This 'Color Spring Clean' Will Make Your Home Feel Less Chaotic

A bright, airy kitchen with a stone backsplash, kitchen drawers in green, a floating shelf, a wood-panelled round island, a wood stool, a door to the outside, and a white dining table with purple chairs by a colorful painting — Bring in the airiness of spring by switching out all your winter accents.

(Image credit: Ye Rin Mok. Design: STUDIO KEETA)

Yes, spring cleaning is about making it through your list of tidying tasks. However, your design could also be contributing to visual clutter and bringing down the overall ambiance of your home. This is where a 'color spring clean' comes in.

Rather than focusing your efforts solely on your household cleaning schedule, it's also important to shift your attention to the out of season design scheme at play. By decluttering any colors that don't fit the time of year and switching to spring color palettes, you'll notice how your entire home will feel more attuned to the vibe of the season.

First, let's talk about what this means. And then we can get into the three simple ways you can restore some seasonal balance to your interiors.

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What Is Color Spring Cleaning?

A bright living room corridor with sliding doors leading outside, a peak into a dining room with a colorful nature-inspired mural, and a green armchair — Essentially, it involves seasonally resetting your home's color palette to match the upcoming spring vibe.

"Color spring cleaning is a simple way to transition your home from winter to spring through accent tones and decor," says interior designer Barrett Oswald. Rather than your home sporting winter colors and themes, this gives you a chance to shift your home into the new season.

While spring cleaning like a minimalist, this is your chance to help your home feel lighter and more in tune with the season through some sprucing. And you can start by dusting off your spring decor ideas and letting them take centre stage.

However, since decluttering is the first rule in any cleaning technique, there's some preliminary tidying that needs to be done first. So here's how to properly 'color spring clean' your home.

A woman with blonde brown hair in a cable-knit beige sweater and a cream satin skirt

Barrett Oswald

Barrett Oswald’s passion for design runs deep, tracing back to her teenage years when she fearlessly mixed toile wallpaper with boy band posters in her bedroom. Over the years, her style evolved into a refined yet approachable aesthetic that continues to guide her work today. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, Barrett’s early career included styling a commercial oceanfront condominium in Florida, where she honed her ability to merge beauty and functionality seamlessly.

1. Remove Items That Don't Fit the Seasonal Palette

A bright entryway with a curved white staircase, checkerboard tiled floors, a colorful side table with a vase of fluffy stems and a blue wall light — Removing anything that feels wintry is the first step to your color spring clean.

Firstly, you need to start with a clean slate before you fashion any of your spring decor. And to do that, it's time to wrap up winter within your home. This means setting up a plan for all the things you need to declutter before a spring clean.

Start with all the thick winter fabrics draped across your home. Be it throws, heavy window treatments, heat-trapping bedding, fluffy carpeting, knit pillows, and so on. You'll notice your home instantly feels lighter.

Next, and more importantly, turn to your winter color palettes. Now is the time to retire all of the cool, moody colors that have been inking your home for the last couple of months. But don't worry, your home won't be bereft of personality for long.

2. Fix Your Color Story and Introduce Spring Accents

A pale pink bathroom with a skylight, a pink tub, a white tap, a striped hamper, a sound tiled center wall with a door to a bathroom, and a shelving unit — Now, the fun part — bringing in all your favorite spring decor.

Now that you have a tidy home to work with, this is your chance to bring in all things spring. Think pastel color palettes in soft textures and lighter fabrics that feel right for the warmth of the season.

"One of our favorite ways to do this is by switching out dried branches for fresh cut flowers with a little color. This helps to revitalize your living spaces," says Barrett. "Finally, we like to trade heavier velvet and fur textiles for lighter, brighter options like linen."

M&S

Pure Linen Tablecloth

Color: Soft Pink

Doesn't this linen tablecloth feel like the perfect way to dress your indoor and outdoor tables for spring brunching?

noo. ma

Throw Blanket

Color: Blue / Red

I love this cool reversible throw blanket from noo. ma. It feels light for spring, but it's bold in its dual tones.

H&M

Cotton Percale Double Duvet Cover Set

Color: Light Yellow / Striped

This Cotton Percale Double Duvet Cover Set from H&M feels like the ultimate bedscape for spring.

3. Complete the 'Color Spring Clean' with Some Finishing Touches

A white entryway with a wood sideboard, a framed blue painting, statuesque wall sconces, and a vase of flowers — Move beyond just decor and consider fragrance and flowers that also feel like spring.

"We also swap woodsy candles for lighter blue or pastel ones with fresher, more floral scents," says Barrett. There are so many ways to make your home smell like spring, but remember to align your formats to the colors on display.

You can also introduce some light finishing touches in the form of spring table decor for when you're playing host. As well as centerpieces, just to make your dining room feel fresh.

And don't forget about personal spaces, too. One of my favorite ways to channel the magical energy of the season is through spring bedroom ideas. Tucking into pastel bedding and cozying into airy spaces will feel just right.

ACTOS

L'amour Toujours Platter

Color: Pink

Since the drawn-on decor trend is still thriving, I've got my eye on this sweet platter from ACTOS.

Habitat

60 Wiggle Glass Vase

Color: Purple

Pair the best cut flowers for a spring scent with this rippled vase for a beautiful table centrepiece.

Loewe

Honeysuckle Scented Home Fragrance

Fragrance Family: Floral

Since candles can feel a bit hot for spring, you can switch to something light and cooling, such as this room spray from Loewe.

Although this tip is tied to spring cleaning, it doesn't end there. You can adjust your design to the calendar as the seasons shift. In a couple of months, you'll be looking at summer color palettes.

Until then, sign up to our newsletter for more advice on how to bring the season into your home with the flair of a designer.

Amiya is a Home Wellness Writer at Livingetc. She recently graduated with a Masters Degree in Magazine Journalism from City, University of London, and has lent her words to beauty, fashion, and health sections of lifestyle publications including Harper’s Bazaar and Women’s Health. Her experience as a research analyst has equipped her with an eye for emerging trends. When she’s off the clock, she can be found reading, listening to music, or overanalyzing her latest Co-Star update.