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Winter Decor: Neutral and Vintage with Natural Elements

By Rachel

published 01/18/2024

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Last Updated on December 9, 2024 by Rachel Granholm

These ideas for neutral and vintage winter decor with natural elements add a cozy ambiance to your space!

As the temperatures drop and the snow begins to fall, it’s the perfect time to update your home decor to reflect the changing season! If you’re looking to bring a touch of warmth and charm to your space, look no further than neutral winter decor with vintage and natural elements.

In this post, we’ll explore how you can infuse your home with a snug feeling while keeping in mind a minimalist winter style. Get ready to transform your space into a comfortable and restful oasis that will make you want to hibernate all season long!

Table of Contents

Shop Neutral Winter Decor from Etsy

Wood Snowflake Winter Wreath Evergreen Pillow Antique Art Milk Glass Bowl

How to Create a Cozy Winter Atmosphere

You guys. As I’m typing this, the windchill is close to -20! It’s SO cold! So, this post is coming atcha at just the right time because I feel like a lot of the country is in a frigid blast of air.

Let’s talk all things cozy. What comes to mind when you think about the word? For me, cozy is candles, fuzzy blankets, warm sweaters, hot beverages, and being curled up on the couch with a fire going. So comforting, right?!

Now, let’s think about that same adjective in a different way.

When it comes to cozy home decor for winter, what do you gravitate towards? Everyone will be a bit different.

For me, cozy winter decor includes vintage pieces such as milk glass and ironstone, greenery such as flocked trees, soft linens, various shades of navy blue and dark green, and warm, natural textures like pinecones.

Easily Transition Your Home from Christmas to Winter

If you are anything like me and love a minimal and neutral approach to winter decorating, join me today for some easy ideas on how to do just that! I’ll show you simple ways of incorporating thrifted items, vintage pieces, and winter foliage.

So, grab a warm blanket, a toasty beverage, and let’s dive in to this winter decorating adventure!

Minimalist Winter Style

You guys know how much I adore vintage milk glass. It was my very first collection and I love it just as much today as I did then. In my home, I decorate with milk glass year round but Christmas and winter are my favorite seasons to style it.

You can literally pair milk glass with anything and it will look beautiful!

Milk glass, due to its pretty white coloring, is, in my opinion, the perfect decor to use for winter. It feels light and neutral yet exudes such texture.

For a minimal winter centerpiece on my dining table, I used a vintage lace tablecloth as a base. Then, I placed a few faux cedar stems into my favorite ironstone pitcher and set that on top of a small ironstone plate. For some subdued texture, I tied a satin ribbon to the handle of the pitcher.

Then, I flanked each side of the pitcher with a pair of vintage milk glass candlesticks. The taper candles are the perfect shade of green for the season.

And, voila! This no-fuss, simple, and neutral winter table decor truly is the epitome of minimal decor.

Decorating Tip: To keep a space from looking flat when using an all-white color palette, pack it full of texture through the use of deep, moody colors. The use of foliage, real or faux, helps to add movement, as well.

If you are looking to add milk glass to your winter decor, Tiffani, from the shop Juniper Grove Vtg, is a go-to spot. Tiffani kindly gifted me the vintage candlesticks to use on my winter table.

If you could do me a huge favor, check out her shop as well as social media platforms, and help support her small business.

Etsy Shop- JuniperGroveVTG
Instagram- junipergrovevtg23
Facebook- Juniper Grove

Thank you so much, Tiffani, for my beautiful candlesticks. They are a cherished part of my collection! I will enjoy them for many years to come.

Winter Decor: Neutral and Vintage with Natural Elements

When decorating your home for winter using a neutral color palette, it’s important to keep in mind the textures and natural items that you want to incorporate. In doing such, you are ensuring that your space doesn’t feel cold, boring, or dull.

There are many decorating options when it comes to outfitting your space for the colder months. It’s up to you how you want your home to look but I can give you some ideas to help point you in the right direction. Let’s chat about some easy tips for winter decorating!

Decorating for Winter Using Decor You Already Have

Choose a Winter Color Palette.

The first decor element to think about is which color(s) you want to incorporate into your space for the season. Again, it all comes back to the cozy factor like we talked about earlier.

What colors make you feel cozy during the cold months? For me, creamy white, dark green, and navy blue are hues that I gravitate towards. So, to keep my home feeling harmonious, those are colors that I implement within each winter display.

Shelf Decor for Winter.

The first piece of advice for shelving, or any surface really, is to lay down a linen. This acts as a base and helps to anchor the display.

Basically, it gives each decor element a place to land rather than looking like they are randomly floating on the surface.

For this winter shelf, I used a cream colored scarf that I’ve had for years.

To give it some life, rather than it just laying flat, I bunched some areas up more than others and let the tassels drape over each side.

Next, my biggest tip for decorating shelving, at any time of year, is to incorporate height.

Below, you will notice three flocked trees that I have staggered across the shelf. Each tree brings height to the shelf, from one end to the other. By utilizing similar decor pieces in a small area, the display itself feels balanced.

When choosing what decor pieces to use on a shelf, I use items from my vintage collections.

By using decor that is similar in color, the shelf feels unified.

I combined milk glass, vintage creamers, linens, and various thrifted items to create a winter wonderland vignette!

Decorating Tip: If you don’t think you have any decor that goes together, shop your house. I promise you do! Go room by room, pulling pieces that are similar. Before you know it, you will have a pile of items that you can style a shelf with!

Shop Winter Trees!

Use Vintage Items for Winter Decorating.

My favorite way to decorate, for any season, is through the use of vintage and/or thrifted decor. Truly, nothing can compare to the character that vintage pieces bring to a space. Vintage books, in shades of blues and greens, are favorite decor items to use for winter.

If you need an incredibly easy idea, this small shelf in my entry is just that!

First, I placed a blue antique book in the middle. To bring in natural texture, I placed a long pinecone, which I picked up in the woods near me house, to the left of the book. Lastly, the faux tree was thrifted last year and is the most perfect size for styling on shelves! The cream ribbon around the base helps to tie this display in with the dining table, as well.

Another simple way to incorporate vintage books is to line them up, side by side.

I used this method on top of the credenza. There was quite a bit of ‘dead space’ in the middle so I dug through my books and chose a few with colors that complemented one another. For some variety and movement, I faced some spines backwards and some forwards.

Then, I flanked each end of the book stack with vintage items such as ironstone and milk glass.

On the far left side of the credenza sits my most cherished milk glass banana stand. This is still one of my top five favorite thrifted finds!

For winter, I simply removed the red berries from Christmas and kept the cedar foliage and flocked pinecones.

Decorating Tip: Don’t overthink seasonal decorating! Make it easy on yourself and utilize decor that you used for the holiday season. Simply remove anything that is obvious Christmas like Santa’s and bright red. Holiday decor can be easily transitioned into Winter with a few minor tweaks!

Lastly, on the credenza, I placed shorter vintage items.

Small vintage cups, creamers, jars, and lidded dishes are beautiful pieces to use for filling in any gaps.

To keep my home unified when decorating seasonally, I always use one element that is the same across the board. So, again, you see the cream ribbon tied onto the jar, which is the same unifying accessory.

Winter Whites.

Because I live in Minnesota and winter’s here are very snowy, I like to match the indoors with what’s going on outdoors.

Vintage white linens, such as handkerchiefs and doilies, create a layered softness. They mimic a fresh blanket of snow with the lace elements and crocheted edges.

In the hall bath, I created a simple display using a vintage blue book, a milk glass bowl, and a beautiful lace hanky. Then, to round out the shelf and make it feel complete, I set a small creamer to the right. The dried eucalyptus stem brings in natural texture.

In my hutch, a crocheted doily and stack of white butter pats, topped off with a vintage creamer, adds to the overall ‘winter white’ aesthetic.

Ironstone platters, like the scalloped one below, can be easily thrifted. They complement the white theme in a dramatic yet neutral manner.

Winter Greenery and Foliage.

Let’s briefly touch on how to style winter greenery as well as some of my favorite kinds to use.

For winter, I tend to stick to using complementary shades of dark green. As you can see in my hutch below, the same bottle brush trees used for the holiday season stayed right where they were at!

The green, forest-y trees make a bold statement on such a neutral backdrop.

Pinecones are another type of foliage that I utilize for winter decorating. The rustic texture that these woodland items exude is so appealing for the season.

Here, I simply placed a grouping of three pinecones in a milk glass bowl. Bottle brush trees were used in this area, as well.

Another way to incorporate winter greenery is by using faux stems.

In the milk glass pitcher below, I placed a flocked pine stem that already had small pinecones attached to it. I made sure to ‘fluff’ the stem so that it looked fuller when placed in the vessel. Other than that, there’s nothing to it!

Faux stems are favorite decor accessories to use year round because 1) They are so easy to work with and 2) It takes no time at all to liven up a room by just placing a stem or two into your favorite jar or vase!

This ironstone tureen was styled in the exact same spot, in my bedroom, for the holiday season. For a neutral and simple vintage winter display, I removed the red ribbon but kept everything else the same.

Do you see how easy it is to not only decorate with faux stems but to also transition your home from holiday to winter with minimal effort?! With thoughtful attention, your home can be instantly transformed from a holiday scene into a magical winter forest.

Closing Tidbits on Neutral Winter Decor with Natural Elements

Thank you so much for being here today! I truly hope that these neutral and minimal ideas inspire your winter decorating this season.

Let us all slow down a tad. When we can take the time to incorporate neutral tones, vintage elements, and natural accents into our Winter decor, we can create a cozy and timeless ambiance in our homes.

This approach not only adds warmth to our living spaces but it also allows us to embrace the beauty of the season in a subtle yet impactful way. Be encouraged to welcome Winter into your home, one space at a time, finding renewal along the way.

Leave me a comment! How do you like to decorate your home for Winter? I love hearing from you!

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If you are new here, I’m Rachel, the writer and content creator here at The Antiqued Journey. I’m so happy to have you! I encourage you to stop by the ‘about me’ page to get to know me a little more.

Here on the blog, you will find loads of inspiration for decorating with vintage and antique decor, simple DIY crafts and many thrifting adventures. If that interests you, I invite you to sign up for my e-mail. You will receive a free digital download as a thank you!