There is a myriad of interior decor ideas that go in and out of style every couple of years, but one decoration that always looks good no matter the time period we’re in is beautifully arranged flora. Flowers are pretty to look at, inexpensive, and eco-friendly alternatives to decor that would otherwise be likely made of plastic. Flowers add a pop of color to your home, and they can breathe new life into even the smallest apartments.
They’re also a really beautiful versatile accessory. Flowers can be made to fit into any aesthetic, from the most colorful to the most monochrome as they come in so many shapes and colors. An added bonus that few other home decorations have is that flowers will make your house smell beautiful and fresh.
Whether you’re buying yourself a bouquet or deciding what to do with one that someone else gifted to you, it’s a lot of fun to decorate with flowers. If you’ve decided to add some flowers to your home, here are just a few ideas of how you can achieve good results, other than just throwing them in a vase.
1. Use Them as a Centerpiece
If you’ve never given much thought to flower arrangements, you might think this is the equivalent of plopping some flowers into a vase. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The art of flower arranging requires some careful planning and consideration. Your flowers can be stunning, but they won’t elevate the room much if you don’t help them reach their full potential.
The first thing not many people think about is the longevity of their flowers. If you want your centerpiece to last, ask your florist for more information on the flowers you’re purchasing. Farm-fresh flowers, as seen in the display of flowers by flowercompany.ca, are ideal if you want beautiful seasonal flowers, which tend to last longer. Your local Canadian flower delivery service needs to be quick and get your flowers to you as soon as possible, or they might end up wilted by the time they get to your doorstep. Although you can rescue wilted flowers, it’s best if you don’t have to.
Choose a vessel that best fits your aesthetic, and create a base to hold up your flowers. You can use floral foam or just twigs. Fewer people use floral foam nowadays due to the fact that it isn’t biodegradable, and you need protective gear to handle it safely, such as gloves, a mask, and safety goggles.
It’s just as simple to make a network of twigs as a base. Just put some twigs on the inside of your vessel at an angle. Then put some more twigs in-between the previous ones, but on an opposing angle. Now you have a network of twigs that will keep your arrangement secure.
Cut the stems of your flowers so that they’re positioned at different lengths, and experiment with your arrangement until you like it. Floral arrangements do take some practice to get right, but they’re still more of an art than a science, so have fun with them! You can also add other items, like candles.
2. Get Yourself a Flower Shelf
If you have a limited amount of space, own pets that like to mess with your plants, or simply like the aesthetic, you can DIY a simple shelf to display your flowers. There are many different creative styles of shelves to choose from, from just two planks of wood nailed to a wall, to multi-tiered shelves full of plants.
This way of displaying flowers makes good use of all your free vertical space and sunny spots. It also necessitates the use of several different flower arrangements, so you can divide big bouquets into many different smaller ones.
3. Create a Flower Garland
You might have seen flower garlands used in weddings, but you can actually use them as decoration around your house too. They make use of wall space and can be placed almost anywhere.
You can DIY many different types of garlands, as they’re not extremely difficult to make. You just need some netting, some floral foam, and a variety of sprigs and colorful flowers. Cut the floral foam into cylinders and wrap them in netting, making a knot in-between each cylinder as you go.
Now you can stick your greenery and flowers into the floral foam until they cover up the netting and foam itself. You should stock up on small green sprigs and branches because they’re going to make up most of the garland. You can also make a flower-only garland if you have the money or flowers for it. You can drape your garland over your table, hang it up in your bedroom or living room, or even outdoors!
4. Be Creative with Your Floral Vessels
When you think of a flower vase, you probably think of a long, thin vessel. Although there’s nothing wrong with that kind of vase, you can really use anything that can hold water as a flower vessel. Half of the aesthetics and fun of decorating with flowers comes from the vessels themselves. From jars to boots, to even bathtubs, you can get much more creative than you think.
There are many unique, handmade, and beautifully-crafted flower vessels you can purchase. Some of them have a geometric, futuristic design and some take inspiration from ancient Greek sculptures, so there is something that’s bound to fit the aesthetic of your home.
You can also DIY your own flower vessels with things you already have around the house. It can create a very striking and unique look! Plus, it’s always good for the environment to make good use of things you already own.
5. Put Them in a Bowl of Water as They Begin to Wilt
If your flowers are entering their last days and they’re beginning to wilt, don’t throw them away! These flowers can still be restored to their former beauty with minimal effort. A creative way of displaying wilting flowers is to cut off your flower heads and place them in a wide, shallow bowl filled with water. You can arrange them in many different ways, and even make good use of those fallen petals to create a beautiful floating arrangement.
These are called floating flowers, and they last a lot longer than if you were to leave the stems on. This way of displaying flowers is actually mostly used in Asia, like India, Thailand, and Bali. Displaying flowers like this near your home’s entrance is considered auspicious and creates a good first impression on those who enter your home.
6. Make Use of Your Dried Flowers Too
If you’d rather not pick up fallen petals or look after living flowers, dried flowers are one way that you can bring nature into your home without all that hassle. You can also keep using old flowers that are starting to wilt.
Just hang them upside down and wait for them to fully dry. When they’re ready, you can arrange them in the same way that you’d arrange fresh flowers. One thing to note is that your flowers might lose some of their colors. Dried flowers generally have warmer, yellower tones than when they were fresh. You can use this to your advantage to warm up your home.
Another thing about dried flowers is that they could potentially be a fire hazard. Take care to not leave your dried flowers near a heat source or in direct sunlight. It’s not a good idea to leave your dried flowers in direct sunlight anyway because the sunlight bleaches them, making their colors fade even faster than they normally would. Work with this constraint rather than against it, and place your flower compositions in unique places!
There has been a big resurgence in decorating with flowers in recent years, and that’s a good thing. As previously mentioned, they’re good for the environment but they’re also good for your own health and well-being. Various studies have shown that looking at nature and flowers has a very calming and mood-elevating effect on us.
Perhaps it’s because it reminds us of happy occasions, like birthdays or weddings, or maybe it’s an evolutionary response we have developed over hundreds of thousands of years of being in touch with nature. It’s been proven that flowers reduce feelings of anger or anxiety, and increase feelings of inner peace and tranquility in humans.
If you live in the middle of a big city with lots of gray buildings and streets, you will really come to appreciate that pop of color, beautiful aroma, and vitality that flowers provide. Flowers are also easy on the budget. You don’t have to break the bank to purchase or grow your own bouquet, though there are of course premium flowers, like with almost any other product. Flowers are overall a great choice in home decor. You can change them as often as you want, to fit any aesthetic you want, and they’ll always look as graceful and beautiful as ever.
