How to decorate for Easter – the easy way

Fashion editor and ceramicist Deborah Brett shares some crafty ideas for seasonal decorations with Lucia Ferrari

It used to be just bonnets, bunnies and copious amounts of chocolate, but Easter has entered a new era of decorating. Magazines and social media are awash with Easter trees, crackers and pastel-coloured tablescapes. A wreath is no longer just for Christmas.

The growing trend for seasonal decor, which used to be more of an American thing, is catching on in the UK. Halloween decorating has been on the up (my neighbour in Fulham has a Halloween wreath she whips out every year), and similarly, Easter decorating is now much bigger in the UK than it has ever been. Another neighbour I saw for coffee last week was thrilled that her delivery of decorative geese and ducks from John Lewis had arrived, and was off to forage for some cherry blossom from the garden to begin her Easter tree. It’s getting to be quite the norm, and not just in southwest London.

According to research by the retail analysts Mintel, Easter was estimated to be worth £550 million to UK retailers in 2016, but the figures have now grown to a whopping estimated £892 million predicted for this year. In 2021, almost one in 20 Britons brought home decorations for Easter, rising to one in 10 between the ages of 25 and 40. And the trend shows no sign of slowing down.

Easter is certainly in full swing as I enter the Holland Park home of fashion editor and ceramicist Deborah Brett. The scent of narcissi and mimosa fills the air and the kitchen table is laden with lacquered eggs, satin ribbons, freshly baked gingerbread biscuits and a wreath of spring flowers that Deborah is putting the finishing touches to. “My German mother was really into crafting and decorating the home, not just for Christmas, and I’ve followed suit,” she says. “Pinterest and Instagram have opened up a whole new world of visuals to us, which can be really inspiring. And it’s second nature for me to be creative around the home as well as in my ceramics studio. It’s how I relax.

“The key to my kind of seasonal decorating is that it has to be easy but effective,” she continues. “It may look overwhelming but it’s really not. It’s a bit like the way I like to dress: I’m all about the high-low approach, which I think a lot of British women are very good at. With my clothes, I like mixing an investment piece with some great high-street purchases, and I have the same approach when decorating my table. Some of my favourite finds are from H&M Home, Zara Home, M&S and John Lewis.”

For this year’s Easter table setting, she has assembled a selection of teal bubble-patterned china, table linens and mini bud vases from her own collection, and combined them with brass cutlery from M&S, glassware from Rebecca Udall and decorative paper rabbits and chicks from Meri Meri. “You absolutely do not have to start from scratch and buy everything new,” she says. “Look at what you have and just tweak it – sometimes all it takes is changing your napkins or tablecloth to switch things up from Christmas to Easter.”

If you do want to buy something new, it doesn’t have to be expensive: for table linens, Deborah often goes to The Linen Shop on Portobello Road in west London, which sells linen by the metre: “I take it to my dry cleaner to hem it, and I’ve got a bespoke new tablecloth,” she says. “I use a darker one for Christmas and a paler one for Easter.”

Sticking to a colour theme helps to keep your table looking stylish, she says. “You can mix a stripe and a check in the same colourway and it all looks very chic. I try to keep my flowers tonal too. This year, I’m sticking to classic yellow and white and I’ve thrown in a few dots of blue muscari to stop it becoming too sugary. And I love filling little bowls with narcissi bulbs, then topping them off with moss. They last longer than cut flowers and it’s a lovely way to bring the outdoors inside.

“I also like having lots of edible treats in little bowls dotted around the table, filled with mini chocolate eggs, cherries or grapes. I love the idea of eating being part of the display, that’s why I love adding biscuits to my Easter tree. And this year I’m folding my napkins into bunny ears and putting a chocolate egg in the centre.” It might sound fiddly, but it’s much easier than I thought it would be; it takes about a minute to fold. I’ll definitely be using this on my Easter table – now I just have to finesse my wreath-making and egg-marbling skills.

hDeborah Brett at home in Holland Park, west London, with her completed Easter tablescape