Enjoying plants and flowers in the garden, parks and countryside, and we want to see them in our home. There are two main ways to decorate your home with flowers – you can have pots of indoor plants or bouquets of cut flowers. This is a completely non-contradictory situation – both options can be used simultaneously. As practice shows, most of us, when solving the problem of how to decorate an apartment with flowers, prefer both methods.
True, for many it turns out to be an unsolvable question – where is the best place to put flowers: in the living room, bedroom, nursery. We answer with full confidence – you can decorate the interior with flowers regardless of conventions, and the widespread opinion that flowers have no place in the kitchen or in the corridor is completely untrue.
How to decorate a house with flowers using an arrangement
So, you’ve decided to make an arrangement out of plants – you have several options. The bouquet of flowers that you bought can simply be placed in a vase in the living room or in the kitchen. There is nothing wrong. But it is possible to create a composition that is attractive enough to serve as a focal point in the surrounding space.
There are six areas suitable for home decoration with cut flower arrangements. The role of plant compositions in these locations is detailed on the following pages.
If you are thinking about where to put flowers in an apartment, we answer with confidence – there are no forbidden places.
It’s hard to find a living room that isn’t decorated with flowers for at least part of the year, and it’s equally unusual to see a bathroom with a floral arrangement.
In a hallway or living room, the arrangement may need to be attractive enough to serve as the center of attention for the visitor.
In the kitchen or bedroom, its function can be to bring vibrant color to your family or just you.
Here are some guidelines. First, the arrangement looks satisfactory when the container, plant material and style are in keeping with the character and setting of the room.
Masses of flowers from a cottage garden in jugs or earthenware bowls add the charm of a provincial living room, but the crisp and simple lines of a modern living room also suggest much more modern arrangements, such as linear or free linear-massive, which you will read about later.
Secondly, from a design standpoint, it is better to have one main composition and one or more children associated with it than to have a number of arrangements of similar sizes. And remember, your home is not a flower shop. Floral arrangements all over the place will diminish the impression of a really good arrangement.
How to decorate a living room with flowers
Not surprisingly, the living room is chosen as the main location for the most spectacular floral arrangements. Composing is fun, but it’s just as important to be able to enjoy the composition once it’s been created. This means that we need to put it in a place where we can relax and watch the creation of our hands, and the living room is the place in the house where we have time to sit and look around. Family gathers here, friends sit for a cup of coffee, so before decorating the room with flowers, carefully consider the future arrangement – in the living room they will pay close attention to it, and not just throw random glances. The fasteners should be completely hidden and the arranged bouquets should be removed before the flowers fade.
The living room has a number of plant-recommended positions that can be used to place flower arrangements.
An open fireplace between spring and fall is a key focal point.
Windows are also important – the arrangement on the windowsill links the garden to the room, but unfortunately a sunny window is not a suitable place for plants. An empty corner is a great place for floor or tabletop compositions.
On a completely different scale, side table arrangements are being created – here the goal is to create attractive compositions that are compact enough not to interfere with the aisle. A final word of caution – don’t try to fill all potential plant spots with flower arrangements. Indoor plants will undoubtedly be a good choice for one or more locations in this room and provide a permanent and vibrant green backdrop for your colorful flower creations. These temporary focal points can be either flower arrangements or potted plants that reflect the season.
How to put flowers in the dining room
The dining room is an area that is often chosen for floral decoration. Its main feature is that the dining table is not used for most of the day or for several days in a row and looks rather naked without any central decoration.
Before placing flowers in the room, consider the surroundings. There is a wide selection – a couple of candlesticks, a bowl of fruit and so on, but the floral decor is especially good. The height and width of the composition is usually determined by the size of the room and table – a small Biedermeier composition in a modest room, or a lavish arrangement in a silver vessel in a large house. There is an additional factor to consider when deciding on the size of your dining table arrangement – it needs to be fairly compact and lightweight if you want to take it away from the table when food is served.
How to decorate a festive table with flowers
Flowers on the table can reduce the bare look common in many dining rooms, and so does the composition on the sideboard. There must be some similarity in the plant material between them, but they should not be the same, since their location is completely different. Before decorating the table with flowers, estimate the size of the room.
A tabletop arrangement is usually visible from every corner, and here a composition of a comprehensive view is needed, while one-sided is chosen for a buffet due to space saving.
If the table is small and conversation is possible across its entire width, then the arrangement should be low enough to allow the conversation to see each other. The recommended maximum height is 30 cm. Make sure that the plants in the composition are free from pests.
Often the dining room or living room is used for receptions (and impressing friends). Therefore, in order to decorate the festive table with flowers, make the most solemn composition. This is where the opportunity to showcase more attractive arrangements opens up.
Home flowers in the interior of the bedroom
Like any other room in the house, flowers in the bedroom interior will be a decoration. However, it seems that our relationship to the placement of flower arrangements in bedrooms is quite complex.
