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Floral Design
Matching Flowers to Your Home Style
Floral Decorating Room By Room
Latest Styles and Trends
Easy Ways to Create a Welcoming Home
Maximizing a Budget
DIY: Vase Arrangements
DIY: Hand-tied Bouquets
DIY: Centerpieces
DIY: Evergreen Arrangements
Matching Flowers to Your Home Style
Just as people have their own personalities, so do their homes. According to the Society of American Florists, popular home decorating personalities tend to fall into five categories. The guide below shows how flowers can complement and enhance these styles.
Classic Traditional
This home has formal architecture with impressive front doors, foyers and individually decorated rooms. Design elements include classic furnishings and antiques with elegant fabrics of brocade, silk and tapestry. Classic arrangements call for a mixture of flowers (roses, gladiola, iris, carnations, lilies or snapdragons, to name a few) and accents such as dried fruit and foliage. Crystal, brass, silver or porcelain containers are ideal for the classic floral centerpiece.
Modern Contemporary
Sleek and chic, the modern home calls for clean lines, smooth surfaces and form. Elegant fabrics, colorful silks, gauze or leather accent steel, glass and other man-made materials. Bold, exotic flowers (anthuriums, heliconia, callas, orchids) with strong lines work well to complement this home's clean, open spaces. To complete the dramatic look, flowers are best displayed in frosted glass vases, decorative pottery and metallic containers with pewter or stainless steel finishes.
Victorian
Velvets, satins, chintz, lace and organza create a feeling of softness and romance in the Victorian home. Pastel colors or soft tone-on-tone prints are used to delight the senses. Fragrant flowers (roses, spray roses, peonies, lavender, gardenias, freesia) in pale peach, lavender, pink, yellow and cream conjure images of romance and sensuality. All of these delicious colors glow in lovely, romantic vases of clear glass, crystal and silver.
Casual Easy Living
Casual living lifestyles focus on the simple pleasures of life. The decor includes furniture of light pine, natural woods, bleached oak or a white-washed painted finish with fabrics of linen and cotton in neutral tones. Because these homes are designed for "stress busting," flowers provide nature's balancing formula. The right match might include flowering and green plants (like cyclamen, kalanchoe, pothos or ivy) casually grouped in a basket, or flowers (such as sunflowers, daisies, hydrangea, delphinium or tulips) placed in a clear glass vase, pitcher or piece of pottery.
American Country
Recognized as a style all it's own, American country has become a phenomenon. Motifs include artifacts from the past - such as quilts, galvanized metal bowls and wooden crates. The result is comfort that is easy and inviting. Woven baskets or simple vases of mixed spring flowers (yarrow, wild roses, scabiosa, heather) fit perfectly on a coffee table or kitchen counter. Cut flowers, blooming plants, herbs, wreaths and swags with that farm-fresh look are a natural extension of this homespun decor.
For more advice on incorporating floral elements into your home, give us a call. We will be able to capture just the style you're looking for - with flowers.
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Floral Decorating Room By Room
Entranceway/Foyer
- Attach small vases containing short stems of fresh flowers to a pre-made wreath and hang it on your front door to welcome guests.
- Make a first impression with a large, abundant arrangement.
- Create a focal point with a piece of artwork on a pedestal draped with a garland and flowers.
- For a friendly look, place a basket with a garden bouquet on the entry table.
Dining Room
- For an easy, elegant table decoration set a series of alternating crystal vases and candles on a fabric runner. Place fresh flowers in each of the vases and surround them with greenery.
- Individual flowers are perfect at place settings or attached to name cards.
- Use candles pieces in a centerpiece for your table to accentuate the elegance of your flowers with the ambience of candlelight.
Living Room
- Bring your favorite vase, treasured antique bowl or silver pitcher to us for a custom-designed arrangement.
- Float two or three blooms, such as gardenias or gerbera daisies in a favorite crystal bowl. Add a floating candle or two for a glowing evening effect.
Family Room
- In the summer when the fireplace isn't being used, brighten the hearth with an abundant assortment of seasonal flowers or plants. Continue the theme by placing a few of the same flowers on the mantle next to those family photos.
Kitchen
- Trim a windowsill with a collection of terra cotta pots, using a combination of herbs and sun-loving plants like kalanchoe, African violets or primroses.
- Old water pitchers, antique teapots, classic urns or even tattered clay pots make fascinating containers for a casually placed flower arrangement.
Bedroom
- Tea roses, freesias, peonies, lilac and lilies, are all deliciously fragrant choices for a bud vase on your nightstand.
Guest Bedroom
- A bud vase with a simple cluster of flowers is the perfect way to welcome a guest.
- Try floating rose petals in a special bath to spoil a friend!
Home Office
- Give yourself a "nature break" by keeping a flowering or green plant next to your computer station or fax machine.
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Latest Styles and Trends
Experiment to match a room’s décor with one the hottest flower trends – monobotanic (arrangements of all one type of flower) and monochromatic (using all one color palette, such as a range of pinks).
For a contemporary look, group several vases together holding just one or two stems. If you’re using your own container, be creative! Use champagne glasses, china pieces or other items that fit the décor of the room.
Old water pitchers, antique teapots, classic urns or even tattered clay pots make fascinating containers for a casually placed flower arrangement.
Choose soothing colors, like blues and greens, to create a tranquil feeling or bright reds and oranges for a more sensual arrangement. Yellows and peaches are nurturing and pinks and lavenders are romantic.
