Charming & Rustic Decorating Ideas || Budget-Friendly Decor || Mediterranean-Inspired Decorating

The Mediterranean region is beloved by so many. Maybe it's the landscape, maybe it's the sunshine, or their cuisine, their design aesthetic, or perhaps just their general attitude towards living in general that makes this area so truly special. But I know I'm constantly trying to find ways to infuse reminders of this beautiful place into my garden and my home decorating, so today we will be doing just that. I'll be sharing a ton of decorating and gardening ideas that you can use to encapsulate this gorgeous region in your own home. Okay so I wanted to show you all real quick this is where all of our plants are currently hanging out because as a lot of you know we are undergoing a pool build right now so I figured this was just the best spot for them to kind of be out of the way. The only bad thing is is that our patio doesn't get a ton of sun which isn't great during the winter but everything is still hanging in there. Surprisingly my tomato plant has done quite well over the winter season so hopefully now that the temperatures are starting to warm up it will like start to thrive a little bit more. You can see we even got some petals here but I think we've had a couple colder nights and you know hopefully that will just kind of take off soon here. And then something else that I want to do right now is prune our bougainvillea. So they're looking a little bit you know wild and they'd be okay but I just kind of want to trim them up before the spring season. So this is actually Yanni's Delight bougainvillea. So as you can see it starts out white and then it fades to this really beautiful kind of like pale pink. So it's a little bit lighter than your traditional like fuchsia bougainvillea which I really love. It's a little bit more soft but I figured since it was blooming so beautifully right now we could just trim a couple of the branches to prune it and then bring those branches inside and then pop them in a vase in the kitchen just because I think that'll look really nice and add a fun punch of florals and color. So let's prune a few of these right now and then bring those inside to kind of cheer up the kitchen a little bit. So bougainvillea is a staple of the Mediterranean and whenever I visit I always notice how the bright bursts of color add so much life and vibrancy to the area. So here are some examples of how those bursts of color can really accentuate an outdoor space. So this was something that I wanted to incorporate into my garden as well. I'm just growing it in pots for now until we finish up with the renovations and I can map out some garden beds but because it's native to South America it does really well in warm climates and I know because of that not everybody has the ability to grow it in their garden so there are a lot of faux options that look super lifelike if you want to achieve a similar look in your own space. The benefit to these is that you don't have to deal with any of the sharp thorns and the stems stay vibrant and fresh looking all year round. But I figured since I have some that needed a trim it would be a budget-friendly way to add some Mediterranean inspired blooms inside to brighten up our kitchen countertop. And it's funny how just by adding a couple of fresh stems in a vase it really can make your home feel refreshed and vibrant and I love that with the bougainvillea you don't need to have a jam-packed vase full of stems. You could simply just pop two or three branches into a vase to achieve that casual rustic look. And I also did get a new crackling wood wick candle to give this area a cozy fresh feel for spring and I love the relaxing sound that the wick makes. Okay so next I want to talk a little bit about how I stay active and motivated throughout the winter season which is when it's hardest for me personally and I found if I keep things really simple for myself that makes it much easier to stay on track with my health and wellness goals. So something that I've been doing for about a year now is taking my AG1 and a big thank you goes out to AG1 for being the sponsor of today's video. If you're unfamiliar with AG1 it's basically a health drink that helps to fill nutrient gaps in the modern diet. It also promotes gut health by combining a multivitamin pre and probiotics and nutrient-dense whole foods into a single serving and I love that AG1 makes it extremely easy to implement into my routine. All I do is add one scoop or a travel pack into some cold water and then I shake it up and I love that I can do this in the morning and then just take it with me as I go on a walk with my dog or I go on a hike with her and my husband Mike is also a big fan of AG1. He usually takes his before he goes to the gym before work and sometimes with the fewer daylight hours during the winter time I struggle with getting enough vitamin D so I'll often use the D3 and K2 supplement and add one or two drops into my AG1. This also helps to support my bone and cardiovascular health and I've also found that it's just the easy things like this that stick when it comes to my health and wellness because life really does get crazy and it's common for me to have these ambitious wellness goals especially when I start out the year but those are a lot harder to stick to so when I make it really simple for myself like just take 30 seconds to mix up my AG1 in the mornings and get some movement in, those simple habits really do add up over time because I was able to be consistent with them. So if you want to try AG1 for yourself you can click the link in the description box and you get three free AG1 travel packs and three