• Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Collaborate
  • Blog
  • Parties
    • Children’s Parties Ideas
    • Holiday Parties
    • Adult Party Ideas
  • Holiday Ideas
    • Christmas
    • Easter
    • Fourth of July
    • Spring
    • Thanksgiving
    • Valentine’s Day
  • Seasons
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
  • Recipes
    • Appetizers
    • Beverages
    • Desserts
    • Main Dishes
    • Side Dishes
    • Soups
  • Project Gallery
    • Crafts
    • Decorating
    • DIY
    • Good Ideas
    • Tutorials
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Bloglovin
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

  • Book
  • Speaking
  • Meet Vanessa
    • Featured

March 8, 2017

Vintage Coal Bucket Tabletop Decor

You guys! Did you know that ferns have magical powers? I didn’t really believe it either until I brought this one home along with a fun new treasure.

I spotted this vintage coal bucket recently in one of my favorite second hand stores and then couldn’t believe it when, in the same store, I turned the corner and discovered to my delight a booth filled with plants.

It was a dark and dreary February day outside but inside, with that booth overflowing with fresh, green life it felt like a ray of hope.

Among the plants were these beautiful ferns and I knew that one would look perfect tucked inside the vintage coal bucket and placed on the chest of drawers in my entry.

As soon as I plunked it down, it was like the whole house gave a sigh of relief. It exuded life and freshness.

Magical.

I absolutely love the patina on the coal bucket and the character it adds. The juxtaposition of old and weathered alongside the new and fresh does my heart good.

I added these vintage books which belonged to my grandmother to the tabletop decor (A Girl of the Limberlost is one of my all-time FAVORITES!) alongside a mercury glass box and just love the simplicity of it all.

We have had such a very long stretch of cold, dreary weather here in Oregon. On Monday it even snowed again which brought with it a few brief, glorious moments of sunshine.

But they were quickly replaced with dark clouds and rain which washed away any remaining snow….along with my hope of a break from the dreariness.

It seems like every year we reach this point where it feels like the winter will never end and yet outside we are definitely seeing little signs of the next season. There are buds on the trees and daffodils bursting through the soil and they serve as a tangible reminder that winter won’t last forever and spring WILL actually get here. And it will be all the sweeter because we have waited so long for it.

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

Until we finally say goodbye to winter and hello to Spring, I’ll just relish the beauty of my magical fern and the fresh life it breathes into our home.

It’s always so fun each month to see what my Thrifty Style Team has to share with you so check out all of these other amazingly thrifty ideas and inspiration!

An InLinkz Link-up


Thanks so much for meeting me at the fence today,

7 Comments Filed Under: Decorating, Good Ideas Tagged With: decor, decorating

Subscribe

Get the latest goodness straight to your inbox!

Previous Post: « No One Warned Me
Next Post: Narrow is the Gate »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Cherl says

    March 8, 2017 at 3:54 AM

    What a delight to open up my email and have your lovely blog as the first one I opened. The fern truly is magical, and your writing about it brought magic to my dreary day!

    Reply
  2. Bliss says

    March 8, 2017 at 4:50 AM

    I’ve got two coal buckets outside. One is still holding Christmas decorations on the front porch and the other is holding dead plants. You’ve inspired me to give them both a new look!

    Reply
  3. Mary Beth says

    March 8, 2017 at 8:05 AM

    I love your coal bucket and ferns and your grandmother’s books. I recently acquired some books that were in my father’s family and one of them is a New Testament Bible from the 1860’s. The name in it is of a relative of mine but I’m not sure who exactly she is to me but I treasure that Bible. Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful display.

    Reply
  4. MARY-ANN (FROM CANADA!) says

    March 8, 2017 at 9:50 AM

    Vanessa, thanks for such a cheery post! As I write, we are in the midst of a two day blizzard! Highways and schools are closed! However, we know that Spring WILL arrive — and are we ever ready for it!

    Just love your antique coal scuttle with that lovely green fern in it! It just says S-P-R-I-N-G!

    Have a wonderful and blessed day!

    Reply
  5. Ivory says

    March 8, 2017 at 3:14 PM

    Beautiful idea. I to have one of the old coal buckets. Did not know what I want to do with it, but did not have any plans to get rid of it, because it was what my dad used when cleaning the fireplace, when I was a little girl. Thanks for the wonderful and beautiful idea.

    Reply
  6. Danna says

    March 9, 2017 at 6:54 AM

    I love the coal bucket. I wish I had one but unfortunately I cannot find one. As for the fern, just like ivy I have the worst time keeping them alive. I can grow any other type of plant, no matter how difficult but ferns and ivy just don’t want to live in my house. When looking at your books I noticed you have a Bobbsey Twins book. I have several and would love to have that one. I’m not even sure how many I have but some are books my mom bought when we were growing up. I love your idea and if I find one I could put one of my many plants in it.

    Reply
  7. laura says

    March 9, 2017 at 1:41 PM

    who knew about the magical powers! 🙂 I do love my ferns and always have the best luck growing them.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Search This Blog

Get the book!

Invite Vanessa to speak at your event!

Stay updated!

Must Reads

Recent Posts

  • Why We’ve Chosen Vacations Over Projects April 26, 2022
  • A New Look for the Family Room March 1, 2022
  • Christmas Kitchen and Family Room December 19, 2021
  • Christmas Home Tour Part One December 10, 2021
  • Easy Hot Cocoa Station November 21, 2021

Footer

Stay Connected!

Instagram

Happy Friday!! I’m working on a blog post to sha Happy Friday!! I’m working on a blog post to share all of the details of our family room shelving makeover but I’m super impatient and just had to give you all a sneak peek!! We are SO happy with how they turned out and it finally looks like I’ve always envisioned. Our quick fix years ago (scroll to see the before photo) never felt quite right but now? Soooo much better!! 🙌🏻 Big shoutout to our amazingly talented friend Matt @redemptive_woodworx for bringing our vision to life and doing such impeccable work.

