I love to decorate in holiday style at my house.
I get over the same look from January to December. Here are some easy swaps to brighten up your house with some seasonal colors.
Swapping Out Seasonal Home Decor
“Fluffing the house” (aka changing up the seasonal home decor) is one of my favorite ways to cause my own plot twist in my life!
We all need a little positive zap here and there for inspiration, to avoid boredom, and/or to just have some flat-out-fun with our surroundings! There can be a new theme seasonally, monthly, or however often we want.
Sometimes it just takes a new pillow we spotted at HomeGoods that makes us smile and gives that “fluff the house” plot twist all by itself.
When someone mentions a holiday coming around the corner I find myself excited and thinking of how I visualize my house. I start the hunt for goodies to delight myself and friends/family who visit.
I jump on Amazon to browse the fun seasonal home decor options and view them all together in my cart, yes please!
HomeGoods trip for inspiration and uniqueness, Amen!
With themes, comes colors. I love to color coordinate my house for holiday themes. I have noticed a habit of mine overtime has become to use certain item categories regularly to swap up the decor.
These are items I have a plethora of around the house and can swap them out based on the color statement I am going with at the time. They help to carry the theme throughout a room, utilize great pieces I already have, and complement the new fun theme I’m celebrating.
Here are 5 of my favorites to swap out seasonally:
- Candles
- Books
- Photos frames
- Pillows
- Cards
Swap Out Candles:
We all have these around the house, right?
They were given as gifts, send a happy whiff to keep the odor nice in the house, or just look calming on tables.
I have a whole drawer full. An array of colors just in the candle department. Different shapes, sizes, and textures. They are perfect!
For example, Easter (or April)- if I am in the gold, green, and yellow color mode for this year I pull out all coordinating candles with those colors and play with them in different spots in my living room.
Swap Out Books:
I absolutely love having additional uses for books than to just read them.
I use to read them and let them go, because too many books equals cramped space and way too cluttery. A hundred books on a single bookshelf can be a bit heavy looking in a room.
Now, I swap them out with my seasonal decor!
Plus, they are full of knowledge and inspiration- a big indicator of what we are interested in and enjoy. So, show them off! They were made to stand out- the authors and illustrators dedicated a lot of time to making it “grabbable”.
Get your money’s worth and have some decorative fun with them too! It’s a plot twist.
I utilize books in different rooms for display. In small sets. Stacked on top of each other or side by side. For example, for my gold, green and yellow April theme I go around my house and swap out all the gold, green, and yellow books, as well as other books that pop out to me as potential to match well with my current vision.
Stack of books on the coffee table, a few on the entry table, wherever inspires a little extra color to keep the theme flowing through the main rooms of my living space.
A collection of books I have happened upon overtime I love to use as display, as well as be inspired by regularly, is the Number Books by Dan Zadra.
What an awesome concept!
Each book is full of spots for you to jot down ideas and aspirations. They have such a great purpose when indulging in them, but also have a chic and welcoming appearance to them. Perfect coffee table book!
I have 3 of them: the green one, the red one, the yellow one, and the blue one.
I like having the green book (The 7 Book: How Many Days of the Week can be Extraordinary?) out and about for March, April, and October, and December.
The blue book (The 1 Book: How Many People Does it Take to Make a Difference?) I typically bring out in April, May, June, and July.
The red book (The 5 Book: Where Will You be 5 Years from Today?), now updated to be a sharp black and white look, is great to coordinate with reds. Now, with the new look, it has even more options to combine with colors when swapping out seasonal home decor. I had a black, white and red theme for February (Love Month) this year and it would have looked awesome and fit right in.
I like the yellow book (The 10 Book: What’s on Your Top 10 List?) for spring months, but it also mixes in real well with gold and cream decor.
These books make fabulous gifts as well- just one or a few together as a sweet set!
Swap Out Photo Frames:
Believe it or not, photo frames make awesome seasonal home decor plot twists!
You just don’t expect them to make much of a difference, but they absolutely can. We switch out photos in the living room as children age and new family photo events happen, right?
Why not swap out the frames too?
For example, In my collection of frames I happen to have acquired over the years (including inspiring trips to HomeGoods), I can acknowledge that I have multiple gold frames, silver frames, wood frames, black frames, and a few white frames.
These are just like “basics” or “staple” colors and items in your wardrobe. You can mix and match them throughout the year- they are “evergreen”!
Swap those frames out based on what color theme you are inspired by in the moment, not just keep the same photo and same frame out all year because it’s a photo of Grandma. She would love a new frame for her beaming face or a new room to be wowed by once in a while.
It doesn’t have to be like our parents generation where they had 5 old fashioned silver picture frames for your entire childhood that sat in the same spot with the same photo for decades.
Have some fun with them! Fluff the house!
For my gold, green and yellow Easter/April theme, I lay out all the gold frames to see what textures and shapes stand out to me and display them in different spots. A few paired together, one solo, etc.
Colorful frames sprinkled in your collection, too? What a bonus- find fun spots and different times of the year to have them out to smile at.