In family bedrooms, arrangements are usually made from dried or artificial material rather than fresh flowers, but there is no general agreement as to why this should be the case. Some interior designers believe that bedrooms are in use for too short a time during waking hours to make a composition that lasts only a week. In addition, when there are still children at home, the need to change and refill water in the vessels in several rooms simply increases the time spent on housework. Finally, there are people who still believe in grandma’s fairy tales that flowers in the bedroom are harmful to health.
Guest bedroom design with flowers
It’s different with the guest bedroom. When people stay overnight, it is quite common practice to place home flowers in the bedroom on the dressing table or on the nightstand. This is always seen as a sign of attention to the guest, and perhaps we like the idea that guests will be delighted with our handiwork.
When planning your bedroom with flowers, avoid strong scented plants such as hyacinth and jasmine. For most people, the bedroom is a place for a relaxed arrangement. For her, delicate flowers are chosen – sweet peas, not peonies, carnations, and not large roses.
This soothing effect is best enhanced by blues, lilacs and creams. However, the arrangement does not have to be calm – cheerful colors are perfectly acceptable to brighten the room while the guest is getting ready for bed, and when the lights are off, the vibrant colors of the composition cannot prevent him or her from falling asleep.
How to decorate your kitchen interior with flowers
The kitchen is second only to the living room as the most popular place for indoor plants. Before decorating your kitchen with flowers, remember that most potted crops require moist air and water is always on hand to keep the compost moist. Flower arrangements are much less common in the kitchen – there is often not enough space for arrangements of the type that we create for the living room. The kitchen is usually seen as a work area, and when we want to decorate a living space with an arrangement, our first choice is the living room or dining room. In the same way, we hang our paintings in these rooms, and not in the kitchen.
However, we often spend most of the day in the kitchen, and flowers help to bring the atmosphere of a garden into the room. Houseplants often show only green leaves rather than bright flowers, and therefore the kitchen should be considered as a place for a flower arrangement, even if space is limited.
This is the place for compact and uncomplicated seasonal arrangements – daffodils in spring, roses in summer and berries with colorful leaves in autumn. Nothing fancy – a knitted bouquet in a vase will work best. Experts believe that the container should be in line with the food, kitchen theme – an enamel pot, an old kettle, an earthen jug, etc. This is true for traditional cuisine, but slightly out of place in a modern interior using stainless steel.
Indoor flowers in the interior of the bathroom
Indoor flowers in a bathroom are much more likely to be seen in a magazine than in a home – its lack of popularity as a place for flower arrangements is due to two main features that are in common with the kitchen. The bathroom is generally viewed as a utilitarian area, and therefore cares more about functional content (bath, bathroom furniture, mirrors, etc.) and much less about purely decorative elements. In addition, the humid atmosphere makes it an unfortunate place for many dried flowers – large flowers with thin petals tend to rot under these conditions.
Despite all this, there are few other areas in the house that need color and variety of forms of the flower arrangement more than a typical bathroom – in this, often somewhat colorless place, geometric shapes and hard surfaces predominate. Although a few features are in common with the cuisine, as indicated above, the approach to arrangement should be different. A casual, casual arrangement is appropriate in the kitchen – you can be more dramatic in the bathroom. The bathroom is a place where you can afford to be an experimenter and create compositions that may not suit everyone – abstract, free, and others. Interior designers recommend placing potted flowers in the bathroom in attractive containers – silver metal or shiny glass.
As always, fresh flower arrangements are best; use artificial flower arrangements if you want consistency.
Dry flowers can be used, but you should choose ones that can withstand high humidity and dry periods.
The most famous examples are statice, lavender and immortelle.
How to decorate a hallway or staircase with flowers
The entrance hall is a great place for a flower arrangement. This is where visitors get their first impression of your home, and few things match flowers in their ability to transform a lobby from a dark and unattractive place to a lively and welcoming place. You can use flowering houseplants or a flower arrangement for this. Before making a choice, you should think about the available conditions. Poor lighting and cold nights severely limit the range of indoor plants you can use, but they are not a problem for your flower arrangement.
No one lingers in the hallway for a long time, so the arrangement must be attractive enough to make an immediate impression. Unfortunately, most hallways are long, cramped and narrow, making it difficult to create this eye-catching effect on a grand scale.
You will have to use bold colors or expressive shapes to create an interesting composition on the wall, windowsill or side table.
Take a couple of precautions. First, make sure the plant material is compact and the container is heavy or low enough to prevent the composition from being tipped over by children or clumsy visitors. Secondly, remember that a large arrangement in a small hallway will make it look even smaller.
Of course, these restrictions do not apply if you have a spacious lobby. There will be room for a pedestal or a polished table that carries a truly large-scale and colorful arrangement to welcome the visitor.
The staircase needs a different approach. Typically, this is the place for arrangements of dried or artificial flowers rather than fresh flowers.