free AGZ travel packs plus a free vitamin D3 and K2 and an AG1 welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription order. Again a big thank you goes out to AG1 for being the sponsor of today's video and I hope you guys enjoy it as much as we do. Okay so next we're going to do a little haul of some fresh new budget friendly Mediterranean inspired decor and actually if you guys follow me on Instagram I worked with Kohl's over on Instagram so I found some really beautiful gems that I'm so excited to share and actually what kind of inspired some of this was Mike's co-worker bringing in these lemons from his lemon tree so he brought these into work to just kind of give out to the co-workers and here in Arizona a lot of people have citrus trees and I just thought that these lemons were so unique looking like how big and lumpy they are and I just thought that they were kind of like a decor piece on their own and lemons themselves are very Mediterranean feeling. Actually one of the very few souvenirs that we brought back with us from Italy is this like really cute like handmade ceramic wine stopper and it has lemons on it so just a little memento of our time over there and just kind of like the Mediterranean vibe with the lemons on there but I thought that these looked like a decor piece themselves they just looked really sculptural and kind of like they'd be something out of a still life in a kitchen just like casually popped on the counter but I know that we don't all have access to fresh lemon trees and even still if you were to go to the store and buy some they don't look like this and then on top of it a lot of times it's just not practical to keep real lemons out on the countertop for long periods of time so I did find this really beautiful kind of like decor alternative so it's this really beautiful realistic looking lemon bowl filler what I really liked about these is that they have the leaves on the lemons so it kind of just gives off the illusion like you really do have a fresh lemon tree outside and you went and picked some and there's still stems on some of them and you just wanted to store them on your countertop so what I actually found helps them to look even more realistic because as you can see the ones that we got from Mike's co-worker from his actual lemon tree they are lumpy they are bumpy and even the lemons that you buy from the store are not perfectly smooth so I just kind of give these some indents with my thumb and it just helps them to look a little bit more realistic again really mediterranean very european and just helps to add a little pop of color for spring okay so next something maybe a little unexpected that I noticed that was all over the place on our vacation throughout the mediterranean was actually cacti and succulents the cacti were always dotting the cliff sides and I saw agave just growing out of the rocks a lot of the restaurants and businesses had beautiful succulent arrangements sitting outside some of them just had like little bowls and accents on the tables in the dining areas it honestly seemed to be quite a staple of the region and something that I noticed all over the place wherever we went so when I saw this next piece I felt like it was a fun way to kind of infuse that and bring it indoors in a way that's really practical because a lot of cacti and succulents need bright direct sunlight so bringing them inside is a little bit difficult to do sometimes but I found this next piece and it's this beautiful super realistic looking real touch faux aloe plant now aloe is a succulent so it kind of fits in with that like cacti and succulent vibe and a lot of times with faux cacti and succulents it can be so difficult to source pieces that look realistic a lot of times they look too plasticky the green isn't right but the coloring on this with this beautiful kind of like silver blue green color the texture is on point and it actually is real touch so it feels like a real plant but I have the perfect spot for this and it's actually a spot that I've always struggled with decorating I struggled with decorating it in our last home and now we have the same kind of space here in this house and it's that little narrow area in between the television and the mantle it's always been a struggle with that area to find something that takes up the right amount of scale that adds texture that looks elevated and realistic if it's like a faux greenery piece you know a lot of times I've styled things there and it's looked okay like it's looked nice but a lot of times they just seem very small scale wise because it's an area where you do want to add a substantial weight and height and scale so this is so perfect it adds that texture there kind of gives it like that mediterranean feel I love the coloring on this and it's just so perfect so a really nice budget-friendly piece that helps to bring that like succulent kind of cacti vibe into my space okay so this next piece is very mediterranean in a lot of ways and it is this stunning wall art piece with this framed arch and arches themselves are a staple of mediterranean architecture so it's a very affordable and practical way to kind of get those lines infused into your space also you can see there's these little lemons down at the bottom which again is just a fun little mediterranean detail and what I really like about this piece is it does look like a real painting you know when it catches the light you can see the texture of what would be the brushstrokes obviously it is not a real painting but it does look very realistic so this would be great just popped on a countertop you know you could pop it somewhere like in a bathroom just to kind of layer