I have a glass green frame I adore from a girlfriend that I love to use in November, December, March, and April! It stays fresh to me. It just gets a new “outfit” or setting to coordinate with each time 🙂
Feeling like all your frames look the same right now? Get yourself a nice set that will be fun to swap up throughout the seasons.
I like these LaVie Home 4×6 Picture Frames on Amazon, because they give distinct colors that can add style as well as variety. Modern to vintage looks. Check them out!
An additional “fluff the house” habit I use with the frames is to go ahead and swap the pictures in it too.
It can bring even more connection with the holiday/season I am in. If I have one that works and makes me smile for the holiday, I use it.
For example, for Easter this year I brought out spring photos of my nieces from last year that made me smile real big.
In December, I go through my photo albums and pull out winters pictures with friends and family that bring back sweet memories. They’ve been in a book all year that I’ve barely looked at.
Not only does this add to the seasonal theme I’m celebrating, but also has me enjoying those photos much, much more often!
Swap Out Cards:
When I say cards I mean greeting cards!
You know those birthday, Easter, Valentine, Christmas, and just because cards you have received over the years?
Maybe you’ve been holding onto them and cherishing them your whole life…or perhaps a habit is about to develop.
I absolutely love receiving, saving, using, and delighting in sweet cards given to me. Because a gift is exactly what the card is. Someone picked out the perfect card just for me and I want to cherish that.
Plus, they are full of colors and fit right in with seasonal themes.
I display greeting cards on a wall, put a couple together on a table, or spread them out around the room on different surfaces. These are sweet reminders of thoughtful people in your life and that you are very loved.
Especially birthday month! I’ll bring all my favorite birthday cards out (or pick a birthday theme and go with that mode) to remind myself how much I am adored by the “rays of sunshine” people in my life and celebrate with a rainbow of colors!
Christmas cards . . . I don’t know about you but I have so many of them!!! Whatever color mode I am feeling that year, whether red and gold or red and green or just use one color to focus on with the cards, I can pull those out and use them as seasonal home decor.
I really like the look of colorful cards hanging in a stylish way on the wall as one option for using greeting cards as decor.
For the past few years I have used this copper chain that uses magnets to hold a bunch of cards. It can be easily hung vertically or horizontally. I’ve even draped it over the front of a large mirror, like a decorative banner.
I love being able to change it up how I like depending on the season and mode I am in.It comes in either copper or silver.
Another great option that has really caught my eye is this Olakee Multi-picture/card collage display on Amazon .
I can see it having a home on my living room wall like art, and the colors changing with the cards every season. Pictures, postcards and holiday cards clip on smoothly and look nice spaced out. It comes in 3 different colored wood choices.
It could easily be transferred from one room to another, as well as used for holiday decor for years, and then maybe switch it up and use it for children’s art or as an organized display in my home office.
I have a couple people in mind that would love this as a gift for their home too because it is so versatile!
Swap Out Pillows and Throw Blankets:
Typically we have very neutral couches. I do.
So, that’s perfect for swapping up the theme. I cause a fun little “plot twist” on my couch all the time with a new pillow that makes me smile or a cozy RAE DUNN blanket that caught my eye!
One pillow or a throw blanket draped over the corner of the couch or chair in the living room can keep the colors popping throughout the main rooms.
Pillows and blankets can take up a bit of room and space in the linen closet, it’s true. I keep an underbed zip-up bag for comforters for my seasonal pillows and swap them out.
What’s also nice is that you can choose ones that can be used for more than one holiday.
For example, March, April and December can all use greens. Or December, February, and summer can be great for reds. Orange, golds and browns in October and December.
Have a Strategy for Swapping Out Seasonal Decor:
When I excitedly shop for seasonal house decor at HomeGoods and Amazon, I keep in mind the different purposes and times of year I could use this item, as well as the storage space I have.
I love versatility and multiple occasions for the same item.
That’s another reason why candles, books, photo frames, and pillows and throws are great pieces to reuse and swap out. They don’t expire after a special celebration day.
What’s also nice is maybe I love this Easter bunny gnome, for instance, that I spotted at HomeGoods and then Easter weekend ends . . . and after a while I’m ready to put him to rest til next year. But, it’s still April and the next season theme is still a bit away. Well, I take him out and maintain the color theme I’m still in the mode for.
Taking the actual holiday decor out if you’re over it after the day of celebration and keeping an overall color theme is perfectly great. It’s your house!
Swap an item out each week if you want.
For example, for the last week of April this year I put all the bunnies and carrots displayed on tables away and left my golds, greens and yellows out and about to keep the spring theme going. Loved it!
Now you have a few great tricks up your sleeve for “fluffing up the house” for holidays or whenever you are feeling a new color.
Imagine, you could live in the same house for 5+ years and never realize a certain item you always had in one room could also have looked amazing and “fluffed up” another room.
Give it a plot twist and swap the location for a bit and see if it brings you delight!
Be sure to check out my other Fluff the House ideas and Habit Heroes for more inspiration.