Our Best Easter Decorating Ideas

Easter Sunday is a time when family and friends gather together to observe religious traditions, and these celebrations often include some of the most cherished symbols of the holiday: adorable bunnies and artful Easter eggs. But seasonal motifs, such as pastel hues and freshly-bloomed flowers, have their place in Easter gatherings, too. One easy way to get everyone into the spirit of the season is by incorporating these classic themes into your home décor.

Garden-fresh home details can take center-stage when decorating for Easter—a welcome change from darker winter hues. Here, light purples and pinks and rich oranges and reds make their annual debut in the form of breathtaking centerpieces featuring bunches of flowers—these colorful arrangements are ideal for an Easter dinner table. You could also place blooms by the door as an entryway decoration. If flowers are not your go-to, create our pastel rainbow Easter egg centerpiece, which is sure to liven up your holiday meal. Take your holiday elements to new heights and bedeck your home in whimsical garlands. Opt for airborne bunnies that the kids are sure to love, or simply string together dyed Easter eggs to create a festive sight atop your mantel. Make your carefully crafted Easter baskets a decoration of their own by placing them around the house, featuring lovely springtime scenes and a number of handmade ornaments.

Take guests on a journey to Germany and Austria when they step inside your abode by incorporating traditions from afar, like the Ostereierbaum, which is described as a colorful Easter egg tree. Christmas is not the only holiday to have a dedicated plant—display blown and decorated eggs from the bare branches for a striking look. From garlands to baskets, bouquets to decorative eggs, explore our picture-perfect Easter decorating ideas to make sure everyone is in the mood for celebrating.

To double down on symbols of spring, hang dyed eggs from flowering branches, like the dogwood shown here. We ordered blown-out eggs, which come with small holes on each end, and got straight to the fun: Tinting them in happy hues, hooking ribbon onto floral wire, and pulling it through each egg and back to create a loop on top and a wispy tail beneath. If your fabric is wide and textured enough, you may not need to tie a knot under the egg to hold it in place; just snip the ends as desired.

Welcome friends with hard-cooked eggs in their satiny Sunday best. Cut a 20-inch length of 1/2- or 3/8-inch-wide ribbon, lay it across a compartment in an empty egg carton, and dot glue at the halfway point. Rest the bottom of an egg on the dot; pull up the sides of the ribbon, hugging the shell; and knot it, securing with another dot of glue if needed. Make a bow and trim the ends to fancy, fluttering lengths. Assemble your "packages" in a bowl along with plain eggs. Extra credit: Add a few naturally patterned quail eggs for scale and variety.

Shop Now: Shindo 118 Silky Satin Ribbon, 9 mm, in 63 and 73, $4.25 a meter; and 121 Polyester Double-Face Satin Ribbon, 9 mm, in 79, $1.50 a meter, sicen.shindo.com.

These garlands are truly to dye for. Tint blown-out eggs in different shades of a single color for an ombré effect, or combine a few serene colors that complement your space. The key is using ribbon that's just slightly thicker than the diameter of the holes in the eggs, so they stay put, no knots needed. Form a hook out of floral wire, thread the ribbon onto it, and gently feed it through, one egg at a time, slowly sliding each one down to make room for the next. (To avoid breakage, rest completed sections on empty egg cartons as you work.) Finish with a bow, and give a mantel, sideboard, or banister some lovely drip.

Shop Now: Living Creations Handblown White Free-Range Eggs, $18 for 12, livingcreationsstore.etsy.com; Shindo 146 Cotton Herring-Bone Tape, 9 mm, in 52, $3 a meter; and 100 Rayon Gros-Grain Ribbon, 10 mm, in 308, $2.25 a meter, sicen.shindo.com; Best Pysanky Single-Color Dyes in Petal Peach, Vanilla Cream, Harvest Orange, and Green, from $1.25 each, bestpysanky.com; McCormick Assorted Food Color and Egg Dye, $3.89, target.com; Henry Street Studio White Bowl, available by special order, henrystreetstudio.com.

Think outside the basket, and nestle sweets into papier-mâché egg boxes adorned with millinery-inspired flowers. These blossoms are no-sew; just fold a length of ribbon in accordion pleats and clamp each end with a binder clip. Tie the bundle in the middle with a thinner ribbon, release the clips so the sides open into a farfalle-pasta shape, and glue the side edges together to create a ruffled circle. Once it's dry, pull a thin ribbon through the center as a "stem." Then trim the box with matching ribbon, plant the flowers on top, and fill 'er up.

Everyday vessels can set a verdant Easter scene. Fill a serving bowl, planter, or compote with soil, moss, and spring blooms. Then grab some flexible wooden strips used for basket-weaving. Cut them to length (ours measure 40 inches), cover one side with double-sided tape, and adhere a ribbon of the same width. Flip it over and repeat, then bend it into an arc and stick it into the moss, securing it to the container's sides with removable adhesive dots (which peel right off post-holiday). Knot extra ribbon on one side, and you've created a masterpiece of a centerpiece.

Plastic Easter grass has a way of sticking to your carpet for months—and languishing in landfills forever. These placeholders are infinitely more eco-friendly. Fill a bowl with ribbon remnants used in our previous projects, or snip lengths into three-to-six-inch "blades." (For faster groundcover, pack the vessel with cotton batting first.) Another green touch: Thread a large needle with a skinny ribbon and weave it through the holes of a hemstitched napkin. It's totally charming—and brilliantly temporary.

Use a stencil or—if you're particularly savvy—hand-paint a series of Easter motifs (we're partial to bunnies and chics) onto tonal eggs; suspend them from a flowering spring branch, like cherry blossoms, ahead of your gathering.