it and prop it on a space or a table this would also look great just hung on a little piece of wall to like maybe accent a space you could put some hooks underneath it to make it a little moment in like an entryway or in a bathroom with some towel hooks so just a fun piece that brings a lot of freshness to a space it has like that vintagey look to it which again that old world aesthetic really does kind of help to enhance the mediterranean feel because a lot of buildings and architecture and cities in the mediterranean are very old so I love that it has that like vintage aesthetic to it again the arched detail and the lemons down at the bottom perfect for spring really fresh but still could be a great year-round piece just with the style of painting as well so that's a fun little one that I found okay so those are some of my newer pieces that have that mediterranean look to them but I did just want to share a couple of like my all-time favorite staples that I always reach for so something that I love to do in my space is mix the old with the new and like I've said before a true staple of the mediterranean aesthetic is just old vintage kind of chippy aging pottery so I've mentioned these on my channel before but I really think that they do just make such a difference in a space like these are the statement piece in a room for me I recently used them in our dining room makeover and I love the set of two they'd be great styled on a shelf or like I said just on a table on a console table even on a kitchen island as a statement piece so these are actually from Turkey and they are old Turkish pots so they do have that really beautiful old world look to them and they just kind of feel like they were plucked out of like a garden somewhere in Italy or Spain and they're a great decor styling piece to have on hand that really does make a big difference in a space the rustic detail really stands out in a room so if you can invest in antiques and vintage pieces like this they really do help to tell a story of the space and make it feel really old world and just infuse that Mediterranean touch into a room okay so we all know another big-time staple of the Mediterranean region are olive trees and olive oil and just everything olives so I think I've showed these a bunch of times on my channel in like styling moments but I've never actually talked about them and they are these really beautiful faux olive branches I got these off of Etsy and I love like the silvery kind of like blue tone to the leaves I think that looks really beautiful in a space I've used these in rustic jugs I've used these in my thrifted pots and they're just so nice for that like long twiggy branchy kind of like forged feel that you would get in the Mediterranean if you just went outside and chopped down some branches from a tree so I hope you found this haul and styling session helpful if maybe you kind of want to incorporate some pieces in your own space to have that Mediterranean aesthetic and just kind of get that resorty European feel okay so next we have a little Mediterranean inspired makeover that I wanted to show you all and this area right outside of our guest room window has always been a bit of an eyesore last spring I actually put in this trellis and I planted a climbing rose in hopes that the rose would climb up the wall and just add some greenery and visual interest but unfortunately the rose did not make it through the summer here and I felt like I could come up with something a little bit better to make this area next to our AC units feel more charming and aesthetically pleasing and we actually used to have a bougainvillea plant here when we moved in and it was a really nice pop of greenery and color but we had to remove it when they came in to replace our air conditioning units unfortunately so I'm just thinking of something that can kind of add that Mediterranean charm and just feel a little bit unexpected and fun when you look out this window and something that I've been loving the idea of lately are these planter walls and I saw these a ton when we were in Italy and I just think they're a simple way to add interest and charm to a boring blank wall and we're currently in the process of redoing our backyard so I will be making a larger terracotta planter wall in that area so stay tuned for those videos but when I saw these fun hand-painted in Spain wall planters in blue and white I knew that they would be such a fun punch of pattern and color for this more secluded spot in the house just to bring some interest and charm in so I found these at home goods and they were only $20 each and I love that they had two different shapes so that it could look a little bit more collected and I ended up going to a couple different home goods to get a set of five in total and then I just laid them out in a configuration that I thought would look nice on the wall and not always but a lot of the time I find that buying things like this in odd numbers is usually the most visually pleasing so once I kind of had an idea of how I wanted to hang the planters on the wall I got to work just cleaning up the area and of course the rose didn't grow but a bunch of weeds did so once that was all tidied up we took the pots over to make some marks on the wall just where we wanted to add the screws and this is always the toughest part deciding how high we want it where we want it centered do we want it centered on the window we want it slightly higher so that took a little bit of figuring out but once we did that then Mike got to work hanging the planters and his process for doing this was first just using a rotary hammer drill to effectively drill the hole through the brick