Spring Has Sprung
Easter is the perfect time to refresh the home with spring shades and lighter fabrics. Swap out winter’s cozy knit pillows for silk and cotton ones in sunny yellow, pale blue and light green. Floral patterns add an instant lift, especially when complemented by bouquets of fresh tulips or fragrant hyacinth. As windows open to warm spring breezes, it’s time to take down the velvety drapes that felt so cozy in winter. Linen sheers and light-toned curtain panels refresh rooms for spring while setting the stage for exuberant Easter decorations.
Easter Egg Decorations
Whether they’re on display, nestled in a basket or the subject of an early morning hunt, decorated eggs are an essential part of Easter. Easter egg decorations can be a dozen eggs dyed with food coloring or an arty DIY project involving glue guns and gold leaf. Here are a few decorating ideas that can help you transform the everyday egg into a seasonal symbol of new life.
Egg Prep. Before you begin decorating, decide whether you want to use hard-boiled eggs or hollowed-out eggshells. Cooked eggs are best displayed as part of the holiday meal and can safely sit out for up to two hours. Properly prepared, a blown egg can last from season to season. To remove the contents from the shell, create a hole at either end of an uncooked egg, insert a sewing needle into one of the holes and wiggle it around to widen the hole and loosen the yoke and membranes. Give the egg a good shake to break up the insides even more, then proceed to blow on one hole to force the contents out of the egg. Rinse and dry before decorating.
Homemade Vegetable Dyes. Supermarket egg dyeing kits make coloring eggs a breeze, but for more natural shades, check your produce drawer. Vegetables, spices and fruits make a range of organic hues. To create dyes, boil two cups of water per color, add the coloring agent and simmer 30 minutes or until the color deepens to your liking. Cool, add two tablespoons of white vinegar and steep eggs until they reach the desired color. Experiment with what you have available or try the following for a beautiful palette of earthy shades: beets for reddish purple, onion skins for golden brown, ground turmeric for yellow, red cabbage for light blue, blueberry juice for dark blue and undiluted coffee for brown.
Faux Bird Eggs. Use red cabbage according to the instructions above to dye eggs the beautiful blue of robin eggs. To get the eggs’ characteristic speckle, dip an old toothbrush or bristle brush into brown ink or paint. Run your finger along the bristles or use a sharp flick of the wrist to shower the colored egg with tiny droplets.
Patterned eggs. To create multicolor patterns, first dye an egg in a base color. Once eggs are dry, use rubber cement to create abstract squiggles, zigzags or a monogram letter. When glue is dry, dip the egg in another color and remove the rubber cement after the egg has dried to reveal the underlying color. For the most impact, choose a lighter color as your base dye and a contrasting shade for the second coat. For a plaid pattern, follow the same procedure but use thick and thin rubber bands placed vertically and horizontally instead of rubber cement.
An Easter Egg Tree
What to do with all your decorated eggs? Hang them on a faux tree. The custom of decorating tree branches with eggs or other ornaments during Eastertide began in northern Europe. Known as Osetereierbaum in Germany, the tradition often includes decorating live trees or bushes as well as a cut-branch displayed indoors. The Swedish version of the indoor tree is called Påskris and takes a different turn with real and cut-paper feather decorations. Use these Easter tree ideas to make a tree to fit your decor.
Choosing the Right Branch. Forage in your backyard for a tree branch that will fit your vase or container and has a graceful shape with lots of sturdy shoots for hanging. For rangy branches make sure the vase is tall enough to balance the weight or fill with some small stones as a counterweight. Don’t worry if the branch is not symmetrical, as asymmetry can create a sense of drama. For a sunny look, spray paint the branch white or pastel yellow. Consider using forced forsythia or quince branches to enhance the decorative scheme with naturally colorful blooms.
Adding on Eggs. Blown-out eggs are best for hanging as they are lightweight, and ribbons can be thread through the open holes with a sewing needle. For an eclectic look, hang a combination of solid, patterned and painted eggs. If you plan on keeping your decorated eggs for next year, choose your favorite and use a marker to note the year on the shell to start a tradition of growing your collection from year to year. A more glamorous Easter tree calls for eggs decorated with glitter or sheets of metallic leaf in gold, silver and copper. If your taste runs to more rustic Easter decorations, leave the branch unpainted, hang vegetable-dyed eggs with raffia and wrap the vase in burlap and twine. No time for decorating eggs? No worries. Hot glue jellybeans onto a branch for colorful “buds.”
