Banish Mud-Season Blues

In high-alpine climes, spring can feel less buoyant, more laden as the snow-blanket of winter melts into a thick skim of mud mucking up your life.

Heavy-duty doormats aside, we abide by more subtle ways of cultivating a spring-like ambiance inside your home; any piece that sparks sensory joy helps banish such mud-season blues, so make sure to edit additions according to your own definition of self-care.

Adopt potted plants:

To fill in for our late-blooming spring, potted plants can add the greenery that you crave when mud pervades. We gravitate toward species with oversized foliage such as Monstera or Fiddle-Leaf Fig; such big-leaf drama provides a green focal point amid blanched or brown surrounds.

Floral fixtures: In a similar vein, floral patterns can stand-in for early blooms. From vintage lampshades to graphic wallpapers, florals are having a marketplace moment, with varied formats in fashion. Quick fixes also include sourcing the latest gardening tome as a coffee table refresh, or arranging foraged branches within the hand-painted Astier de Villatte Blue Iris Vase—one of multiple new vessels in from the beloved French studio. Florals, in any form, channel the quintessential cheer of spring.

Cue campfires: Even if the ground remains soggy, seize the (warmer) days while still cultivating cozy through backyard campfires. Far from solely nocturnal, campfires make communing outdoors social and centralized, even if bundled up in blankets and muck boots. Celebrating the perfection that is cast iron and coals, dutch-oven recipes can feed many, so make your campfire an afternoon party for all.

Lounge bathing: When the going gets muddy, the muddy get washing. Ever extolling the benefits of baths, we feel especially ardent about the ritual come mud season. Transform your bathroom into a spa with simple additions: set a vintage wooden stool beside your bathtub as the perfect perch for a soothing beverage and a fragrant candle (we swoon the wicked offerings by Le Labo, Cire Trudon and Austin Press); nest a stockpile of clean towels in a beautiful antique basket; coil your dripping locks in a linen fouta from Libeco. By shifting such sensory details, bathing becomes unhurried and luxurious—a gift you give yourself after a day spent sloshing through the shoulder season.