Speaking of cherry blossoms: They serve as the base of this statement centerpiece runner, composed of moss-covered, oversized eggs (we recommend faux greenery to keep your crisp white tablecloth clean). Punctuate the runner with a few real eggs, in multiple colorways and speckle patterns, for texture.

Place calm planters, filled with your favorite spring bloomer (we like hyacinths or muscari, pictured here), anywhere a seasonal vignette is needed: on your mantel, on the dessert table, or just outside the front door.

A bunny planter that doubles as a flower arrangement vessel? Now that's genius. Fill up Peter Rabbit's "backpack" with a spray of florals and greens; try tulips and hellebores for added color.

Flowers this free-spirited call for an equally earthy vessel. We slid three grapevine wreaths over a round glass vase of water, then put a ball of chicken wire inside to prop up the wispy stems of hellebore, clematis, nigella, scabiosa, spirea, and garlic blossom. The result is a lush mini meadow in full bloom.

Shop Now: Ashland Grapevine Wreaths, 14", $5 each, michaels.com.

This fuzzy little felted chickadee is highly detailed (and from John Derian), but any fledgling crafter can DIY her plush pad. Follow the steps below loosely—no need to be precise (wing it!). As for the quail eggs inside, we dyed a few yellow to darken their natural speckles, colored the spots on others with a gold-leaf pen, then tucked them all in with delicate andromeda clippings.

Stretch wool roving over a store-bought grapevine nest. Carefully poke a felting needle back and forth between the twigs, through the nest and roving, until the fibers fluff up and fuse together (aka "felt"). Continue all the way around to create a downy outer layer.

Shop Now: Dimensions Earth-Tone Roving Rolls, $7 for 12 colors, michaels.com; Factory Direct Craft Natural Grapevine Bird Nest, 5", $35 for 6, factorydirectcraft.com.

Wrapping paper is the building material for this artful centerpiece. Pick colors that echo your linens, and form shreds into a nest. Anchor it with découpaged eggs, then set everyone's place with a fritillaria stem or two—and you've just decorated your table for a song.

Shop Now: Walter G. Granada Linen in Moss (used as tablecloth), walter-g.com; Crate & Barrel Helena Linen Dinner Napkins in Sage Green (similar to shown), $8 each, crateandbarrel.com.

To play up the beauty of neutral eggs, introduce a jewel tone. This gem of a nest was fashioned from indigo-colored raffia and one tier of a hanging wire fruit basket, ideal for its bowl shape and big openings. Snip off the hardware with clippers, then work the raffia over and under in alternating rows to create a basket-weave pattern. Don't worry if you skip holes here and there; a little unruliness ups the charm. Last, put an extra bundle of raffia inside to give your clutch a lift.

In Germany and Scandinavia, it's customary to celebrate Easter by hanging eggs from the branches of trees. This year, bring the tradition indoors by creating a unique display for these nests of speckled ones.

Martha Stewart's SVP and executive editorial director, Kevin Sharkey, creates a stunning Easter basket inspired by greeting cards he found while on vacation.

Inspired by Victorian crafts, these sugar eggs can be left solid as decorations or hollowed out to hold candy.

Bring the beauty of spring into your home with this speckled-eggs-and-nest display.

Turned wooden-egg candleholders coated in vermilion paint can be left on the mantel long after the last jelly bean has been eaten.

Wooden nesting eggs with red-painted interiors offer an adult take on the classic childhood Easter treat. They can be used as favors for a grown-up gathering or as décor all on their own.

This fanciful green-meadow vignette seems a fitting home for a chocolate bunny. His eyes (dabs of tinted royal icing) and bow tie (ribbon with a glued-on rosette) match his surroundings.

Symbols of rebirth in many cultures, eggs serve as the perfect star component in this festive wreath. It features both hollowed chicken eggs and quail eggs, whose speckled shells truly look like art once they've been dyed red.

Enliven your next buffet with an arrangement of eggcup bouquets displayed on cake stands.

Make daffodils from baking cups and flower cutouts for your Easter or spring table. To use these as place cards, write names on the petals.

Use a plastic egg filled with jellybeans to anchor your tablecloth for an outdoor soirée. To create your own, secure gingham ribbon around the egg with hot glue and thread through a hole punched in the tablecloth.

Bring the beautiful blooms of spring inside with iron-on floral tea towels. Easy to make and beautiful to display, these towels are a surefire way to add a splash of the season to your Easter décor. The precise cutting of the blooms is easy with Martha's special edition Cricut Explore Air 2 machine and you can achieve the flawless iron-on application with her EasyPress tool.

Shop Now: Cricut "Martha Stewart Wedding Edition" Explore Air 2, $279.99, michaels.com.; Cricut "Martha Stewart Edition Vanilla Bundle" EasyPress 2, 9" by 9", michales.com.

Dyed in fresh spring hues, our egg chain makes a cheerful seasonal swag for a mantel mirror; the blown-out eggshells are light enough to loop across a doorway.

Forego the hunt and place your Easter eggs front and center with this colorful centerpiece. Place complementary colored napkins and plates atop the table to really make this DIY decoration pop.

Set inside a rustic boat-shaped birch basket, this cheerful yellow hilltop vista is a breath of fresh air. You can practically hear the chicks peeping in the heartwarming scene.

An oversize eggshell filled with flowers unites two symbols of spring in a single arrangement.

These cheerful decorations multiply quickly, thanks to their simple construction. To bring some festive cheer to your dessert table, march the rabbits across a garland, sit them atop cupcakes, or use them to offer sneak peeks into gift bags.