Even just a decade ago, ‘seasonal decor’ referred to a once-yearly Christmas tree. It was cute, functional, and, for the most part, it didn’t overly impact your home or life.
Jump forward to the current day, and seasonal decor means something completely different. Now, this is a year-round focus for many homeowners, and applies to pretty much every season you can imagine.
From spring decor to autumn additions, this renewed seasonal focus can be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it can also leave your home looking less than its best if you make certain key mistakes. We’re going to help you avoid that by considering what those mistakes entail and how you can steer your seasonal decor in a different direction.
Mistake # 1 – Falling for Gimmicks
The rising popularity of seasonal decor means that there are now endless interior additions on the shelves year-round. From cute china pumpkins to chick ornaments in spring, these things are designed to appeal to our seasonal memories. Unfortunately, the gimmicky nature of many of these additions means that they aren’t always best for our homes.
While a chick ornament is undeniably cute, it doesn’t necessarily deserve a place in your home. Nor do you need that sizable china pumpkin by your door, especially if having those things means rearranging or inconveniencing your home in other ways. Seasonal wall hangings or trims can be especially bad in this sense, as they often require hooks or other attachments that you’re then stuck with all year round.
It’s far better to seek seasonal home additions that serve a practical purpose. For instance, seasonal lighting outside in the winter is both festive and useful for those darker evenings. Remember that you also don’t need to incorporate directly seasonal stuff to benefit here. More subtle options can also work well, such as earthy coloured candles or natural woody ornaments that aren’t openly ‘autumn themed’.
Mistake # 2 – Too Much of a Good Thing
Whether your seasonal decor is practical or more on the gimmicky side, you’ll struggle to pull this look off if you inject too much of a good thing. After all, while we all love a little seasonal fun, you are still trying to manage a serious home! Large hangings over your door, or shelves filled solely with seasonal stuff, isn’t the best look from a more general interior styling standpoint. It’s even difficult to get away with these things at Christmas!
The problem of too much is especially prevalent if you have lots of seasonal decor in one place. The inevitable overwhelm this can create is sure to get decoratively sickly once the season is in full swing!
Instead, it’s worth going for more minimalist seasonal nods. External additions are especially effective for this, as they’re not inside your home itself. Options like outdoor string lights and a wreath simply add to your home’s curb appeal without harming your interiors.
If you do want to take your seasonal efforts indoors, remember that less is always more. Instead of having huge piles of seasonal overload, sprinkle these additions subtly throughout each room to make things feel far more natural and well integrated with the rest of your decor.
Mistake # 3 – Clashing With Your Actual Interiors
Speaking of the rest of your decor, you also want to make sure that seasonal items never directly clash with your actual home styling. This may seem like a basic point, but it’s surprising how many of us fall in love with cute seasonal additions before things like colour scheme and general style considerations come into play.
To avoid this, it’s best to ask yourself the following key questions for every seasonal purchase you consider –
- Does it match your colour scheme?
- Is there a natural place for it on your shelves?
- Will it throw off the balance of your existing decor?
- Is it something you can imagine in your home?
This simple checklist will help you to really picture those items in your home. Sometimes, you may find that the style stars align, and a seasonal piece is just right to fit with your interiors. Other times, you may find that thinking about a purchase practically in this way highlights just how ill-fitted it is for your space.
Mistake # 4 – Not Thinking About Where You’ll Store it All
We all have cupboards or attics of storage shame, and guess what often fills them – seasonal decor! This has always been the case for those awkward Christmas tree boxes, but as seasonal decor demand becomes more generalised, homeowners are increasingly cluttering their homes for this reason. And that’s got to be bad news for our interiors in general.
The best way around this problem is, of course, to simply buy fewer seasonal additions each time, which fits with the benefits of subtlety that we’ve already covered. It’s also important to think about the practicalities of storing these items. For instance, ornaments may need large amounts of padding for protection, while lights require proper winding and a box to keep them safe. All of which is going to take up more room than the tiny corner of the cupboard that you might have had planned!
Unfortunately, with every season now warranting its own decor flurry, even minimising your collection might not solve your storage woes altogether. For that, you may want to consider an external storage unit. Taking the time to seek the best storage solution near you is always a great way to clear the belongings you don’t need all year long. While you will still want to be aware of the size of your seasonal decor collections, this is guaranteed to at least save your storage headaches and the unsightly impact they can have at home.
Conclusion
Seasonal decor is popular for a reason – it tends to look great across your interiors. But it’s also easy to get this focus wrong. That’s why you’ll want to make sure you’re always avoiding these four seasonal decor mistakes!