the house.

Come this time next month, I will likely be ready to decorate for Spring like the calendar dictates but not before.  I've been all about hygge my whole life and didn't even know it with the hot chocolate/hot tea, fuzzy socks, blankie, fireplace blazing, snuggling up watching movies and all that jazz.  Now I finally feel like I have some post-holiday decor to help me feel it even more!

Do you transition straight from Christmas decoration to spring, winter decor, or something neutral?

====================
Like this post? Don't miss another one...subscribe via email or RSS feed. (Or you can follow me on Facebook )  This post contains an affiliate link which helps keep this blog running.  See the Disclaimer page for more info.