How To Style A Charming Early Spring Dough Bowl Centerpiece

With our simple instructions, you can create a beautiful early spring dough bowl arrangement. This arrangement features blooming spring branches, bulbs, flowers, and brambly grapevine. It is perfect for adding a touch of seasonal charm to your home decor.

You know the feeling. The surprise and delight of seeing the first Robin of the season, crocuses peeking out of the last bit of lingering snow, and a breeze with just a hint of warmth. These are all harbingers of spring. Beautiful spring! Spring is in the air, even if there is still snow on the ground. Now is the time to create a pretty and easy early spring dough bowl centerpiece for a table or other flat surface in your home.

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A dough bowl is the perfect container for a spring arrangement. Its wide and shallow shape provides ample space for arranging a variety of spring blooms, branches, and greenery. The bowl’s natural wood adds a textural look that complements brambly spring elements like nests.

Finding The Perfect Container

When I was rooting around in my basement for a container to style an early spring centerpiece in, I came across my dough bowl. I’ve made fall arrangements and Christmas arrangements in it but have never thought of using my dough bowl for a spring centerpiece. I guess I have always assumed that the wooden dough bowl was too visually heavy for something as light and pretty as spring decor.

When I paused to think about it for a minute, a wooden dough bowl made sense for spring. Many of the trees and bushes are still bare in the early part of spring, and the juxtaposition of the rough wood and spring elements works well together.

So the dough bowl came up from the basement, and I got to work creating a spring arrangement that would be a statement piece in my dining room.

So, grab your dough bowl from wherever you have it stashed, and let’s invite a bit of the outdoors in and elevate our home’s decor with a spring dough bowl centerpiece. It’s sure to add warmth, character, and a refreshing burst of seasonal cheer to any room!

Materials You Will Need

The look I wanted to achieve with this spring centerpiece was brambly and natural looking. There is nothing too manicured or tidy about spring that is starting to bloom.

I used what I had on hand to make this easy-to-assemble centerpiece. Here’s what I used…

• A medium size wooden dough bowl. See my dough bowl suggestions at the bottom of this post.
• Dry florist foam
• Grapevine wreath or grapevine garland
• Stick Um candle adhesive
• White ranunculus
• Faux paperwhite blooming bulbs
• Blooming faux spring branches
• Reindeer moss
• Nest

Begin With A Dough Bowl

Start with the versatile wooden dough bowl. The wooden texture and simple charm of a dough bowl add a touch of natural beauty to any space. It’s the perfect vessel to hold a brambly spring arrangement.

About Dough Bowls

A dough bowl can be a bit of a splurge, but we should really look at it as an investment. I’ve had my dough bowl for over twenty years and use it in our home in so many different ways.

Do I Have To Use A Dough Bowl?

The easy answer is no! While it’s hard to beat the wood of an antique dough bowl (or a new one), here are some other containers to create the look of this arrangement…

• large platter
• low sided basket
• large shallow pedestal bowl
• any low-sided container
• large terracotta saucer for a terracotta pot
• tray

Be creative and adapt your early spring design to fit the containers you have.

The Grapevine Wreath Collar

I cut apart one of my grapevine wreaths to add a brambly collar effect around my dough bowl. I discarded the larger woody pieces of the wreath and kept the twiggy vines.

Then I wrapped the grapevine around the outside of the dough bowl and pulled it apart as I wrapped it. There is no right or wrong way to add the grapevine. The goal is to make it look messy and brambly.

Add Filler To The Dough Bowl- Start With A Good Base

The next step is important and will make styling your arrangement so much easier.

It is essential to fill the dough bowl with something that creates a good base on which to build your arrangement. If you create a solid base for the spring arrangement, the rest of the creating process is quite simple.

Filling the bowl with a stable filler material adds volume to the arrangement without using excessive amounts of expensive decorative elements, too.

I used a long piece of tape across the florist foam, stretching from one side of the dough bowl to the other to hold it in place. I also added more florist foam to the sides of the dough bowl and taped them down as well.

Adding Moss

To create a green base for the early spring dough bowl arrangement, I used reindeer moss. It is less messy than dried forest moss and is not as vibrant. Reindeer moss feels a little spongy and creates a nice lofty bed to cover the florist foam.

I’ve had this moss for years. I’ve used it over and over! It retains its color and soft feel.

Adding Flowers To The Left Side Of The Dough Bowl

After the moss is in place, the next thing to do is to add the decorative elements to the dough bowl.

I started by adding two stems of white ranunculus to the left front edge of the dough bowl. For my spring design, I wanted the flowers to lay almost flat against the moss. I cut off most of the stem and left just enough to push into the floral foam to secure the flowers. Lastly, I fluffed them and arranged them where I thought they looked pretty.

If you have a stash of spring flowers, any low-lying spring flowers will work.

Adding Budding Branches To The Right Side Of The Dough Bowl

To balance the ranunculus on the left side of the arrangement, I used budding branches on the right side to give the arrangement height. I cut stems from a larger budding branch for this arrangement.

The thing to remember when adding flowering branches to this arrangement is to use a limited amount of stems. Too many will make the arrangement look off-balance and heavy. Also, arrange the stems so a couple cascades over the right side of the dough bowl; one stem is tall in the middle, and one or two stems cascade to the left over the center of the dough bowl in a fan effect.

I also added a grapevine branch to the left side of the arrangement to create a little drama and movement.

The Nest

One sure sign of spring is a nest. I chose a medium size nest and wrapped it in some of the grapevine garland to give it a bit more presence.

Then I placed it in front of the budding branches on the right side of the dough bowl. I did not put eggs in the nest, but maybe closer to Easter, I will.

Paperwhite Bulbs

The last spring element to include in the dough bowl arrangement was the paperwhites. I positioned them between the ranunculus and the nest, hot gluing them to the floral foam. I fluffed them and bent them so they looked attractive.

Finally, I found a bit of thin, curly-ish vine that I loosely added to the arrangement to make it look more natural looking.

I hope you will grab a dough bowl and create an early spring dough bowl for your home this season,

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Happy Spring Decorating,