Birch + Bird Vintage Home Interiors

Spring is definitely here in our corner of the West Coast…in a very wet way! Thankfully, it hasn’t been too cold and our kids still had fun in their gumboots over the weekend and our son even happily played his first soccer game in the downpour last night! In truth, I really like the rain and I love seeing our garden coming to life daily and the blooms starting to burst on all of the trees in our neighborhood….

Design*Sponge

While the kids were splashing around outside on Sunday, I finally had a moment to sit down with a cup of tea and read through Holly Becker’s gorgeous new book, Decorate. I received my package from Amazon last week (Yay!) but waited until I could have enough time to read it cover to cover, with minimal “Mommy!” interruptions. And it was well worth the wait! For those of you who don’t know, Holly pens the blog Decor8 which was the first design blog that I started to read daily a couple of years ago. Since then, I’ve added many more blogs to my daily reads but Decor8 will always be at the top of my list!

Co-written with Joanna Copestick, Holly’s writing style remains true to her blog and I absolutely love the plan views for many of the rooms they chose to feature. Photos can only capture so much of an entire space and I really like to see room plans, along with a selection of shots, to help me really get a picture of the entire room. Speaking of photography, Debi Treloar‘s photos throughout Decorate are absolutely stunning! She managed to capture the personality of each space so beautifully. I was happy to see a few of my favourite homes, like those of  Lyndsay and Fitzhugh and Amy Neunsinger, in closer detail as well as dozens and dozens of fabulous new spaces. I can’t wait to read through it again and catch any tidbits that I may have missed the first time ’round!

Something I’ve always loved about Holly’s decorating style is her love of fresh flowers throughout the home. Decor8′s Color Me Pretty column by Leslie Shewring is a perfect example of how to display your blooms with ease. I bought several inexpensive bouquets of spring flowers last week and I love the fresh splash of colour they bring to my home, especially on rain soaked days like today!

Decor8 and A Creative Mint

Flowers and plants are such an inexpensive way to bring colour and life to a space. I’ve mentioned before that I often clip boxwood and other greenery for my home when flowers are hard to come by but, thankfully, spring blooms are now readily available and affordable…

Traditional Home

Kate Spade via The Lonny Blog

Isn’t this DIY mirror amazing? It was made by Emma of The Marion House Book and what an amazing statement piece for her front entry! She found a vintage oculus at an architectural salvage store and simply had a custom mirror fitted into it…brilliant! Emma also has a great article for forcing spring branches indoors here…I had one of those, “Duh! Why didn’t I think of that?!” moments after reading it and immediately thought of my flowering dogwood tree in the backyard. That entry light is pretty fabulous too…

The Marion House Book

Mixr via Emmas DesignBlogg

French Larkspur

Style At Home

Hope the flowers are blooming wherever you are!