Seasonal decor can be a divisive topic in the design world. Yes, I said it… heart garlands, Easter bunnies and pillows that say “ho!ho!ho!” are not for everyone! Seasonal decor doesn’t usually have the reputation of falling under the category of chic, glamorous, minimal, timeless or any of the “classic” design world terms. However, here at Hallo Haus Studio, we are trying to change that narrative! I don’t believe seasonal decor has to be synonymous with tacky, tasteless or gaudy, both Claudia and I looove us some seasonal decor! Sure, sometimes it can lean slightly silly, dare I say verge on kitschy, however paired with the right neutral and timeless items you already have in your home year round, you can turn the kitsch into cute!!
Either my family and friends are good liars or really go by the “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all” saying, because no one has ever walked into my haus and said “I can’t believe you have a display of rainbow-coloured bunnies on your shelf, how ugly!!” From my experience, if what my loved ones are saying is true, people welcome seasonal decor with surprise and delight! And who can’t use a little more delight, some whimsy, and the occasional surprise in their life!?
With all of that said, I know seasonal decor can be overwhelming: it can feel like a hassle, another thing to add to your to-do list, and more items to find storage for. And real talk… who hasn’t had the thought while scrolling on Pinterest or Instagram of “damn, seasonal decor in my house can not and will never look like theirs in that photo.” All valid points, which is why today I am sharing my 6 simple steps to create the perfect seasonal vignette; a guide to creating stunning displays that you can do on autopilot each season and shouldn’t take you more than an hour or so!!1. Designate 2-3 surfaces for seasonal decor in your home.
This first step is so important and where I believe you need to start. Picking these 2-3 surfaces first lets you define where in your home you will be adding that seasonal sparkle! This also designates where in your home your vignettes will live for the season, combating the overwhelming thought of “I need to add a seasonal pillow to every bed, couch and chair in my house”! When you only have 2-3 surfaces that get new decor for the season, you have a clear starting and stopping point, no more whole-house stress and overwhelm. This may also remind you that you don’t even have a fireplace mantle to add 30 pink bottle neck Christmas trees to, like you saw on Pinterest (looking at Claudia here!!). And a good mental note that when you see a large, plastic trio of glittery presents at HomeSense they won’t be coming home with you because they have no surface space in your home! Less things coming into your home will also limit what and where you need to store it all in the off-season! And if I’m being really honest, especially when it comes to my haus, there can be such a thing as too much seasonal decor. I love my seasonal stuff, but I also don’t want to live in a house that looks like the Leprechauns mischievously threw shamrocks into every possible corner. I still need areas in my home year-round, that provide peace and tranquility with no reminders that Santa comes in 24 days!Haus Tip: things to consider when picking your 2-3 surfaces to decorate:
1. It’s in an area YOU see every day, your home should bring you and those you live with joy!
2. It’s an area that doesn’t affect the functionality of living your day-to-day life! If you have to move that tray of Santas off your kitchen island every time you go to cook a meal, you will resent those jolly guys way before any of them fill your stockings!!
3. It’s an area that will enhance a “public” space that you will most likely use to entertain or spend time in during a holiday season. This could be a dining room buffet, floating shelves in your powder room, or that fireplace mantel you do have in your living room! Adding decor to a space that very few people visit like a guest room in the basement can feel like a waste of time, and make you resentful of the decorating process.
4. It is a single flat surface, like a table/buffet/dresser/mantle or (a tiny rule break!) a set of 2-3 floating shelves. Again, the surfaces you pick will have a clear start and stop and feel “done” when decorated. If you pick somewhere like your bedroom bookshelf wall, you may feel like you need to keep going and decorate every shelf, which then creates that overwhelm and frustration. We’re going for the most impact with the least amount of effort!In my haus:
For me, the non-negotiable designated areas in my home are:
1. The floating shelves in my kitchen! I intentionally installed them during our reno because I wanted a place for easy swapping of decor items to keep me excited and inspired all year round. Plus, I’m in my kitchen every day!
2. My front hall table. This table greets guests coming into our home, and again, me and the hubby see it daily, every time we go up or down our staircase!
3. My dining room buffet. It’s a room I walk through 100 times a day, and like my front hall table, you can see it immediately when you walk through the front door!
By limiting my decorating surfaces to these three areas I can focus my energy and cover them with spiders, ghosts, reindeers, bunnies or hearts.
