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Spring is here and I love a good season change, especially when it means warmer weather! If you’re looking for some quick, real-life, and budget friendly ways to refresh your home for spring, you’re in the right place!

In this post we’ll cover 5 easy spring decorating ideas for your family room so you can feel more grateful and love the space you’re in. We’ll start with family room ideas because if your house is anything like mine – the family room is where all the action happens! Plus, you can also use these spring decorating ideas for your living room too, or wherever your family gathers most often. Let’s dive in…

my favorite part about the spring decorating ideas in this post is that they are doable for ANY MOM! i didn’t buy anything new, i just rearranged things we already have, updated a couple pieces with spray paint, and added some simple spring decor i keep on hand in the basement. easy peasy.

as with all creative home posts here at notice the LITTLE things, the pictures in this post were taken with my iphone, on a regular tuesday. when i refresh decor for a new season, i like to do it room by room. it feels far less overwhelming that way. it also means all our other rooms are still probably messy, but that’s the way it goes with three kids!

our space is not fancy but like you, i want to walk in and feel like it looks, feels, and smells nice! it’s amazing what a quick spring home refresh can do to add to your gratitude and help you love the space you’re in! the following favorite simple decorating ideas for spring won’t take you a lot of time, or money, but their impact will be BIG!

as always, the first thing to do when you are decorating for a new season is a quick clean of that one room (much easier than the whole house). for me that meant decluttering toys, dusting shelves, clearing out our magazines, and running the vacuum.

here’s what our family room looked like before i started. not pictured – an overflowing toy bin, overflowing magazine/catch-all basket under the coffee table + TV console with cords that show and bother me every day.

and here’s what it looks like after the 5 easy spring decorating ideas! ready to get started on your own family room (or living room)?! here are my favorite…

5 Easy Spring Decorating Ideas for Your Family Room

1. Spring Decorating Ideas for Your Mantel

the focal point of our family room is our mantel, so that is usually where i start when it comes to a new season or room refresh. the good news is, even if you don’t have a fireplace mantel, most of these spring mantel decorating ideas will also work as decorating ideas for a large wall, or for smaller shelf decorating.

decorating our fireplace mantel for spring always involves some sort of greenery. i can’t think of anything that says spring more than new growth!!! i will say, i am TERRIBLE at keeping real plants alive so i usually opt for fake. i’ve gotten fake florals everywhere from the dollar store, to homegoods, to amazon, and ikea. for real flowers, i’ve found some great options at costco and i have a lot of friends who get theirs from trader joes.

either way, the key is to pair your spring greenery with a nicer looking container so the overall look comes together.

here on this side i have the two canisters plus the greenery again in a little group. over on the other side (and pictured above) i have the books, candle, and greenery grouped together.

finally, like shelves, when you decorate a mantel it is important to have things at different heights. for about a year, we just had our pictures on here. then i saw this “home” sign and decided it would be a good addition for some height. at christmas, i hung some garland above the home sign. today i was going to take down those hooks but then i remembered this other garland i had. i wish it was a little longer but it will do, especially because the texture matches the lamp that hangs over our kitchen table.

if you need to grab some greenery or a new vase to keep everything looking put together, you can find some of my favorites gathered HERE on amazon.*

the backdrop here on our mantel is always our diy fireplace mantel picture display. this is something i created years ago and now all i have to do is swap out the pictures as the kids get older. it was so super easy! the three main boards are just plywood painted with a sample paint color from the hardware store. i even talked the person at the hardware store into cutting it for me! the fourth board is a wooden fence-like piece i bought at michaels and also painted with a sample paint color i had left over from our walls.

the pictures are secured at each corner with a furniture tack, nailed in with a hammer. i printed the pictures at costco because they always have a variety of size options. that’s IT!

this family picture idea for your mantel is SUCH an easy backdrop for any seasonal mantel decor. check back next week and for a more detailed step-by-step post on how you can created this diy fireplace mantel family picture display for your family!

*note – in case you’re wondering, the fireplace cover we use is actually a pet gate! we don’t have any pets but when i saw it at homegoods, i knew it would match perfectly with our decor. our fireplace is beautiful in the winter. we have it on almost every day. but in the spring, i like to cover up the dark black color of the fireplace surround. this “pet gate” is perfect for that. now i see them all the time at homegoods in case you want to check them out for your home too!

