How to Use Vintage Garden Decor Ideas Indoors

Ready to bring the outdoors in for some simple spring decor? Try these vintage garden decor ideas for casual, easy, inviting home decorating! Keep reading to see how I use some outdoor vintage and thrifted pieces to bring that cottage garden style into my spring home decor!

Spring decorating is so much fun and there are SO many beautiful ways to decorate. Once Easter is over, one of my favorite ways to bring a simple, spring style into our home is to use vintage garden decor. Vintage garden decor can add such a pretty cottage look to your spring home decor and at the same time, help bring the outdoors in during this beautiful time of year!

I am often asked how to decorate for spring once the Easter holiday is over. Since there is still a lot of the spring season left for decorating once Easter is over, I love this question!

This year, I am just loving the earthy colors, neutral tones, and touches of terra cotta. These elements lend themselves perfectly to vintage garden decor ideas so I am having a lot of fun decorating our home for this later spring style.

However, there are a lot of great ways to decorate for spring. Here are some other favorite spring styles:

How can I style my house in the spring?

These are just a few ideas that I have used in the past and still love:

Vintage garden style
Audubon decor
Pops of color with flowers
Soft blues and greens with plants
Light, airy style with neutrals

How do you style vintage decor?

I decided to pull on the earthy, terra cotta touches and a little bit of a vintage cottage garden style for my spring decor. Here are some of the main elements I am trying to carry through in each space:

Terra cotta pots and saucers
Neutral textures for fabrics (pillows and throw blankets)
Glass cloches
Greenery with moss and plants
White stoneware
Baskets and woven texture
Concrete garden figures
Framed botanical prints

How to Use Vintage Garden Decor Ideas Indoors

What is a rustic garden style?

A rustic, or vintage, garden style can take on many different elements. You may choose to focus on chippy woods, potting benches, old pots, and wildflowers. However, a vintage garden style could also have a more European style with garden statues, topiaries, and clean lines. Of course, these are just two of many different styles.

Living in South Florida, actual gardening requires a lot more time, patience, and dedication than I am able to give it. So even though we don’t have an actual garden outdoors, I love to bring some elements of a vintage garden style into my spring decorating!

Let’s chat about a few ways to bring this fun vintage garden decor style inside to decorate for spring!

Ideas to Decorate with Vintage Garden Decor: #1

Incorporate terra cotta pots and saucers throughout your vignettes.

One of the easiest ways to bring that vintage garden decor style indoors is by using things that you would actually use in a garden, such as pots and planters. I love the earthy color of the terra cotta pots. Actually, they remind me so much of the gorgeous rock formations we saw at Arches National Park on family vacation one year!

Whether large or small, you can incorporate old terra cotta pots into your decor in many different ways. If you are working with new terra cotta pots and want that old look, just use some lime wash or even whitewash a little paint onto the new pots. Of course, rubbing in a little dirt will add to the patina too!

Here are a few ways I’m using them in my vintage garden decor:

Stack them in varying heights
Lay some down in a vignette
Use saucers under other decor, such as a bowl, pitcher, or candle
Actually put plants in them (of course)
Pile them in a big bowl

You can see how I made a whole centerpiece using some of my favorite thrifted terra cotta pots over on THIS POST!

Ideas to Decorate with Vintage Garden Decor: #2

Add a lot of texture with textiles.

One thing that I always love to look at in a garden are the many, many different textures and layers. Even though I obviously want the interior of my home to be soft and cozy, I still love the concept of the textures and layers, drawing inspiration from the outdoors.

However, I can still make inside my home super cozy while drawing inspiration from the textures, layers, and earthy tones from outside too. One way to accomplish this is by incorporating neutral textiles that have a lot of texture.

Some people may say that neutrals aren’t as cozy. However, I think that when neutrals are done well and use a lot of texture, they can be the most restful, calm, and cozy spaces of all!

Pro Tip: Add throw pillows and throw blankets that have a lot of texture, such as tassels, fringe, raised texture on the fabric, mix of kinds of fabrics and a mix of neutral tones.

Just like all of the neutral colors in stone are not exactly the same color, you can get a more textured look by adding a variety of neutral tones. White, cream, ivory, light beige, and light tan are all really close, but mixed together, add a lot of depth and interest to your sofa and living space!