2. Pick your colour palette.
I get most inspired and excited by all the colour ways each season promises; from the pinks, reds & violets of Valentine’s, the greens and pastels for spring (“Pastel for spring?! Groundbreaking.”), to the rich, autumnal, moody shades of fall and then Christmas, well, the possibilities of colour schemes are virtually endless! Picking one colour or a colour palette helps create a cohesive vibe, a direction to go in, and hopefully inspiration to start putting items together.
In my Haus:
I often change up my colour palette from one specific season to another, for example… Halloween could be orange, black & white one year; and then hot pink, light pink & black the next. Christmas one year might be rainbow, and then red, green & gold the next, it all depends on my mood and which items I’ve collected over the years that I want to work with in that season. Not all my seasonal stuff gets used each year. But it is ABSOLUTELY fine to use the same colours and create the same vignette from one year to the next. Do what makes it easy and fun for you!
3. Plants, Florals + Jardinieres.
It’s scientifically proven that plants and greenery, even fake ones, offer psychological, mood-boosting and stress reducing benefits!! Both Claudia and I are big fake plant gals because:
1. science- they affect us in the same way as real plants
2. my green thumb is black
3a. I don’t want the “hassle” of keeping another living thing alive
3b. I’m lazy
3c. forgetting to water it (see points 3a + 3b!)
4. fake plants have come a long way over the years and often don’t even look fake!
Plants (real or faux) are also an evergreen (pun intended) decor item, and a great, versatile staple to style with year round. Picking plants with different types and shades of foliage, heights and widths offers styling versatility. If you’re a real plant lover with a green thumb, I bow down and encourage you to showcase those real plants and use them in your vignettes! Much like any books that stay in their spot year round (see step #4), you can do the same with your plants… if that cactus’ haus is on your tv console, leave ‘er there and decorate around it!
When setting up any seasonal vignette, it’s nice to have 3-5 various sized plants that you can work into your design! I think a single plant is great by itself, but I also love to pair a larger plant with a smaller one. Plant(s) are a great anchor point within a vignette, not only because of their “neutrality”, but you can use them as a book end, or place them on top of a stack of books.
Like the fake plants, faux florals have really improved so much over the last few years. This is also a design aspect where we don’t really mind if it “looks” fake, for example: black peonies during Halloween. Everyone is going to assume (and know, haha) that they’re not real black peonies, but they’re so cute, fun and vibey for spooky season! You can also go with more neutral options such as eucalyptus stems, pampas leaves, or even just bare wood branches or “sticks” (real or faux), that can stay in their dedicated container and space year round. Then you can just style around it. Seasonal stems are also easy to store in the off season since they are usually flat!
On to jardinieres, a new word to me, which includes decorative pots, stands, vases and containers intended for plants, greenery and florals which are a must to work into your vignettes, after all, your plants whether real or fake will need some kind of receptacle. Lots of faux green plants are already “planted” in an aesthetic, cute container! However, some aren’t, which is where a few different planter options are great to have, this is another collection that is good to build over time. Picking containers that are neutral and/or fit your style and house colour palette is a great place to start. AND when you see that super cute planter covered in pink hearts, shamrocks, or ghosts, you can swap it out with your usual neutral pot and plunk the same plant into it! However, when it comes to faux florals we tend to avoid the ones already in vases, usually they look too fake! We’d rather buy floral stems and place them in opaque vases for a more elevated impression. And I’m talking a fabulous, large, funky shaped vase, maybe in a fun colour, maybe glass, to use as an anchor point. Vases can also act as a book end, or as a bridge piece between different elements on your surface, adding a level of height! A great piece as well as a spot for the eye to rest if you’ve got lots of items! AND, you can always leave your big vase empty and have it be a stunning focal piece in your vignette, especially in the “off season”.In our haus's:
My planter/pot collection includes various sizes of white and black pots that many of my fake plants fit into, making it easy to swap out or mix & match what I’m feeling each season! I also have some red and gold pots that I use seasonally. Claudia has a more colourful collection of mostly pink (shocker) and neutral patterned (stripes, polka dots) that work with her more maximalist style! We both have a variety of vases in many sizes, colours and materials. This is definitely a fun collection to work on as there are so many new, vintage and artist & handmade vases you can find on your shopping travels!