2. Spring Decorating Ideas for Your Coffee Table

the next way you can bring in some spring to your family room decor is on your coffee table. whether your coffee table is hard like ours or more of a cushion, my favorite way to decorate a coffee table is by adding a tray (or if you’re fancy you can say vignette!).

my mother in law bought us this double decker tray for our back porch. when it got cold, i brought it in and now i don’t know what to do because i love it so much in here i don’t want to bring it back out! i’ve also used other trays on this coffee table through the years, some of which i bought in random colors and then spray painted.

you can see that in our family, coffee table tray decor is part functional, party pretty. trays are the perfect place to store remotes and magazines or small books. they are also the perfect place to add a candle, hold your pens, store a coaster for your coffee, or keep anything else your family likes to have on hand. coffee table trays can definitely work to contain your mess and decorate for spring!

for spring, i put a magazine with a spring cover on the top shelf (it’s a january edition but the flowers are bright and colorful!). i also added a favorite spring-smelling candle that also matches the navy we have in this room. on the bottom shelf i have some chatbooks with vacation pictures and also our remotes, a bunch of fake flowers, and a decorative twine ball. we had all of these things in other places in our home. i just gave them a new home for spring.

in addition to what you see here, our double decker tray has also been known to hold napkins, playing cards, sunglasses, and markers. i gathered some of my favorite tray finds on amazon right HERE.

another fun coffee table decorating idea is to add a runner. originally, i added this runner because over the past 2 years, my kids have gotten so many sharpie marker marks on this table! i blame COVID for all my “yeses” to sharpie markers.

Spring Coloring Pages

and speaking of saying yes to coloring which is our go-to activity around here…if you want to grab some of our favorite spring coloring pages + a free spring gratitude calendar for families click HERE!)

a few weeks ago, i actually refinished the top of the table so the sharpie is gone. FINALLY! but in the meantime, i fell in love with the runner! there are so many cute spring runners in stores right now for very inexpensive prices. you can also find a lot of cute ones on amazon. here are some of my FAVORITES!

to note…this coffee table was actually a wedding gift my parents received over 40 years ago! when i moved out, they gifted it to me. a few years ago i updated it with paint, stain, and a new top. if you want to learn how to paint or refinish your coffee table, you can read more about how i did that HERE. the tips in the post can be used on most any type of furniture so if updating your furniture is on your spring refresh list – i think you’ll be surprised to learn in the post that a DIY coffee table (or end table) refresh is easier than you might think and a great way to preserve meaningful history or save money!

3. Spring Decorating Ideas for Your Shelves

shelves are kind of difficult to style, aren’t they? the shelves we have in our family room are particularly tricky because they have varying heights and widths. because of that, the height of my decor is one of the things i focus on and also something that is very important when you think about how to style a shelf in general.

when i style a shelf for spring (or any season) i have three main goals:

include things on each shelf at different heights
layer items on each shelf (as opposed to just putting everything side by side)
stick to a simple color palate with a few pops of color along the way

How to Style a Shelf Like a Pro (for Spring!)

1. How to style a shelf like a pro – Include things on each shelf at different heights.

here in this pic you can see that at each level, i tried to have both tall and short decorations so that it isn’t straight shelves with straight decor. when things are at different heights, it keeps it interesting and can make your shelves look like they have more space than they actually do.

2. How to style a shelf like a pro – Layer items on each shelf instead of placing them side by side.

i learned this trick through trial and error. because these shelves are so small, it is almost impossible NOT to layer things. once i started doing it, i realized how much more professional the decorations looked! for spring, i like to layer greenery, spring scented candles, and different textures that make sense for sunnier days and warmer weather – smooth, glass, wicker, wood, and light-weight metal.

3. How to style a shelf like a pro – Stick to a simple color palate with a few pops of color along the way

this is probably the most obvious. if you are styling a shelf for spring, you want to use spring colors! for my regular decor, i almost always stick to aquas, grays, and navy and then for different seasons will add in a pop of a new color. for spring, the colors of the season actually kind of blend in with my typical color theme but that’s fine with me! and of course this time i mix and matched extra greenery (all still fake).

this time, since i was determined to only use things i already have, i actually ran out of things to place on the shelves. i had my meaningful picture (maps of florida and indiana), my baskets to coral and hid things (kids toys and games), my candle, various spring greenery, and my all time favorite for seasonal decor – my letter board! it is so easy to use a letter board to write seasonal messages and they are so cute too! look at this one with “grateful for spring!” adorable, right?! but after i added all my essentials, i needed a couple more things to fill the space and feel like spring.

i really liked the way the gold in the candle stood out so to fill the spaces, i decided to spray paint a candle holder and a cross i already had so that they would fit with my spring colors. can you spy them up on the shelves?? if you also run out of spring items for your shelves, i put together a few ideas for you right HERE (including my favorite gold spray paint!).* spray paint is my most favorite way EVER to update decor. my neighbors are always teasing me because i am constantly out in the yard spray painting something!

it is so budget friendly and it is nearly impossible to make a mistake with spray paint! i’ve spray painted so many things. so if you’re wondering, “can i spray paint that??” you can check out this post here on 5 easy things you can spray paint today!

