Green it up and bring in the birds. Bring the spirit of the garden in with fresh spring greens, plenty of potted plants and art or objects with bird motifs.

Style note: Your local garden store is a potential secret source for unique decor. Look for garden ornaments with interesting shapes and materials, decorative stools and plant stands that can double as occasional tables.

Freshen with art. A new print is a quick way to usher in the new season. If you use basic, inexpensive frames, you can easily swap out art seasonally to keep things fresh and inspired.

Style note: Try creating a tableau around your new botanical art by surrounding it with assorted potted plants and small items collected from nature.

Keep the art affordable. Botanical prints and scientific illustrations can be found inexpensively on Etsy, squares of pretty wrapping paper can be frameworthy, and you can always press flowers from your own garden for free. Hanging your art in a crisp grid is a great way to tie together a group of prints around a theme and lends a bit of gravitas to a budget arrangement.

Style note: Floral curtains in black and white repeat the garden theme without calling too much attention to themselves, while a cane print used as upholstery suggests outdoor furniture. Throw in a touch of bright yellow with cushions to keep things lively.

Bring the garden inside. Try crafting your own planter from whatever materials you have on hand — especially great for city dwellers without access to a whole yard. Putting your planter on casters is a great tip that will make moving your container (for watering, or to take advantage of better light) much easier.

See how to plant this mobile garden

Try a quick change. Scoop up a new quilt, like this one in a vibrant floral print from Anthropologie, to give your bedroom an instant spring makeover. Want to save your cash? Even adding fresh shams to your pillows can make a plain room pop. Try tying in the color from your new shams with a throw folded at the foot of your bed.

Remember the strength in numbers. Rather than spread out little houseplants around the room, try collecting them on a round table. Use one striking planter (a large urn works well) to anchor the arrangement and cluster smaller pots around it.

Style note: Vintage educational botanical charts like the one shown here can be found on sites like eBay and Etsy, and offer a lot of style bang for the buck.

Read more, get inspired. A new book published this spring, Bringing Nature Home (Rizzoli), by photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo and floral designer Nicolette Owen is filled to the brim with inspiration for bringing the garden in.


Photo by Ngoc Minh Ngo

In this peek into the pages of Bringing Nature Home, we see how an artfully wild arrangement of branches can become the focal point of a room.

Photo by Ngoc Minh Ngo

For a classic tome, try Italian Villas and Their Gardens, originally published in 1904 by Edith Wharton. Still relevant today, this particular edition has the added benefit of giving a certain cachet to your bookshelf with its gorgeous decorative cover.

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