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Easy Ways to Create a Welcoming Home
Participants in the Harvard study reported the greatest mood-boosting effects when fresh cut flowers were placed in common areas of the home such as the kitchen, dining room and family room. Try these easy ideas for enhancing social and personal space include:
Place bud vases in high traffic home areas – with even just a few flowers. Any decorative glass from the kitchen will do!
The kitchen table might be the best place for flowers, because it’s where people gather together. Stop by our shop, you’ll find a wide selection of flowers to choose from to match your style!
For an easy, elegant table decoration, set a series of crystal vases on a fabric runner. Place fresh flowers in each of the vases and surround them with greenery.
Float two or three blooms, such as open roses or gerbera daisies in a favorite crystal bowl.
In the foyer, create a space to hang your keys that also includes a weekly vase of flowers. It will be the last place you see on your way out the door and the first you see on your way back inside.
Go big and bold for open spaces. An abundant arrangement of lilies, gladiolus, hydrangea or any large blooms create an inviting environment for an expansive entryway or dining room.
A single flower in a vase or a lush green plant can also perk up personal spaces such as bathrooms and bedrooms.
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Maximizing a Budget
Care for your flowers to keep them lasting. Before you put the flowers in the vase, remove all leaves below the waterline, and include flower food for extra nutrients. If the water becomes cloudy after a few days, replace it entirely with properly mixed flower food solution. If possible, re-cut stems by removing one to two inches with a sharp knife or scissors.
Flowers have different life spans. Once some flowers begin to fade, remove them, and transfer the longer-lasting flowers to a smaller vase to place elsewhere in your home.
Shop strategically. Flowers that are in season normally are the most reasonably priced. If you don’t know what’s seasonal, just ask us!
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DIY: Vase Arrangements
1. Fill your clean vase with water (preferably containing floral food).
2. Strip stems so that no leaves will be covered by water.
3. Cut stems to about twice the size of your vase, leaving several stems an inch or two longer for the center of your bouquet.
4. First insert stems of foliage and fill flowers. Crisscross stems as you insert them in your vase. This will create a grid that will help hold other flowers in place.
5. Starting at the rim of your vase and working toward the center, add other flowers, spacing them as if they were points on a triangle.
6. Place the longest stems in the center of your bouquet.
7. Stand back and review your bouquet, making adjustments if needed.
Tip- Start with marbles or small pebbles in your vase for extra stem support or to simply give a favorite vase a new look.
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DIY: Hand-tied Bouquets
As the name implies, this bouquet is made while holding flowers in your hand and foliage, you'll need a 24 length of twine, ribbon or raffia to complete this bouquet.
1. Start by striping leaves from the lower half of all stems.
2. Pick up one flower and one foliage stem. Begin by placing one stem directly on top of the other at about a 45-degree angle. Throughout the process, hold flowers and foliage midway up the stems between your thumb and fingers.
3. Continue adding stems of flowers and foliage at an angle, building your bouquet in a clockwise position. Keep your hand relaxed- don't choke your flowers. Place similar colors across from one another to create a burst of color.
4. When you have a hand full of flowers, bind with twine or ribbon at the point where your hand is holding the bouquet. To secure binding, pull the twine up through the bottom stems and tug gently.
5. Last, trim stems evenly at the bottom.
Tip- Wrap your bouquet loosely in colored tissue paper for a spectacular gift presentation.
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DIY: Centerpieces
1. Fill a low container with wet floral foam (preferably soaked in water with floral food).
2. Cut all flowers & foliage to (approximately) the same length, leaving several stems an inch or two longer for the use in the middle of the arrangement.
3. Starting from the middle of the foam and working outward in a circular fashion, create a green foundation by inserting foliage. The longest stems go in first.
4. Next, repeat this process with your line and mass flowers, inserting the tallest flowers first and working outward to a fan shape.
5. Step back and look over your work. Make adjustments if desired.
6. Last, insert filler flowers to connect all flowers into a pleasing arrangement.
Tip- Keep your arrangement under 16" tall so as not to obstruct views across your dining room.
Tip- Stretch your flower purchase by cutting long multi-flowered stems into smaller sections.
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DIY: Evergreen Arrangements
Bring some fresh greens to your holiday table this year by creating a long lasting evergreen centerpiece or arrangement. To begin, you will need floral foam, a container, fresh holiday greens. Flowers, candles, and decorations are an optional touch to your holiday centerpiece.
1. Prepare wet floral foam in your selected container. If you are using candles, insert them before you begin. Insert candles at least 1" apart so heat from one candle won't melt the others.
2. Cut 2 identical pieces of greenery and remove a few needles from the ends of the branch (this will make it easier to insert into the foam). Insert into the ends of the floral foam. The greenery should arc downward so the ends touch the table.
3. Cut 4 medium pieces of greenery and insert into the four corners.
4. Use a variety of greenery, such as cedar, juniper, boxwood, and pine, to add texture and color to your arrangement. Cut large branches of greenery into smaller pieces to fill in the top and sides of the centerpiece. Be sure to cover all of the edges of the container with shorter pieces of greenery.
5. Spice up your fresh evergreen arrangements by using a variety of decorations. Add fresh flowers in holiday colors or use flowers in other colors that coordinate with your home decor. For an arrangement with a longer life, try adding artificial flowers, pine cones, holiday ornaments or floral picks.
6. Place your arrangement on your table or in your home. Be sure you check the water level in your arrangement; keeping your arrangement watered will prevent it from drying out and it could last up to 6 weeks!
Tip- Try giving evergreen arrangements as a holiday or hostess gift for all to enjoy!
Enjoy and Happy Holidays!
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