4. Books.
Books are a great foundation and grounding element for any vignette! Picking books within your chosen colour palette offers structure and support. They work standing upright, lying down, or leaning, and can become a pedestal for other items, creating levels and interest! They can bring in pops of the colour you’re working with, or you can use a neutral colour: black, white, cream, (pink if you’re Claudia!) and tan/browns. Neutral coloured books, especially coffee table ones (see my top 5 faves here!) is an item that works with any seasonal colour, and if that white book lives on your front hall table year round, you don’t even have to swap it out every season! Place your books into your vignette after you’ve placed your jardiniere (I love this new word!!) and build from there. I like to place books in sets of 2 or 3 depending on the size of the spines. In my haus:
I love to change the colour of the cookbooks on my kitchen counter to match with each season (yes I break my own Haus Rule and cheat here, but I consider this counter area like a 4th shelf in this room). On my front hall table, I almost always leave my black & white coffee table books in place all year and decorate around them!
5. Seasonal sculptural pieces.
This is what is going to have the biggest impact on making your vignette feeling seasonal! Seasonal sculptural pieces can be ceramic, flocked, wood, glass, iron or any other material and can include items like bunnies, large eggs, pumpkins, ghosts, reindeer, nutcrackers, houses, snowflakes, pinecones, trees, Santas… the offerings are virtually endless. Walk into any Michaels or HomeSense and you’ll find an abundance of pieces to choose from. When I find a seasonal sculptural piece I love, I will usually buy 3, 5, or 7, depending on size, price and availability! Ideally I like them to be in the same colour, but it is also nice to have various sizes of the same item/style and sometimes depending on stock, I’ll buy the same item in different colours. This is where you can have fun when you shop! I buy multiples so I can use them on my different surfaces around the haus. Any repeated element creates cohesion and that elevated look, pulling your various seasonally decorated spaces around your home together!
When it comes to seasonal sculptural pieces, you also don’t have to collect everything that season offers. For example, Halloween has pumpkins, ghosts, bats, skeletons, vampires, spiders, etc… but if you try and have all the creepy crawlies in all of your vignettes it will become overwhelming and messy, getting away from the simple and chic look we’re going for! If you love pumpkins, then stick with just pumpkins, you don’t have to have pumpkins and witches and spiders to have it feel Halloween-y. If pumpkins are your thing, find and collect pumpkins in various sizes, textures, in a limited colour palette that either complements your decor, or that you really love! Seasonal is the time to add some whimsy and unexpected colour to your usual decor!
Onto the fun part: decorating and placing these seasonal sculptural pieces!! Adding them into your vignette is really up to you and your space, but some of my favourite ways are:
– sitting on a stack of books
– beside/in front of a plant or vase (this is where the design “rule” of 3 or 5 comes in: 1 book + 1 plant + 1 pumpkin as your trio and you have a cute, seasonal, display!)
– as a group directly ON the surface
Grouping like items together creates more impact, so don’t be afraid to put 3 various sized pumpkins as a trio on one surface. You could stop there, or add them to any of the items listed above! Again, odd numbers in design read best, so if you have 3 pumpkins you want to use: 3 pumpkins + 1 vase + a book = 5! Or go for 7: 3 pumpkins + 1 tall vase + 2 books + 1 potted plant = 7.
Using the same elements in each of your designated areas elevates your decor game big time! Grouping like items together creates more impact, so don’t be scared to put 3 reindeer on one surface… this also gives that bit of whimsy and fun that we want during a holiday season!! We want to make an impression with these 2-3 areas, and really lean into the time of year you’re decorating for!
6. Extras
There are so many fun things to buy as the seasons roll around, these are some of my favourite ‘extra’ accent pieces that are easy to add into a vignette. They enhance the seasonal theme and add a little extra sparkle & fun!
– Floral picks (hearts, shamrocks, rainbows, words, easter eggs, bunnies, stars, disco balls) added into a floral arrangement(s) or potted plants
– Paper crafts/items (bats, heart confetti or star garlands) attached to walls near the designated surface, sprinkled on a table top, or attached to shelf edges
– Candles and/or candlesticks with coloured or themed candles
– Ribbons that reinforce the seasonal colour theme tied around candlesticks, vases, pots or reindeer and bunny necks like a little scarf!
– Small sculptural items like little plastic spiders, small eggs (glittery, shiny, matte, any & every colour!), velvet hearts… sprinkle these among the larger sculptural pieces and plants already on display! These items are about 1-3″ big, anything bigger falls into our step #5 seasonal sculptural pieces!
Here is a step by step tutorial in my haus from Easter 2026:
If you follow these simple steps to create seasonal vignettes, you’ll have 2 to 3 areas that were quick to assemble, feel cohesive and stylish, and will make your home feel festive!! Have fun with it and if you try out any of these tips, I’d love to see what you’ve done so feel free to tag us in your instagram post! And if you have any seasonal decor secrets you swear by let me know in the comments!
To seasonal delight and whimsy,
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