More Easter Decoration Ideas for the Home
Let Easter’s colorful eggs, playful bunnies and sunny flowers spark your imagination for a home full of whimsy and springtime cheer.
First impressions. Liven up your curb appeal with Easter porch and door decorations. Stock up on pots of flowering tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and muscari at your local nursery or grocery store. Pop each kind of flower in its own planter and scatter on the front porch, or gather them together in a large wicker Easter basket as a springtime bouquet. For a gravity-defying Easter display, wind colorful ribbons or paper garlands around helium-filled balloons, and tie the anchored bunch to the handle of a willow basket or large watering can. It’s easy to transform a natural or faux flower wreath into an Easter showstopper. Simply use a hot glue gun to affix paper, plastic or blown-out eggs, or bird and rabbit figurines to a wicker wreath form or faux forsythia wreath. Get crafty and create a rabbit wreath by connecting two different-sized wreath forms end to end, spray paint white and attach two wired-felt ears to the top and a large white pom-pom tail to the bottom.
Mantel magic. If your living room has a fireplace, use this natural focal point to showcase Easter mantel decor. Line up egg cups filled with votive candles, dyed eggs or foil-wrapped chocolate eggs. Or, swag a charming bunny garland made with a bunny template traced on colored or patterned paper. Once cut out, the paper bunnies each get a cotton ball tail before being strung on baker’s twine. Create a striking Easter-themed topiary by gluing Spanish moss onto a Styrofoam cone. Glue on speckled robin egg candies before “potting” in a footed vase or small urn.
Easter Table Decor
Like any holiday, Easter culminates with a festive meal. Set the tone for a buffet brunch or sit-down supper with Easter table decor that celebrates spring and Easter traditions.
Showpiece Centerpieces. Let spring’s unfolding show of new shoots and flowering buds shape your Easter centerpiece ideas. Create a fragrant spring tabletop garden by packing a brightly glazed planter with miniature daffodils, hyacinth, johnnie-jump-ups and primrose. Add ivy for a verdant spill and spikes of pussy willow for height and texture. To craft your own Easter basket planter, cover a blown-up balloon (an oblong shape is best) with papier-mâché. Prick the balloon once the covering is dry and use a craft knife to carve out the basket’s handle and contours before painting. Cracked eggshells make delightful planters for small cuttings of coleus, seedlings or succulents. Use a paring knife to tap around the shell of an uncooked egg, carefully remove the cap and empty the contents to save in the fridge for the next day’s breakfast. Create a drainage hole with a skewer and let the hollowed-out egg dry before dyeing if desired. Ease roots and a bit of soil into the shell and display in an egg carton or nestle in a bed of moss in a bowl.
The Perfect Place. Easter table settings bring your overall theme up close and personal. For a garden-inspired table, find floral dinnerware to layer with solid serving pieces for place settings with loads of charm. If you’re not using egg cups to serve up jammy soft-boiled eggs for brunch, fill them with small flower heads or jellybeans alongside each table setting. Use a clear glass cloche to surround a whimsical Easter tableau: a colony of buri-crafted bunnies, a terrarium of potted pansies, or a willow nest filled with dyed eggs and a bird made of pompoms.
Ringing Endorsement. Set off pristine white porcelain dinnerware and crisp linen napkins with a napkin ring made of real flowers. Trim pansy, lily of the valley and other spring stems to two inches and secure to a wire ring with floral tape, keeping one half undecorated so the ring lies flat on the plate. For a place card that doubles as a napkin holder, cut slits into either end of a card. Slip a pretty ribbon through the slits to form a loop in the back. Place a napkin through the loop and tighten by drawing ribbons further through the slits.
Napkin Art. Use crisply starched square napkins to fold shapes that add whimsy to the Easter repast. Find directions online to fold napkins into bunny ears or baskets. You can even create a carrot cutlery pocket out of orange and green paper napkins. Create a cone with the orange napkin and insert cutlery that’s been bundled in an unfolded green napkin. Fluff the green ends to create the look of carrot tops.
Met with spring’s display of flowering trees and budding blooms, Easter lets us share with friends and family our delight in renewal and whimsy. Whether you let vases of fresh flowers set the stage or indulge in handcrafted projects to decorate your home, let us see how you celebrate Easter by sharing photographs with the hashtag #CrateStyle.