and then he just used his regular drill to secure a masonry screw into place and at first we were a little intimidated by drilling into a brick wall but with the right tools it was actually super simple and I was so happy with how it all looked once we got them secured in place so next it was time for the fun part hitting up the garden center to pick out all of the plants and was it being prime planting time right now here in Phoenix Arizona the garden centers are packed full of gorgeous blooms and florals which is so tempting for me but like I mentioned before cacti and succulents are also commonly found in the Mediterranean and it was really important to me to pick low maintenance plants that can survive our brutally hot summers here so I wanted this wall to be more of a cacti and succulent vertical garden so I did my best scouring through all the succulents and cacti and even the clearance section trying to you know find those deals but I picked out some drought tolerant plants that had a mix of textures and shapes and my favorite plants usually have like that silver blue tone to them so I picked out several different types of aloe cactus and agave with different silhouettes and then I planted them up in our new hanging planters okay so I really love how these look and honestly I think this is fine but the perfectionist in me says it would be just a teeny bit better if there was one more here and one more here I think it would look a little bit more balanced and kind of take up the wall better so of course now I can't find any more of these at home goods so I was able to find a set of two online and someone was very clearly just like reselling them on etsy and it's the two shapes that I need so I figured you know what I'm just gonna get them because I'm never gonna find them again if I don't so they came in the mail yesterday and we're just gonna hang the two of them right there just to kind of you know finish out this wall and make it look exactly the way I want yeah it looks a lot better I will say too just like the configuration even looks better like how it has kind of the square in the center and then it like tapers off or it like drifts off just with the pattern you know of the one versus like just having like a block in the middle before now what plants are you gonna put in because you have a thing going here you got cactus cactus I know well I'll actually show you because I'm going to kind of just see how these do to be honest I'm not super confident about the aloe they don't look great but we'll see the cactus should be super hardy the agave should be really hardy but I have a different type of aloe I think that's that has done well here in the summer before and I'll show you okay so I got this guy I believe this is like blue glow aloe it's what it's called but I'm just gonna break it apart so I'm still gonna have a third one and just add it somewhere else in the yard but I'm just gonna break it apart into two and then I'll plant each one in its own so that's a little budget-friendly hacks and sometimes plant costs can really add up especially if you're doing something like a hanging vertical garden is you know you just buy something like this that you can easily separate and you're able to get more use out of it it actually ended up working really well because these planters were super narrow so just the single aloe seemed like it was a perfect size to fill out the planter but still have some to grow and if you all remember a couple of years ago I made this succulent arrangement out of succulents that I found on clearance at Lowe's which this is actually a fun little Mediterranean inspired decor piece that's easy to do and looks high-end but you know you can use this indoors or outdoors and I've had mine for a while and this elephant bush plant really had taken off and kind of got overgrown so this stuff is really resilient here in our heat and I love the draping movement that it gives to arrangements it also propagates super easily so I'll literally just stick these cut ends into the soil and it will eventually grow roots it's always the best when you can just borrow some from your overgrown plants and propagate them in other spots in the garden so I just stuck them next to the aloe to add some visual interest and that is it I am so happy with how this Mediterranean inspired planter wall came out it adds so much charm to this otherwise boring and bland space I love all of the sculptural shapes and textures that our drought tolerant plants add and just the playful pattern of the handmade Spanish pots adds a fun punch of personality to the space and I love that it's a little reminder of one of my favorite places every time I look out the window all right everyone that about wraps up this video I hope that you guys enjoyed seeing some projects and decor that just helped to give my space a little bit more of that Mediterranean aesthetic if you did please don't forget to give this video a thumbs up it really does help to support my channel and be sure that you're subscribed so you don't miss my future home decor videos that I post every single week and you can hit the notification bell so you're notified when those videos go live and also feel free to leave me a comment down below as to what kind of videos you want to see from me this spring season do you want to see more gardening videos do you want to see patio makeovers do you want to see spring thrifting ideas do you want to see more budget-friendly spring finds let me know down below in the comments and as always I want to thank you guys so much for watching this video I hope you have a wonderful and fabulous week and I will see you all in my next one bye