I hope you all have a great start to the 4th of July weekend and make sure to check my stories later for Friday Funnies!
The month of June is coming to a close and it has The month of June is coming to a close and it has been JAM packed! The highlight by far though was my son's graduation from high school. When I started blogging, he was only 6 years old and some of you have been apart of my community here for that entire time. Now, he's 19 and there is a reason parents are told not to blink because the years truly do go faster than I ever could have imagined. He has become such an incredible young man we are so excited to see how God is going to unfold the next chapter of his life. We celebrated with parties galore (SO many open houses to attend!) and made memories we'll forever cherish. My mama heart was filled to bursting with the joy of it all! Now we're taking some time to just enjoy these warm, summer days making even more memories because, when you’re at this stage of parenting, you know all too well how much you need to grasp every opportunity to spend time together.

I hope your summer is off to a great start too dear friends! 🪴
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts o “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Happy first day of summer dear friends!! I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted something new here but life has been crazy. I’ll have some new photos of house projects and life events to share with you soon but, got now, I’m just going to enjoy this gorgeous first day of summer after our ridiculously long, wet spring. ☀️
“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. Th “It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.” (Maud Hart Lovelace) 

Welcome June!
“No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom “No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.”
General Douglas MacArthur

Grateful today and every day for those who were vigilant to the point of death in the preservation of our freedom. May we honor their sacrifice by being vigilant too. #memorialday
“Those who know your name trust in you, for you, “Those who know your name trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.” Psalm 9:10
This is one of my most favorite projects from my b This is one of my most favorite projects from my book Life in Season! 

Because, if heaven has a fragrance, I’m fairly certain it smells like lilacs.

I think that somewhere along the way the verse in the Bible that said, ‘heaven will smell like lilacs’ just got lost in translation. But it HAD to have been in there at some point, right?

When I bury my head in the blossoms (which I absolutely MUST do every single time I walk past them), I immediately feel a stirring in my soul.

It seems like I wait forever for my lilac tree to bloom. Every year I anxiously watch as the buds begin to form on the branches and then when the blossoms finally burst forth I begin that agonizing process of deciding the absolute perfect moment to snip them and bring them inside.

And then, after all of that waiting and watching it’s just over…done. Because, unlike heaven, lilacs don’t last for an eternity. So, making my own lilac room spray seemed like the perfect way to enjoy their fragrance long after the blossoms have faded.

Here’s how to make it! Ingredients: Water, Vodka, Lilac fragrance oil. Directions: Fill spray bottle with 50/50 ratio of water to vodka. Add 12 drops of lilac oil. Give it a shake, spray and if the scent isn’t strong enough, simply add a few more drops of lilac oil.

Once you’ve made this lilac scented room spray you will be very tempted to spray it in every room in your house. And someone may want to use it in the bathroom to cover up other less…ummmm….pleasing aromas.

But, do not, I repeat do NOT, let them.

You’ve captured the fragrance of heaven in a bottle and you wouldn’t want to go and tarnish it now would you? 😉
We had two back to back days of sunshine (the most We had two back to back days of sunshine (the most we’ve had in a LONG time) and now we are back to pouring rain. This has officially confirmed what I’ve know to be true for awhile now.

I’m a MUCH better version of myself when the sun is shining! 🤪 So I’ll just be over here today plotting and planning how my husband and I can be snowbirds someday when the kids are out of the house.

If you could spend your winters (and apparently most of spring too!) in any part of the country, where would it be?
Happy weekend sweet friends!! We’ve had a LOT of Happy weekend sweet friends!! We’ve had a LOT of rain lately (which is saying something when you live in Oregon) and I’ll admit that it’s affecting my moods a bit. I feel like I’m dragging and struggling to find the energy to get stuff done. So don’t mind me if I’m over here looking at photos of my garden in the summertime and finding that it keeps me hopeful about those days to come. They will come, right?! 🤪. 

What are your favorite plants that you look forward to seeing in the summer?
We’re going to be giving our laundry room a make We’re going to be giving our laundry room a makeover soon. It’s LONG overdue! In fact, the folks from the counter company were just here taking measurements. While we have made some simple, inexpensive updates over the years, it still has many of the original elements from when the house was built in 1992.

Two of our bathrooms are also in need of major makeovers. And we’ve saved up enough money over the years to tackle those projects. But, for the most part, we made the decision to use the bulk of that money in another way. While we knew that it was financially wise to invest in our house, we also knew that the greatest investment we could make was in our children. 

I’ll admit, there are times where I see other people doing massive overhauls of their entire home in a matter of months and I feel a prick of envy. But, we decided that if our choice was between waiting a bit longer to enjoy a renovated bathroom or going on adventures as a family, we would choose adventures every time. And we don’t regret that decision for a single second. It’s not that we haven’t tackled home projects (we’ve done a lot!). It’s just that it’s been a slow and steady process. 

Most recently, we let our son pick where we would travel for spring break since this is his senior year of high school and we are trying to make up for lost time. With so much of life ‘paused’ for two years, we have appreciated these moments more than ever. And, since he’ll be heading to college in the fall, we are very aware of how important it is to spend this time together while we still have a modicum of control over everyone’s schedules.

We have many years left to remodel our home but only so much time left to make memories with our children.

And, while I’m always happy to look around my home and see rooms that are updated and more reflecting of our style, it doesn’t compare to the joy I feel when I look around my home and see the people I love the most who have been shaped by the many adventures we’ve experienced together.
Load More... Follow
Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 · Divine theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2022 At The Picket Fence