4. Spring Decorating Ideas for Your Couch

never underestimate the power of a good pillow cover! pillows are probably the easiest way to add texture, color, and seasonal vibes with cute sayings and patterns. i have about 5 pillows that i constantly rotate on my couch and in front of our fireplace. all i do is swap out the covers! i do the same thing on our front porch.

to be fair, if pillows are on our couch my kids usually kick them off. so many many times, i place these in front of our fireplace cover so that they stay put. pillow covers are such a great way to decorate because they are so so inexpensive on amazon, plus you can just wash them if they get dirty.

right now i am just using two simple buffalo plaid pillows, and i also found a bunch of other ones i really like right HERE.* these match our curtains and our rugs in our entryway and kitchen. i also have our favorite pink blanket out. blankets are another super easy way to refresh a room for a new season! i made this blanket this year at my sisters’ baby shower. it really wasn’t that hard, just required time, so in a couple weeks i’ll try write up a quick tutorial or point you to the ones we used. i’m pretty sure i need to make one for every season because everyone in our family fights over this blanket!

*for inexpensive spring pillow covers and other fun favorite spring decor items on amazon click here.

5. Spring Decorating Ideas for Your Ambiance

so this idea isn’t exactly “decorating” but has more to do with the feel of your room for spring. the spring decorating ideas for your mantel, walls, shelves, and flat surfaces (like a coffee table) will help so much to bring the spring season inside. additionally, it never quite feels like a new season without a new scented candle.

my husband and i have a running debate about candles. he likes yankee. i like bath & body works (though admittedly they burn out quickly). i also love capri blue volcano candles. during COVID i decided that candles were the one thing i wasn’t going to feel bad about burning and buying over and over. the habit kind of stuck!

i am also a sucker for bath & body works plug in wallflowers. the new ones let you choose how strong you want the smell to be. right now i have “lavender vanilla” in and it is so calm and lovely for spring! i also have the capri blue volcano reed diffuser. similar to wallflowers, i don’t have to remember to light this (or blow it out!!) so even if i don’t have a spring candle lit, it still smells fresh!

it makes me really happy when someone walks in my house and says “oh it smells good.” it’s the perfect way to distract them from the mess!

another thing that ALWAYS helps is just opening the blinds, curtains, and windows if the weather is nice. it was actually cold on the day i did this decorating and i STILL opened the windows. i keep my curtains open with the cutest curtain cords (above)!

if you have been looking for something to help hold your curtains in place to let the light in, i highly recommend them! i found them on amazon and the best part is…they are magnets! so easy! here’s a LINK to the cords plus some of my other spring decorating favorites, including my favorite candle scents + wallflowers and a reed diffuser.*

One More Thing…

i have been SO SICK of looking at our DVD’s (yes, we still have dvd’s. i probably just need to get rid of them) and also the DVD player and other things that collect inside our TV stand. no matter what i do – baskets, bins, etc – they always still looked messy to me. so today during my spring refresh of our family room, i remembered about the wrapping paper i bought last week and wondered…could i use that to cover the glass?

i’ve been wanting to try sticky wallpaper but that wouldn’t work because the sticky is on the wrong side for it to work on this glass. wrapping paper was the perfect solution! it took less than 20 minutes. AND the paper happened to be perfect for spring so i definitely lucked out that i just grabbed it at homegoods.

i am telling you, it makes me so happy to look in this direction now with this pretty spring paper and no more DVD’s and cords staring me in the face! i can’t wait to hear if you have a reason to try this in your house!

alrighty friend, i hope these 5 easy decorating ideas for spring can get your wheels turning for how you might refresh your home for spring. remember, small touches go a LONG WAY! i will tell you, after i took a couple hours on this yesterday i could not stop smiling when i walked by this room! none of my changes were expensive – they just took some intentional thought and arranging (and a little spray paint!).

comment below and let me know your favorite ideas or which ideas you plan try. i can’t wait to hear how they turn out!! and if you want to check out some of my spring decorating favorites, just click HERE!*

also…be sure to check back in a week for a step-by-step on our diy fireplace mantel decor!

other helpful resources:

How to Hang a Picture Straight Every Time

How to Create a Gallery Wall

5 Spray Paint Projects You Can Do Today

How to Paint Your Coffee Table

want to share the ideas in this post with friends? here’s the link to copy and paste in a text or on facebook: