One of the highlights of our living room is a very simple display. This is good, because although I love home decorating, I do not have decorations that are particularly fancy or expensive. Sometimes it seems like I lack decorations that have subtle flair. I also have no skill at flower arranging. However, a nature table is perfect for a family with small children. It’s a chance to highlight many of your child’s finds in a visually pleasing and thematic way.
We decided to create a nature table after two things happened. One was that I inherited my grandfather’s lovely three-tiered maple cabinet. The other way that my then two-year-old became obsessed with sticks. Every time she saw a stick, she wanted to bring it home. The sticks piled up in her bedroom. Finally, we decided to free the sticks and put them outdoors again, since the corner of her room was looking more like a wood pile than a little girl’s room.
To create our nature table, we brought together random natural items that we already had in our home. We had moon snail shells, driftwood, and a large selection of large interesting rocks. We also happened to have a sheet of natural-toned burlap, which did nicely as a cover for the shelf. I found a vase and we collected items from our garden for the vase. These included pussywillows and cedar branches, in our case. The pussywillows are a lovely sign of early spring, and the cedar is what is green here in the winter time.
We placed some of the rocks in a bowl along with a little felted spring fairy that I’d made. We surrounded the bowl with rocks, too, saving the driftwood and the shells for our summer display. Then, we added a cardinal to the middle of the bowl to make it into a nest, and I placed a picture of two birds next to the bowl to add a Valentine’s Day touch.
The display is small, but it connects our room with the seasons and the outdoors. And we’ll never have to search to find a home for a special stick again! Here, it’s prominently displayed.
Do you have a nature table or display area in your home? What does it contain?