Here are some favorite textured neutral styles I’m enjoying this year:

Ideas to Decorate with Vintage Garden Decor: #3

Style vignettes with glass cloches

I know, I know. Decorating with glass cloches is something I do all year round, not just for vintage garden decor. However, glass cloches actually originated in Europe for gardening. So….doesn’t that make them perfect for our cottage style vintage decorating in the spring?!

You can put almost anything under a glass cloche to turn it into a statement piece or feature a collection. Over on THIS POST, I chat about over 21 ways to decorate with glass cloches!

For spring, specifically, I am enjoying using my glass cloches for a touch of vintage garden decor style.

Here are some ways I’m decorating with glass cloches this spring:

paired with architectural salvage
over a faux plant
featuring a collection of white stoneware mortar and pestles
over a vignette of terra cotta pots and saucers
turning a small vintage clock into a statement piece

There are SO many more ways that I love to use glass cloches in spring decorating. However, you can see a few examples of what I have out in my home:

Ideas to Decorate with Vintage Garden Decor: #4

Add greenery through moss and fresh or faux plants.

Even though I do love flowers, I find that I often gravitate toward greenery most of all. Whether fresh or faux, greenery adds so much life and movement to a space. At the same time, wispy vines and organic shapes soften the often straight lines of a room and furniture.

In fact, you really won’t find a space in our home where I don’t have some kind of plant or greenery in the room, including the bathrooms!

However, if you want a more clean, simple style, consider bringing in a simple plant and then adding some live moss through the room. You can layer the moss on fresh or faux plants or even just in a pretty bowl for a centerpiece.

Pro Tip: Layer moss over fresh and faux plants to cover the plastic lining. This is a budget-friendly way to get a high-end look!

Here are some of my favorite kinds of greenery to use:

These realistic greenery branches
Real touch eucalyptus stems
Realistic thyme topiary
Favorite gypsophila tree
Artificial small fern in concrete pot

Ideas to Decorate with Vintage Garden Decor: #5

Mix some white stoneware with the terra cotta.

There is nothing about this idea that is actually specific to vintage garden decor. However, I love the clean lines and vintage style of stoneware mixed in with the terra cotta pots and saucers. The white and light colors help to brighten up the over all look and connect with the neutral tones in the textiles too.

Thrift stores, flea markets, antique malls, and vintage shops are great places to look for white/light-colored stoneware. Even though most of mine is vintage, there are also beautiful new pieces that can offer the same aesthetic too. Really, you’re just looking to incorporate a curated, collected look with these vessels while brightening up and breaking up all of the earthy terra cotta tones.

Pro Tip: group pieces together to create collections for a great vintage style.

Here are some pretty white pieces you can use to mix with terra cotta:

Shop these favorite vintage garden decor style accessories:

Wicker cloches
Rresh moss
Realistic greenery branches
Mini terra cotta pots with saucers
Glass cloche with wooden base
Large European-style wooden trencher (add a fresh fern to this for a quick and easy centerpiece!)
Straw hats
Realistic thyme topiary
Cute gardening tools
Irregular wooden riser
Stoneware watering pitcher
Large wooden bowl
Footed metal pedestal bowl for an indoor garden
Pretty gardening apron (use in the kitchen too!)
Large, textured, white terra cotta pot
Small outdoor planter–use indoors with a fresh or faux plant
Extra-large 16″ glass cloche with bell jar top
Hanging wood slice tray- so cute with plants!
Vintage-style French market basket- hang from a cute hook or on the corner of a chair (and actually use it too!)
Framed botanical prints, vintage style
Inexpensive wall art for a gallery style wall

Are you inspired to add some vintage garden decor to your interior?

I always like to add a reminder that just because you see a home decor blogger (me!) rearranging and restyling several rooms for the late spring season, you do not have to do that much in order to add a fresh look to your space.

In fact, you could create a fresh look in your dining room by simply creating a new centerpiece with a vintage garden decor look. Perhaps you want a little tweak in the living room. Use this vintage garden inspiration to create a new vignette for your coffee table!

One of the biggest compliments to me, personally, is when my readers take a simple idea that inspires them, have fun with it, and create their own unique look.

I hope you’ll enjoy creating your own centerpiece, tablescape, mantel decor, or vignette to add a little vintage garden decor to your home this spring too!